As teenagers return to school this fall, a new report suggests that many of them are moving through adolescence without the experiences that help prepare them for adulthood, activities like a part-time job, a club, a team and a regular family meal.
The clearest evidence is teen employment, which alone has been declining for nearly 50 years.
The report, “A Digital Divide in American Adolescence,” by Daniel Cox of the American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life, was published in mid-August. It draws on the results of the American Teenagers Survey, whose interviews were conducted in January and February with teens aged 13 to 17.
The study’s first key finding is that the bottom rung of the career ladder is disappearing. A generation ago, a summer job or an afterschool shift was a routine rite of passage. It was a place where teenagers learned to show up on time, take direction from someone who wasn’t a parent or teacher and get paid for reliability rather than talent. But today, only 15% of teens in the survey reported having a part-time job, and just 28% even among 16- and 17-year-olds — the group most likely to work. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show teen labor force participation peaked at nearly 58% in the late 1970s and has been falling ever since.
The survey also shows that even within adolescence itself, opportunities for growth become rarer as students age. Travel sports participation among boys falls from 52% in early adolescence to 35% by age 16 or 17; choir and band participation among girls falls from 30% to 17%; and only 7% of teens are in student government or debate.
None of these activities is glamorous. But they’re the low-stakes, repeatable settings where teenagers practice commitment, teamwork and how to lose gracefully. They’re the soft infrastructure that makes a first real job, internship or semester of college survivable rather than disorienting.
