Work

Participation in the labor market during adolescence can have short- and longer-term impacts on health, well-being, and socioeconomic attainment. However, declining job opportunities over the past few decades, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession, have diminished employment prospects for many teenagers interested in acquiring part- or full-time work experiences. This entry reviews the latest trends in adolescent employment around the world. While most research on this topic has been conducted in the United States, this entry includes studies conducted in European and South American countries. It also describes bases of adolescent selection to work, and the varying impacts of paid work on adolescent development, depending on its intensity and quality. Finally, this entry suggests fruitful lines of future inquiry, especially research on how changing patterns of adolescent employment affect the character of school-to-work transitions of contemporary teenagers and the potential lasting effects of economic recessions on adolescents' work trajectories.