Odd Jobs, Bad Habits, and Ethical Implications: Smoking-Related Outcomes of Children’s Early Employment Intensity

Considerable interest has long existed in two separate phenomena of considerable social interest, namely children’s early exposure to employment outside of any organizational, legislative, or collective bargaining protection, and teenage smoking. We used data from a large national survey to address possible direct and indirect links between children’s early employment intensity and smoking (both intent and history) because of significant long-term implications of the link between work and well-being in a vulnerable population. Fifth to ninth grade children’s (N = 19,018) informal employment intensity (number of odd jobs) was related to both smoking history and smoking intent, and these effects were partially mediated by the amount of weekly spending money and self-esteem. The number of one’s parents and friends who smoke separately moderated the relationships between self-esteem and weekly spending money, and smoking behavior. These findings illustrate the complex consequences of young children’s exposure to early employment, and emphasize the need for research on the ethical implications of pre- and early teenagers who are employed outside of the formal employment context.