The influence of part-time employment and study habits and attitudes on academic performance of high school juniors /

Abstract

Data were gathered from 477 juniors in attendance at a large high school in the midwestern United States. A questionnaire on student employment was administered to the students by their junior English teachers. Approximately three weeks later the students completed Brown and Holtzman's Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (SSHA), which was designed to measure factors associated with student academic success other than intellectual aptitude. The data were processed at the computer center at the University of Oklahoma using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS). In addition to descriptive statistics, the programs included analysis of variance, chi-square tests, regression analysis, and multiple regression analysis.

This questionnaire study represents an attempt to find answers to some of the problems involved when, according to some estimates, as many as two out of three high school students are members of the current work force. The principal thrust of this study was to determine if employed students actually perform at a lower level scholastically than do nonemployed students. Students' study habits and attitudes were examined to determine the extent to which they affect the academic performance of teenagers.

The study habits and attitudes, as reflected by SSHA scores, of employed students were not significantly different from those of the non-employed students. However, there was a positive relationship between SSHA scores and academic performance.

This study uncovered no evidence that working per se is detrimental to today's teenagers. Many students admitted they had gained job skills, experience, knowledge of a variety of jobs, a sense of accomplishment, a feeling of responsibility, and money for personal and school expenses. Further investigation should focus on the long-term effects of student employment during the high school years; a follow-up study on students several years after high school to discern their perception of the impact of teenage employment should prove beneficial.

Results of the study revealed that academic performance (represented by grade point average) is not significantly affected by part-time employment of these high school juniors. The non-employed juniors' grade point averages were higher than the grade point averages of the employed juniors, though the difference was not significant at the .05 level.