Having less but giving more : work experience and prosocial behavior of Chinese working-class youth

Bryant P.H. HUI; Ngai PUN; Jack Linchuan QIU; Anita KOO

doi:10.1177/0044118X19840239

Having less but giving more : work experience and prosocial behavior of Chinese working-class youth

Bryant P.H. HUI, Ngai PUN^*, Jack Linchuan QIU, Anita KOO

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Adolescent behavior is often negatively viewed especially regarding work experience. By introducing a concept of prosocial behavior, our study attempts to provide an alternative view on the effects of teenage job and work experience. We hypothesized that work experience could generate more prosocial behaviors. By surveying a large group of working-class youth (N = 2,860) from eight Chinese vocational schools and using structural equation modeling, we confirmed that the pattern of “having less, giving more” could be found in our sample. Our findings revealed that work experience could facilitate prosocial behavior via the increase of knowledge of both contract-based rights and labor action. By understanding working-class youth’s prosocial behavior as a positive outcome of work experience, this study calls for further research on other positive outcomes, such as cooperation, civic engagement, and solidarity, among working-class youth.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1582-1601
Number of pages	20
Journal	Youth and Society
Volume	52
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X19840239
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2020
Externally published	Yes

Funding

We would like to thank Gao Hang, Hou Liqi, Lin Lin, Song Xinmiao, Vladislav Xu, and Li De Pin for their support with data collection. Our deep appreciation to the numerous school administrators, teachers, and pupils for participating in this project, especially those from Anqing Vocational & Technical College, E-Business Logistics and High Speed Train Attendant Department, Inner Mongolia Linhe Number 1 Vocational School, Hang Jin Hou Qi Vocational Training Center, Inner Mongolia, Inner Mongolia Huancheng Vocational Technical School, Lanzhou Modern Vocational College, Shaanxi Institute of Technology, and Xiaogan Vocational School, Hubei Province. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the CRF, Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (C5010-15G).

Keywords

part-time job
prosocial behavior
SES
work experience
youth

Access to Document

10.1177/0044118X19840239

Cite this

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title = "Having less but giving more : work experience and prosocial behavior of Chinese working-class youth",

abstract = "Adolescent behavior is often negatively viewed especially regarding work experience. By introducing a concept of prosocial behavior, our study attempts to provide an alternative view on the effects of teenage job and work experience. We hypothesized that work experience could generate more prosocial behaviors. By surveying a large group of working-class youth (N = 2,860) from eight Chinese vocational schools and using structural equation modeling, we confirmed that the pattern of “having less, giving more” could be found in our sample. Our findings revealed that work experience could facilitate prosocial behavior via the increase of knowledge of both contract-based rights and labor action. By understanding working-class youth{\textquoteright}s prosocial behavior as a positive outcome of work experience, this study calls for further research on other positive outcomes, such as cooperation, civic engagement, and solidarity, among working-class youth.",

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AU - QIU, Jack Linchuan

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PY - 2020/11/1

Y1 - 2020/11/1

N2 - Adolescent behavior is often negatively viewed especially regarding work experience. By introducing a concept of prosocial behavior, our study attempts to provide an alternative view on the effects of teenage job and work experience. We hypothesized that work experience could generate more prosocial behaviors. By surveying a large group of working-class youth (N = 2,860) from eight Chinese vocational schools and using structural equation modeling, we confirmed that the pattern of “having less, giving more” could be found in our sample. Our findings revealed that work experience could facilitate prosocial behavior via the increase of knowledge of both contract-based rights and labor action. By understanding working-class youth’s prosocial behavior as a positive outcome of work experience, this study calls for further research on other positive outcomes, such as cooperation, civic engagement, and solidarity, among working-class youth.

AB - Adolescent behavior is often negatively viewed especially regarding work experience. By introducing a concept of prosocial behavior, our study attempts to provide an alternative view on the effects of teenage job and work experience. We hypothesized that work experience could generate more prosocial behaviors. By surveying a large group of working-class youth (N = 2,860) from eight Chinese vocational schools and using structural equation modeling, we confirmed that the pattern of “having less, giving more” could be found in our sample. Our findings revealed that work experience could facilitate prosocial behavior via the increase of knowledge of both contract-based rights and labor action. By understanding working-class youth’s prosocial behavior as a positive outcome of work experience, this study calls for further research on other positive outcomes, such as cooperation, civic engagement, and solidarity, among working-class youth.

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Having less but giving more : work experience and prosocial behavior of Chinese working-class youth

Abstract

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Keywords

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