This study will examine the relationship between underage drinking, adolescent work, and state child labor laws that restrict the hours and types of adolescent employment, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 (NLSY97). The NLSY97 is an ongoing survey of youth who were aged 12-16 years in 1997. The survey has collected extensive information about youth labor market and substance use behavior over time and other topics including parental monitoring, and peer affiliations that may affect both work effort and drinking. This study will use data from the 1997-2003 rounds on youth from the age of 14 years when state child labor laws regarding formal work go into effect, until age18 when all work hours restrictions are lifted. We will exploit the """"""""natural experiment"""""""" provided by state-age variations in child labor laws and, using fixed effects and multilevel random effects models, study whether restrictions on hours and types of work impact adolescent drinking behaviors, controlling for underage drinking laws and the level of labor law enforcement across states. Fixed-effects instrumental variables models will use child labor restrictions to statistically identify work effects on youth drinking. The models will show how job characteristics like job type, supervisor's age, establishment size, and work shift modify the work-drinking relationship for youth. Models will be stratified by race/ethnicity in order to improve our understanding of prior findings that the relationship between adolescent employment and alcohol use differs by race. Our findings will indicate whether restrictions on adolescent work reduce underage drinking. Beyond restrictions on hours worked, our models will also examine whether other underage drinking rules about permitted types of school-year work (e.g. as on- or off-premises sellers/servers of alcohol) moderate the effects of work intensity on drinking. Our findings will indicate whether laws restricting hours of work are more or less effective than laws restricting adolescent employment in alcohol sales or service, providing policy-makers with valuable information on the most appropriate regulatory targets.
The belief that higher work hours lead to negative youth behavior has led to National Research Council and congressional proposals to extend federal restrictions on school-year work to cover 16- and 17-year olds similarly to 14- and 15-year-olds. Yet, very little work has examined the effect of existing labor laws on youth behavior. Our study will show whether restrictions on the hours and types of youth employment can reduce underage drinking.
