Chapter Outline

The emergence of compulsory secondary education, and the increased affluence of Americans following World War II played a major role in the growth of leisure time for American adolescents.
The typical American adolescent spends about 40 percent of his or her waking hours engaged in leisure activities.

Prior to 1930, most young people left school in early adolescence to become full-time workers.
With compulsory secondary education came a rise in the number of young people who attended school exclusively.
Today about 80 percent of American adolescents will have worked prior to high school graduation.

Following World War II, the growth of the service and retail sectors of the economy expanded. Service and retail jobs provided the perfect context for adolescent employment.
The goods and services that American adolescents consume (movies, recorded music and designer clothing) were hit hard by inflation during the 1970s. These changes drew the American adolescent into the work force.

The employment of teenagers in other industrialized countries is not as common as it is in the United States (the exception being apprenticeship programs that exist in countries like Germany).
It has been speculated that part-time employment of adolescents is less prevalent in other industrialized countries due to the lack of availability of part-time jobs, the length of the school day, the stigma associated with having the young work and greater emphasis on school work.

The majority of adolescents that work are employed in service and retail jobs.
Females are more likely than males to be maids and waitresses, and males are more likely than females to be gardeners and manual laborers.
Adolescents typically work in jobs where they have considerable contact with other adolescents and with adult supervisors with whom they don't feel comfortable.
These jobs do not allow for independent decision making, and very few adolescents report using school related skills on the job.
On the whole, the world of adolescent work tends to be repetitive, monotonous and boring.

Most researchers have discovered that the costs of adolescent employment outweigh the benefits.

Researchers have generally found that instead of making adolescents more socially responsible, working appears to make adolescents more individualistic.
Some suggest that it also leads to the early development of cynical and unethical attitudes toward work.

In regard to money management, it has been found that most teenagers do not save their earnings but spend it on such consumer items as designer clothing, music and movies. Some refer to this as premature affluence.

Working during adolescence is also associated with higher rates of drug and alcohol use.

Adolescents who work participate less in extracurricular activities, spend less time on homework and earn lower grades than adolescents who don't work.

Most unemployed young people are poor, minority youth who have dropped out of high school.
Researchers have found that unemployment is a temporary condition for most unemployed young people. Many eventually find stable, full-time employment.
Measures proposed to deal with chronic unemployment include expanding community service opportunities for youth, strengthening youth organizations, and incorporating apprenticeship programs into American high schools.

Leisure activities (listening to music, watching television) occupy about 40 percent of the typical adolescent's waking hours.
Adolescents report being in a better mood when engaging in leisure activities in comparison to other pursuits.

One major form of leisure is participation in school-sponsored extracurricular activities. Common types of extracurricular activities include athletics, music and clubs.

Extracurricular participation is highest in middle-class youth, those who earn higher grades, and those who attend small schools.
Participation in extracurricular activities has been associated with improved school performance, reduced delinquency and drug and alcohol use, and enhanced psychological well being.
The benefits of extracurricular participation are greatest for poorer students.

Somewhere between 2 million and 6 million school-aged children are not supervised by parents after-school.
Affluent, suburban, and white children are the most likely to be at home unsupervised after school.
Most studies show that children who care for themselves after school are not different from their peers who are not engaged in self-care.
One large scale study found that self-care children are more socially isolated, more depressed, more likely to be involved in problem behavior, and more likely to use drugs and alcohol than other children.
The setting of self care arrangements seems to be important for determining the costs of self-care, the safety of the neighborhood being a very important factor.

Researchers estimate that young people spend between 33 and 50 percent of their waking hours with some form of mass media.
Adolescents on average view television for 2 to 4 hours per day. Television viewing declines throughout the course of the adolescent period.
Listening to music increases throughout adolescence with the typical middle adolescent listening to 4 to 6 hours of music per day.
Movie viewing increases, as does time spent with print media.
Some social scientists have found that as much as one-half of all interactions in popular television shows are sexual in nature. Common messages in these shows include seeing women as sex objects and seeing sex as competition.
There is evidence to suggest that repeated exposure to these messages affects adolescents' beliefs about sex and sexually appropriate behavior.
The impact of mass media on adolescent development has been difficult to study because it is hard to tease out cause and effect.

Most of this money is spent on leisure activities such as food and stereo equipment.

Segments of the economy devoted to recreation and leisure are highly dependent on adolescent consumers.

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