Mortimer…reports here on the findings from her multiyear longitudinal study, which followed the lives of 1000 students from their first year of high school to their mid-twenties… The study does convincingly demonstrate that part-time employment not only supplements a teen’s learning process but also bolsters self-confidence, socialization, time-management skills, career exploration, and responsibility… This book is readable and interesting and will likely serve as the underpinning for research in an array of disciplines.

Mortimer found that high-schoolers who work in moderation, on average 20 hours or less a week during the school year, were more likely to go on to college and receive a degree compared with both their peers who did not work and those who worked more than 20 hours a week. She also concludes that a part-time job can increase confidence, teach teenagers how to manage time and help them think about what kind of work they want to do as adults. In the academic and public policy debates about the value of teenage work, her book offers support for what many parents have long suspected: A job often can be a good thing.