There’s nothing special about having a job in terms of promoting a kid’s competence or the development of responsibility or teaching them about the real world. We have studied this extensively.
And there’s no more evidence that kids develop responsibility from having a job than there is that develop responsibility from playing on the soccer team or helping out around the house or volunteering in the community.
And I think many parents would be surprised to know that ... one of the findings that’s very consistent in the literature on adolescents who work is that there are higher rates of alcohol use, tobacco use, and illicit drug use among workers than non workers, and these higher rates of substance use are attributable to the disposable income that kids have from working.
Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D.
Temple University
Professor of Psychology
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