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SALT LAKE CITY -- USA Today reports that researchers from the University of Washington, the University of Virginia and Temple University have discovered teens who work 20 hours or more at their part-time job have more behavior problems and they are not as engaged in school.
Inside Utah's The Children's Center, Executive Director Douglas Goldsmith says he's not surprised at these findings. He says parents have been overloading their kids for many years and the constant activity is having ill effects.
They get sick and they get stressed and they get irritable the same way we do.
–Douglas Goldsmith
"There is a lot of talk for adults about [how] you need a good night's sleep. We don't do that very well with our kids," he said.
Goldsmith says he's seen 6- to 8-year-old kids with 60 structured hours of activity per week, which is way too much. This gets worse with time for teens as their internal clocks change while they age. Goldsmith says teens can naturally stay awake longer, but they should be sleeping in later. Instead, what's happening is that teens are frequently staying up until 1 a.m. then waking up early for school.
"They get sick and they get stressed and they get irritable the same way we do. Sometimes we just toss that off to, ‘Well, he's a teenager.' But a lot of times it can be about sleep and being over-structured," he explained.
Goldsmith says parents need to help their kids find time to relax and be social. But he says watching TV might not count as relaxation, and the social time your kids have at school is not enough.
"School is not all social and it's certainly not all play. It's exhausting," he said.
Is Goldsmith saying that teens shouldn't have part-time jobs? Of course not. He just says parents need to help their kids to not overlook the need for down time.
"If parents can say, ‘If you want to really do that 20 hour (per week) job, and we can see that that's really important and good for you, let's talk about how we're going to fit it in and how you're still going to fit in some fitness and social time," Goldsmith said.
He says if your teen is frequently ill and seems less happy and wants to disengage in social or family activities, they may need counseling.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
