Research Shows That High School Students Should Not Work More Than Fifteen Hours a Week
Many high school students take part-time jobs to help pay expenses or start saving for college . In her book Make Your Child a Money Genius, author Beth Kobliner suggests that students not work more than 15 hours a week, citing research from the University of Michigan.
Researchers at the University of Michiganstudied groups of middle and high school students over 8-12 years to see how high school employment would affect them in the long run. They found a link between college graduation and high workload. A press release from the study states:
By age 29 or 30, more than half of high school graduates who worked 1 to 15 hours a week in 12th grade have completed their bachelor’s degrees; but every additional 5 hours of work was associated with an 8 percent drop in graduation, so only about 20 percent of those who worked 31 hours or more graduated from college. After statistically controlling for other antecedents, college graduation rates for those who worked 1-15 hours were still 1.5 times higher than those for those who worked 31 hours or more.
The study’s lead author said the best students worked no more than 15 hours a week on average. Of course, the mileage can be different: some students can handle a heavier load, while for others it may be too much. For more information, follow the links below.
High School Job Could Quickly Change Students’ Future | University of Michigan Social Research Institute via Make Your Kid a Money Genius
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