Informal work experience, substance use, and delinquency among young adults

Objective Many youth seek opportunities to earn money through informal work experiences such as baby-sitting, newspaper routes, and yard work. Formal work has been associated with delinquent behaviors and substance abuse, but through use of cross-sectional data. This study initially seeks to examine the incidence of substance use and delinquency among youth reporting informal work relative to those who do not and, ultimately, assess a causal relationship between early informal work and substance use and delinquency.

Methods Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), we estimate numerous models to determine whether informal work experience is in fact associated with substance use and delinquency; and if so, whether this association may be causal. Continuous and dichotomous measures of dependent variables (e.g., any substance use, any delinquency) and predictors (e.g., any and type of informal work, number of hours worked) are employed.

Results Among adolescent participants age 12-13 in 1997, forty percent reported engaging in informal work (n=1,435) within the past year. Relative to those without informal work experience (n=2,143), informal workers reported higher rates of alcohol use (27.2% vs. 21.2%), marijuana use (9.1% vs. 6.9%) and smoking (29.8% vs. 21.5%); in comparing delinquent behaviors, informal workers had higher rates of arrest (4.9% vs. 3.2%) and running away (6.3% vs. 4.3%).

Conclusion Preliminary results show higher rates of delinquent behavior and substance abuse among informal workers. Additional analyses will examine the causal nature including potential reverse causality in association between informal work and substance use/delinquent behavior.