ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT AND THE ROLE OF WORK Most people have their first experiences in the labor force during their teenage years. It is important, therefore, to consider how employment contributes to the developmental agenda of adolescence and to examine how experiences in the labor force can aid or hinder young people's emotional, intellectual, and physical development, as well as their socioeconomic attainments in life. To answer these questions requires an understanding of the nature of adolescent development in modern society. Most experts agree that adolescence occupies a crucial role in contemporary human development for several interrelated reasons. First, adolescence is a period of potentially great malleability, during which experiences in the family, school, and other settings influence the individual's long-term development: To put it most succinctly, the adolescent experience matters for future performance. Second, adolescence is a period of tremendous variability. It is the time when people's life courses begin to diverge in important ways, in part because modern society allows for much diversity and flexibility during those years. Finally, adolescence is an especially important formative period, during which many developmental trajectories be-