Red in Uttrakhand

ly among adolescents who hold part-time jobs during

the school year (Steinberg and Cauffman 1995).

Because rates of student employment are so much

higher in the United States than in other countries,

almost all of this research has involved American

samples. We do not know if these ®ndings are

generalizable to adolescents in other countries, because

the nature of work and its relation to schooling

varies considerably from country to country.

The results of research on student employment in

the United States have indicated that the impact of

work on adolescent socialization is to a great extent

dependent on the amount of time adolescents spend

on the job. In moderate amountsÐ10 or fewer hours

per weekÐa part-time job can be a useful means of

exposing adolescents to the world of work and helping

them learn to manage their time more responsibly.

When adolescents work longer hours, however, the

costs of employment may overshadow the bene®ts.

More speci®cally, studies indicate that employment

during the school year in excess of 20 hours per week

is associated with diminished performance in and

commitment to school, and increased drug and alcohol

use, and some research links long work hours to

increased delinquency. These negative correlates of

working are thought to accrue because long work

hours interfere with school and diminish parents'

ability to monitor their teenagers, both of which have

been shown to be associated with poor school performance

and increased problem behavior. In addition,

adolescents who work long hours have large

amounts of discretionary income, which may pull

them away from school and toward more recreational

pursuits.

Research on the impact of neighborhoods on

adolescent socialization is relatively new. This work

has examined how adolescents attitudes and behavior

are shaped by variations in the communities in which

they live along such dimensions as the neighborhood's

income, employment rate, crime, and demography

(Brooks-Gunn et al. 1997). Most research to date has

found relatively few direct effects of neighborhood

conditions on adolescent socialization, however.

Rather, studies suggest that variations in neighborhoods

affect adolescent development primarily

through their impact on the family and peer group.

For example, adolescents living in disorganized neighborhoods

are themselves more likely to be involved in

antisocial activity because neighborhood disorganization

is associated with ineffective parenting and with

insufficient monitoring of peer group activities. This

sort of ®nding is consistent with the general view that

socialization is mediated primarily through interactions

with signi®cant others.

Despite widespread popular belief in the deleterious

effects of sex and violence in the mass media on the

socialization of adolescents, scienti®c evidence on the

impact of exposure to violent or sexual imageryÐin

television, ®lm, music, or computer gamesÐis sparse

and inconsistent. There is some research indicating

that exposure to televised violence may increase

aggression among younger children, but this issue has

not been adequately studied among adolescents. The

study of the in¯uence of other media (e.g., computer

games, music) or of other types of media content (e.g.,

sexual imagery) on adolescent socialization is virtually

nonexistent.

See also: Adolescence, Sociology of; Adolescent

Behavior: Demographic; Adolescent Development,

Theories of; Identity in Childhood and Adolescence;

Social Learning, Cognition, and Personality Development;

Socialization and Education: Theoretical

Perspectives; Socialization in Infancy and Childhood;

Socialization, Sociology of; Substance Abuse in

Adolescents, Prevention of

Bibliography

Brooks-Gunn J, Duncan G J, Aber J L (eds.) 1997Neighborhood

PoŠerty. Russell Sage Foundation, New York

Brown B 1990 Peer groups. In: Feldman S S, Elliott G R (eds.)

At the Threshold: The DeŠeloping Adolescent. Harvard University

Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 171±96

Coleman J S 1961 The Adolescent Society: the Social