Funded Research
Early Work Experiences and the Transition to Adulthood
Source: NIH/NICHD
Active: 9/13/2007 - 8/31/2012
Investigator(s):
Jeremy Staff
This project is funded by an NICHD Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) in Population Research. The purpose of this award is to support career development and provide a mentored research experience for junior-level researchers in the area of population research.
Although the vast majority of teenagers work in paid jobs, past research offers contrary evidence as to whether paid work during adolescence is a cause, consequence, or spurious correlate of changes in health and well-being, risk behavior, and achievement during the transition to adulthood. The goal of this project is to explore the controversy surrounding teenage employment, using longitudinal data from the Monitoring the Future study to address four research aims: to study the role of early work experiences in the process of socioeconomic attainment; to study the effects of early work experiences on social, psychological, and behavioral development during adolescence and early adulthood; to document variation in early work experiences by gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic background; and to document cohort variation in early work experiences.
