Effects of part-time work on adolescent development in Korea

Reflecting fast-growing adolescent populations involving in part-time work in the Korean context, we tackle the issue of youth part-time employment. Even though previous research has documented the negative effect of part-time employment on adolescent development, it is still controversial whether the undesirable effect stems from differential socialization shaped by part-time work, because the different selection issue remains unsolved. Thus, we explored the effects of part-time work experience on problem behaviors and school disengagement, using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) analysis. Our findings from the Korean Education Employment Panel data illuminate that part-time work had significantly negative effects on four outcome variables (i.e., drinking, smoking, disciplinary punishment, and unexcused absence) even after pre-existing differences between groups were controlled by the PSM. Implications for the finding are reviewed.