STUDY: WORKING STUDENTS MORE LIKELY TO FIND TROUBLE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 11, 1992                   TAG: 9201110175
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PEGGY LOWE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DENVER                                LENGTH: Medium
STUDY: WORKING STUDENTS MORE LIKELY TO FIND TROUBLE
Teen-agers who work after school are more likely to break the law and tempt trouble than those who don't have jobs, according to a study that turns assumptions about work and responsibility on its head.
Such findings aren't new, but the study conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder is the first such survey that's national in scope, said sociology Professor Delbert Elliott, who heads the ongoing research.
"In that sense, it's a little different," Elliott said Thursday of the survey's nationwide view. "`The finding is a very robust finding."
The study found teens who work before graduating from high school are about 1 1/2 times more likely to commit criminal offenses and use alcohol, and are more than twice as likely to experiment with marijuana.
"To be honest, we didn't believe it," Elliott said of the initial results. "You know - idle hands are the devil's workshop."
Researchers were so skeptical at first, he said, they figured they overlooked something. But when the numbers were reckoned again to account for potentially skewing factors, the results were the same.
Elliott emphasized that the findings mean only that work poses a greater risk of delinquency; trouble is far from inevitable. The findings do not mean that the job caused delinquency.
"The research has indicated there are indeed some positive benefits from going to work, such as positive work attitudes which will be a plus for kids later on," Elliott said.
But on the negative side, he said, the survey showed "a job may replace interest in school. Then what happens is a decline in educational aspiration . . . and in activities surrounding the school."
The findings released last week come from a long-term survey of 1,725 Americans from around the country begun in 1976 when participants were ages 11 to 17. Face-to-face interviews were conducted annually the first five years of the survey. After that, interviews have taken place every three years, the last in January 1990.
Each time, survey subjects - who cross the economic and ethnic spectrums - are asked confidentially if they broke the law or used drugs or alcohol. Those who worked as teens were employed in a wide range of jobs - in fast-food restaurants, in retail stores, as gophers in professional firms.
Elliott believes one reason teen workers may risk trouble is their immaturity and skipping the period needed to grow into adult roles.
Elliott said parents may counter the risk of trouble by better supervising their employed offspring. Warning signs include a working child's sudden lack of interest in school, homework and school-related activities, such as athletics.
"We don't want to overstate what it means. But parents need to be aware that there is some risk," he said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB