Time use and change in academic achievement: A longitudinal follow-up

Abstract

As a follow-up of the research of Smith in 1990, academic achievement results from two years later are added to the data for 1208 of the 1584 seventh and ninth graders for whom Smith studied relationships between achievement and time use. Growth in academic achievement over two years, like contemporaneous achievement, is not positively related to time spent on homework or with parents at the beginning of the period. The other findings are also in general accord with the results of the previous study, although the associations are somewhat weaker and less consistent. Growth in reading, language, and overall achievement is significantly negatively related to time spent on house-hold chores, suggesting that chores may compete with academic or other intellectual activities or may cause destructive resentment. Growth in reading achievement is significantly negatively related to time spent listening to radio and recordings, suggesting negative effects of the adolescent subculture. Growth in mathematics achievement tends to be positively associated with time spent watching television among students with parents in lower-status occupations but has a statistically significant negative association with TV time among those with higher status parents, supporting previous findings of interaction between family SES and TV viewing. The results are interpreted in terms of competition among various time uses for the time and attention of adolescents.