Abstract
Though formulated well before the life course paradigm had been generally accepted, the sociological theory of status attainment is, in essence, a life course model of the socioeconomic career. The central focus is on pathways of attainment. What do they look like? What are their precursors? What are the mechanisms through which they are produced? Elder’s (1998) principles of life course study are well illustrated by this paradigm as well as by the research it has inspired. Studies of the process of stratification clearly demonstrate the connections between earlier and later life events, the consequences of linked lives, career trajectories marked by key transitions, and the importance of human agency. In this chapter, we investigate a relatively neglected set of issues surrounding the place of early work experience in the early socioeconomic career. We describe the diverse features of adolescent work careers, the characteristics of young people who select into them, and the consequences of these pathways for early postsecondary education and full-time work. We consider whether various strategies of investment in early work “pay off” as youth complete school and enter the full-time labor force.*
This chapter synthesizes work that has been undertaken since the initiation of the Youth Development Study. For a more complete exposition of the central argument and relevant empirical evidence, see Mortimer (2003).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aronson, P. J. (1998, June). Coming of age in the 1990s: Women’s identities, life paths, and attitudes towards feminism. Doctoral dissertation.
Aronson, P. J., Mortimer, J. T., Zierman, C, & Hacker, M. (1996). Generational differences in early work experiences and evaluations. In J. T. Mortimer & M. D. Finch (Eds.), Adolescents, work, and family: An intergenerational developmental analysis, (pp. 25–62) Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
Becker, G. S. (1993). Human capital. A theoretical and empirical analysis, with special reference to education (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Blau, P., & Duncan, O. D. (1967). The American occupational structure. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Choy, S. P. (2002). Access and persistence: Findings from 10 years of longitudinal research on students. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.
Clausen, J. S. (1991). Adolescent competence and the shaping of the life course. American Journal of Sociology, 96, 805–842.
D’Amico, R. J. (1984). Does employment during high school impair academic progress? Sociology of Education, 57, 152–164.
Elder, G. H., Jr. (1974). Children of the Great Depression. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Elder, G. H., Jr. (1998). The life course as developmental theory. Child Development, 19(1), 1–12.
Elder, G. H., Jr., & Conger, R. D. (2000). Children of the land. Adversity and success in rural America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Featherman, D. L. (1980). Schooling and occupational careers: Constancy and change in worldly success. In O. G. Brim, Jr., & J. Kagan (Eds.), Constancy and change in human development, (pp. 675–738). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Freedman, D., Thornton, A., Camburn, D., Alwin, D., & Young-DeMarco, L. (1988). The life history calendar: A technique for collecting retrospective data. In Clogg (Ed.), Sociological methodology (Vol. 18, pp. 37–68). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Gamoran, A. (1996). Educational stratification and individual careers. In A. C. Kerckhoff (Ed.), Generating social stratification: Toward a new research agenda, (pp. 59–74). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Grabowski, L. S. (2001, June). Welfare participation and self-efficacy. Doctoral dissertation.
Grabowski, L. S., Call, K.; & Mortimer, J. T. (2001). Global and economic self-efficacy in the attainment process. Social Psychology Quarterly, 64, 164–179.
Greenberger, E., & Steinberg, L. (1986). When teenagers work: The psychological and social costs of adolescent employment. New York: Basic Books.
Heinz, W R. (1996). Status passages as micro-macro linkages in life course research. In A. Weymann & W R. Heinz (Eds.), Society and biography: Interrelationships between social structure, institutions and the life course. (pp. 51–65). Weinheim, Germany: Deutscher Studien Verlag.
Heinz, W. R. (1999). Job-entry patterns in a life course perspective. In W. R. Heinz (Ed.), From education to work: Cross-national perspectives, (pp. 214–231). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Heinz, W R. (2002). Transition discontinuities and the biographical shaping of early work careers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60, 220–240.
Jencks, C., Crouse, J., & Mueser, P. (1983). The Wisconsin model of status attainment: A national replication with improved measures of ability and aspirations. Sociology of Education, 56, 3–19.
Kalleberg, A., Reskin, B. F., & Hudson, K. (2000). Bad jobs in America: Standard and nonstandard employment relations and job quality in the United States. American Sociological Review, 65, 256–278.
Kerckhoff, A. (2002). The transition from school to work. In J. T. Mortimer & R. Larson (Eds.), The future of adolescent experience: Societal trends and the transition to adulthood, (pp. 52–87). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kohli, M. (1986). The world we forgot: A historical review of the life course. In V. W. Marshall (Ed.), Later life: The social psychology of aging, (pp. 271–303). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Kohn, M. L., & Schooler, C. (1983). Work and personality: An inquiry into the impact of social stratification. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Long, J. S. (1997). Regression models for categorical and limited dependent variables. London: Sage.
McNeal, R. Jr. (1997). Are students being pulled out of high school? The effects of adolescent employment on dropping out. Sociology of Education, 70, 206–220.
Marini, M. M. (1987). Measuring the process of role change during the transition to adulthood. Social Science Research, 16, 1–38.
Marsh, H. E. (1991). Employment during high school: Character building or a subversion of academic goals?. Sociology of Education, 64, 172–189.
Mortimer, J. T. (2003). Working and growing up in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Mortimer, J. T., Finch, M. D., Dennehy, K., Lee, C, & Beebe, T. (1994). Work experience in adolescence. Journal of Vocational Education Research, 19, 39–70.
Mortimer, J. T, Finch, M. D., Shanahan, M., & Ryu, S. (1992). Work experience, mental health and behavioral adjustment in adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2, 25–57.
Mortimer, J. T., & Johnson, M. K. (1998a). New perspectives on adolescent work and the transition to adulthood. In R. Jessor (Ed.), New perspectives on adolescent risk behavior, (pp. 425–496). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mortimer, J. T., & Johnson, M. K. (1999). Adolescent part-time work and educational achievement. In K. Borman & B. Schneider (Eds.), The adolescent years: Social influences and educational challenges, (pp. 183–206). Chicago: National Society for the Study of Education.
Mortimer, J. T., & Johnson, M. K. (1999). Adolescent part-time work and post-secondary transition pathways: A longitudinal study of youth in St. Paul, Minnesota (U.S.). In W. R. Heinz (Ed.), From education to work: Cross national perspectives, (pp. 111–148). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mortimer, J. T., Pimentel, E. E., Ryu, S., Nash, K., & Lee, C. (1996). Part-time work and occupational value formation in adolescence. Social Forces, 74, 1405–1418.
Mortimer, J. T., & Staff, J. (2002, August 22-25). Stress-sensitization vs. stress inoculation: The impact of early work Stressors on young adult mental health. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago.
Mortimer, J. T., Zimmer-Gembeck, M., Holmes, M., & Shanahan, M. J. (2002). The process of occupational decision-making: Patterns during the transition to adulthood. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61, 1–27.
Newman, K. S. (1999). No shame in my game. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and The Russell Sage Foundation.
Osgood, D. W. (1999). Having the time of their lives: All work and no play? In A. Booth, A. C. Crouter, & M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Transitions to adulthood in a changing economy. No work, No family, No future? (pp. 176–186). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Panel on Child Labor (Committee on the Health and Safety Implications of Child Labor, Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council, Institute of Medicine.) (1998). Protecting youth at work: Health, safety, and development of working children and adolescents in the United States. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Phillips, S., & Sandstrom, K. L. (1990). Parental attitudes towards youth work. Youth and Society, 22, 160–183.
Schneider, & Stevenson, D. (1999). The ambitious generation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Sewell, W., & Hauser, R. (1975). Education, occupation and earnings: Achievement in the early career. New York: Academic Press.
Shanahan, M. J. (2000). Pathways to Adulthood in changing societies: Variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667–692.
Shanahan, M. J., & Flaherty, B. P. (2001). Dynamic patterns of time use in adolescence. Child Development, 72, 385–401.
Shanahan, M. J., & Hood, K(1999). Adolescents in changing social structures: Bounded agency in life course perspective. In R. K. Silbereisen & L. J. Crockett (Eds.), Negotiating adolescence in times of social change: Cross national perspectives on developmental processes and social intervention, (pp. 123–134). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Shanahan, M. J., Mortimer, J. T., & Krüger, H. (2002). Adolescence and adult work in the twenty-first century. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 12, 99–120.
Steinberg, L., & Cauffman, E. (1995). The impact of employment on adolescent development. Annals of Child Development, 11, 131–166.
Steinberg, L., & Dornbusch, S. M. (1991). Negative correlates of part-time employment during adolescence: Replication and elaboration. Developmental Psychology, 27, 304–313.
Steinberg, L., Fegley, S., & Dornbusch, S. M. (1993). Negative impact of part-time work on adolescent adjustment: Evidence from a longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 29, 171–180.
Stevens, G., & Hoisington, E. (1987). Occupational prestige and the 1980 U.S. labor force. Social Science Research, 16, 74–105.
Warren, J. R., LePore, P. C, & Mare, R. D. (2000). Employment during high school: Consequences for students’ grades in academic courses. American Educational Research Journal, 37, 943–969.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mortimer, J.T., Staff, J., Oesterle, S. (2003). Adolescent Work and the Early Socioeconomic Career. In: Mortimer, J.T., Shanahan, M.J. (eds) Handbook of the Life Course. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48247-2_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48247-2_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-306-47498-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-306-48247-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive