More and more teenagers are working while they go to school. But according to a study by the Quebec Institute of Statistics, working too many hours has a harmful impact on the mental he alth of young people.
The proportion of adolescents aged 15 to 19 who have a job during the school year has almost doubled in the last 30 years. But if the young person works too much, it has a negative impact on the mental he alth of Quebec students, according to a study from the Institut de la statistique du Québec.
Girls who work 11 hours or more per week and boys who work 16 hours or more per week during the school year are much more exposed to various risks: a high level of distress psychological, a diagnosis of anxiety and/or a diagnosis of depression.
Girls are more likely than boys to have a high level of psychological distress (28% versus 14%). About 9% of high school students report anxiety disorder diagnosed by a doctor, and 4,9% have been diagnosed with depression.
“Indeed, the proportion of young people with a high level of psychological distress is greater among those who work 16 hours or more per week (27%) than among those who work less than 11 hours (20%)”, can we read in the study. While this trend is observed in boys as well as girls, it increases in the latter, where 26% of them have a high level of psychological distress when they work less than 11 hours a week compared to 39% among those who devote 16 hours or more to their job.
These data come from the most recent Quebec He alth Survey of High School Youth (EQSJS). These statistics have precisely enabled the authors of the study, Mikaël Berthelot and Issouf Traoré, to highlight certain dangers associated with excessive work during the school year.
Working a little: an advantage
The authors also found that secondary 4e and 5e students who do not have a paid job are more at risk of having a high level of psychological distress, a diagnosis of anxiety or a diagnosis of depression than those who work a short number of hours.
The data from another study from the Quebec Institute of Statistics focuses particularly on 15-year-olds. They show that a high proportion of these students work during the school year (41%). Many young people who do not have a job, however, want to takeshare in the labor market while half said they wanted to work, while only 23% reported a lack of interest in working while studying.
Written by Jean B althazar
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