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Example research essay topic: Students Who Hold After School Jobs - 1,809 words

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STUDENTS WHO HOLD AFTER-SCHOOL JOBS One of the greatest changes in adolescents lives in recent years has been the increased number of adolescents who work in some part-time capacity and still attend school on a regular basis. This paper dwells on the socio-cultural context of adolescent work, the advantages and disadvantages of part-time work and bridging the gap from school to work. Several years ago, educators applauded the move of high school students to take on part-time jobs. This move was a great leap that will develop the teenagers maturity, responsibility and good work habits. Even government agencies lauded this saying that it was a good transition from youth to adulthood. (Kelly, K, 1998). However, several sectors did not see the situation in the same light.

People maintained that after-school work had a detrimental effect on school accomplishments. There are students who work. Surveys conducted prove that there were a few students who were able to save money from their jobs, much more, contribute to the family expenditure (Kelly, K, 1998). Over the past century, the percentage of youth who work full-time as opposed to those who are in school has decreased dramatically.

In the late 1800 s, fewer than one of every twenty high school age adolescents were in school. Today, more than nine of every ten adolescents receive high school diplomas. In the nineteenth century, many adolescents learned a trade from their father or some other adult member of the community. Temple University researcher Laurence Steinberg's work was one of the first researchers who zeroed in on the 30 percent or more of students who work more than 20 hours during the school week. There are now evidences suggesting that teenagers are more likely to drop out of school once they take on jobs while still studying.

Taking on part-time jobs is also related to self-esteem. Most researchers agree that adolescence is a critical transition period in a persons development. They are faced with certain developmental tasks, and characterized by many changes in their adolescent selves: physical, psycho-emotional, cognitive and social selves. These changes contribute to the adolescents shifting self-concept. Both boys and girls have to adjust to the physical changes showing in their bodies.

Girls experience breast development and menarche as a sign of leaving childhood and moving into adulthood (Martin, 1996). They show signs of ambivalence and anxiety due to this bodily change, thus making puberty a different experience for girls. Martin (1996) further stated the reason for these feelings of ambivalence and anxiety is because of girls lack of subjective knowledge regarding their bodies. Moreover, puberty becomes associated with adult female sexuality.

Boys, meanwhile, experience less difficulty during puberty as they undergo increased prominence of secondary sex characteristics and seminal emissions (Strang, 1957). Martin (1996) suggests that the reason for this is that boys associate these changes with adult masculinity, agency, and male sexuality, which are culturally expected and accepted, not disparaged. Adolescents also continue to develop intellectually, expanding their knowledge, acquiring and mastering skills, developing ability to think abstractly, increasing their decision-making abilities and critical thinking (Harter, 1999; Musick, 1993; Santrock, 2002). With an increased decision-making ability also comes an increased sense of independence. Often children are motivated to continue their education. The school benefits by having community support, higher teacher morale, and better student achievement.

It is indeed true what researchers say that the earlier in a child's educational process parent involvement begins, the more powerful the effects will be. The role of parents in their childrens success in school is crucial all along. From the material and research laid out, it is just a matter of varying the programs offered by schools in dealing with the parents. These recommendations by author Cotton underscores the fact that schools with the most successful parent involvement programs are those which offer a variety of ways parents can participate. Recognizing that parents differ greatly in their willingness, ability, and available time for involvement in school activities, these schools provide a continuum of options for parent participation. In the end, the key to forming complementary goals for the child is communication.

The school and the parents need to talk to each other about their attitudes regarding education and parenting. What are the parents expectations for the childs achievement and behavior at school? What are the schools expectations for the childs activities at home? Only then can dealing with parents be maximized. Indeed, when parents are involved, children benefit by having more positive attitudes toward learning, better attendance, fewer placements in special education, better grades, and being more likely to graduate high school and go to work or continue their education. When parents are involved, they gain confidence in the school, the teacher, and themselves.

With adolescence also comes the development of new social roles in their families, school, and with their peers. Attachment to their parents still remains strong, although as mentioned earlier, in this stage the connection may not always be smooth. There is an inevitable escalation in conflict between the parent and the adolescent, brought about different factors biological changes of puberty, cognitive changes involving idealistic thinking and their own way of rationalizing, and social changes influenced by their peers and society. School becomes a venue for socialization and meeting new friends.

Peers and friendship highly increase in importance, and popularity with peers becomes a strong motivation for adolescents. Conformity and belonging to cliques is also considered unavoidable yet essential (Bernard, 1981; Santrock, 2002). There is also the onset of dating, courtship and the start of romantic relationships, a social role that is also considered a significant part of adolescent life. According to Harter (1999), adolescents are actively concerned with creating, defining, and differentiating role-related selves (p. 72), and their perceptions of themselves differ across the different roles that they play. Through the different roles that they play, they know themselves better. While striving to accomplish the different developmental tasks, they are also finding out who they are, and trying to discover their feelings of self-worth.

Self-worth can sometimes be gauged in the part-time work. Does the increase in work have benefits for adolescents? In some cases yes; in others, no. Ellen Green berger and Laurence Steinberg examined the work experiences of students in four California high schools. Their findings disprove some common myths. For example, generally it is assumed that adolescents get extensive on-the-job-training when they are hired for work.

The reality is that they got little training at all. Also, it is assumed that youths through work experiences learn to get along better with adults. However, adolescents reported that they rarely felt close to the adults with whom they worked. The work experiences of the adolescents did help them to understand how the business world works, gow to get and how to keep a job. Even though prolonged education has kept many contemporary youth from holding full-time jobs, it has not prevented them from working on a part-time basis while going to school (Mortimer, 1991).

Moat high school seniors have had some work experience. In a national survey of 17, 000 high school seniors, three of four reported some job income during the average school week (Bachman, 1982). For 41 percent of the males and 30 percent of the females, this income exceeded $ 50 a week. The typical part-time job for high school seniors involves 16 to 20 hours of work per week, although 10 percent work 30 hours a week or more.

What kinds of jobs are adolescents working today? About 17 percent who work do so in restaurants, such as Mcdonalds and Burger King, waiting on customers and cleaning up. Other adolescents work in retail stores as cashiers or salespeople (about 20 percent), in offices as clerical assistants (about 10 percent). In one recent study, boys reported higher self-esteem and well-being when they perceived that their jobs were providing skills that would be useful to them in the future (Mortimer & others, 1992). In addition to works affecting grades, working adolescents felt less involved in school, were absent more, and said that they did not enjoy school as much as their non-working counterparts did. Adolescents who worked also spent less time with their families but just as much time with their peers their non-working counterparts.

Adolescents who worked long hours also were more frequent users of alcohol and marijuana. Families must become involved in school and education so that they get to know the reasons why their children will be most valuable... They elect people to serve on the local school board to make decisions about educational goals, school facilities, budget allocations, personnel, student standards of achievement and conduct, and evaluation methods. Obviously, this interaction is indirect, but nonetheless influential. Direct interaction occurs when families go to the school their children attend and talk to the administrators and teachers. Even if some parents have some prejudices about going to school other than when their child has a problem, the teacher can still break through these barriers by communicating with parents such as sending positive notes to the parents about their children, calling them every now and then.

Basically, parents need confidence, support By adolescence, most children had developed enough independent resources to proceed on their own developmental course without major deviation (Anthony, 1974). This was not true for adolescents with a history of long-standing difficulties, whose problematic behavior became exacerbated by the parental turmoil. These latter adolescents were particularly vulnerable to their parents tendencies to cross generational boundaries. Those adolescents who were able and permitted to maintain some emotional distance from the parental crisis, managed best, both in terms of their own developmental needs, and in terms of their eventual relationship to their parents (Anthony, 1974). For adolescents bound for higher education and a professional degree, the educational system provides ladders from the school to career.

Most youths though, step off the educational ladder before reaching the level of a professional career. Improving education, elevating skill levels and providing hands-on experience will help adolescents to bridge the gap between the school work. We need to address the needs of the youth if we are to retain the confidence of youth who have been brought up to believe in the promise of the American Dream. REFERENCES Anthony, J. (ed). Children at risk from divorce: A review, The child in his family: Children at psychiatric risk. New York: Wiley, 1974, p. 163.

Bernard, J. (1981). The female world. New York: Free Press. Harter, S. (1999). The construction of the self: A developmental perspective. New York: The Guilford Press.

P. 81. Strang, R. (1957). The Adolescent Views Himself: A Psychology of Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill, p, 124. Martin, J. H. (1996).

Neuroanatomy: Text and Atlas. 2 nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 145. Kelly, K. (July/August 1998).

Working Teenagers: Do After-School Jobs Hurt? Harvard Education Letter. Accessed 19 November 2005 at: web


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Research essay sample on Students Who Hold After School Jobs

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