Youth Attitudes and Adult Labor Market Activity

A widely used attitudinal construct -- locus of control -- is used to examine the role of personal motivation & initiative in the labor market experiences of a sample of young men (N = 230) drawn from the National Longitudinal Surveys. First, for a nationwide sample of out-of-school teens, combining both cross-sectional & longitudinal data, the influence of locus of control on subsequent employment & nonemployment experience was estimated using multiple regression analysis. Second, where such a relationship was established, results were extended to the equally important issue of the extent to which racial differences in teenage work attitudes are predictive of subsequent racial differences in unemployment. The results suggest that a one-unit increase in "externality" decreases average annual employment by .41 weeks. This decline is composed of a .25 week increase in unemployment & a .16 week increase in time out of the LF. Based on these results, the 1.23 unit black-white difference in "externality" increases the subsequent racial unemployment differential by 12%. 3 Tables, 15 References. AA.