Between School and Work: The Effects of Part-Time Employment on Adolescent Self-esteem

A vast literature has explored how family socioeconomic status affects adolescent self-esteem. However, comparatively little attention has been paid to teenagers' own economic activity. I’ve addressed that gap using data from the 2018 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of US 12th-graders conducted by the University of Michigan. The outcome variable is self-rated school ability, measured by a survey item asking students to evaluate their intelligence relative to peers. The primary predictor is hours worked per week, an ordinal variable ranging from no employment to more than 30 hours per week.

The results revealed that students working up to 15 hours per week reported self-ratings equal to or slightly above those of non-working peers. Therefore, light employment carries no academic cost and may offer modest benefits. A negative association between hours worked and self-rated ability emerges only among students working more intensively, consistent with prior literature identifying the 20-hour threshold as a zone of concern. These findings suggest that policy responses should be calibrated not to just employment, but to its intensity.