Abstract
The commitment to the work ethic of 668 New Zealand high school students in Year 12 was examined in relation to their gender and ethnicity and the employment status (employed versus unemployed) of their parents. There was no significant difference between the levels of employment commitment of the female and male adolescents and, contrary to expectations, the commitment of the adolescents with unemployed parents did not differ significantly from those with employed parents. There were, however, significant differences associated with ethnicity: adolescents of Asian and Pacific Island descent had significantly higher levels of employment commitment than adolescents of either European or Maori descent. The discussion centres on the extent to which the findings can be explained by differences in school achievement, “career trajectory” and selective migration.
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