Children's Time Use Research Articles

Screen Time Exposure and Altered Sleep in Young Children With Epilepsy.

To examine the association between daily screen time exposure and both sleep patterns (sleep onset, sleep offset, and nighttime, and daily sleep durations) and sleep disturbances among a clinical sample of children with epilepsy. A cross-sectional actigraphic sleep study. A convenience sample of 141 children with epilepsy (1.5-6 years of age) was recruited from an outpatient pediatric neurology clinic of a university-affiliated children's hospital in northern Taiwan. Participating families completed questionnaires and reported children's screen time use, with children wearing an actigraphy monitor for 7 days to assess sleep patterns. Multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the association of screen time exposure with the child's sleep patterns and sleep disturbance scores. Mean minutes per day of screen time exposure was 89.79 ± 83.94 min, with 62 parents (44.0%) reporting their child having >1 hr of screen time daily. Mean daily sleep duration was 9.26 ± 1.01 hr, with 106 children (93.0%) sleeping <10 hr in a 24-hr period. In multivariate regression models, daily screen time exposure of >1 hour was associated with 23.4-min later sleep onset (b = 0.39, p = .02), 20.4-min later sleep offset (b = 0.34, p = .04), and more severe sleep disturbances (b = 2.42, p = .04). In toddlers and preschool-age children with epilepsy, daily screen time exposure is greater and sleep duration is shorter than the recommended amount, with increased screen time exposure associated with disturbed sleep. Parents need to be informed about the possible adverse impact of screen time exposure on children's sleep and health as well as the importance of limiting screen time exposure to <1 hr per day for their toddlers and preschool-age children with epilepsy.

The ‘developmental gradient’ revisited: Australian children's time with adult caregivers from infancy to middle childhood

Children's time use patterns represent a potentially important mechanism for the transmission of disadvantage across generations. Recent international research indicates that more educated mothers tailor the content of time with children to favour activities that are particularly important at different developmental stages – a finding that has been termed the ‘developmental gradient’. Using time diary data for a sample of Australian children, this paper seeks to extend previous work in several ways. We first establish whether a ‘developmental gradient’ exists in Australian children's time with mothers, comparable to the results from international studies. We go further, however, by extending the analysis to consider time investments provided by fathers and other adult caregivers, and examining the importance of resources for explaining the patterns of time use. Consistent with theory, our results indicate that educational gaps in time spent ‘teaching’ are largest in the 4–5 age group, gaps in ‘play’ time with fathers are largest for toddlers (2–3), and gaps in ‘enrichment’ are largest for 6–7 and 8–9. Time with parents appears to be the primary driver of observed patterns of time spent ‘teaching’ and ‘playing’, while for ‘enrichment,’ differences are distributed across caregivers, but largest for non-parent caregivers. These results are not driven by differential access to resources. Our results suggest that the developmental gradient represents a plausible mechanism for the transmission of intergenerational disadvantage in Australia, and that policy responses focussed on better educating parents to understand the developmental needs of their children are likely to be an effective response.

Heterogeneity in Early Life Investments: A Longitudinal Analysis of Children's Time Use

We examine socioeconomic heterogeneity in children's time use using diary data from two waves of a nationally representative longitudinal cohort study in Ireland. Children from disadvantaged households spend significantly less time reading, doing homework, and engaging in physical exercise and sport than their counterparts, and more time engaging in unstructured play. Though most gaps are relatively small at age 9, they widen considerably by age 13. This pattern is similar for girls and boys. Parental education appears to be a more important factor in family investment decisions about children's time use than household income. Given the important role of extra‐curricular activities in promoting cognitive and non‐cognitive skill development, the systematic differences in children's time use we document in this paper may contribute to cumulative disadvantage and widening skill gaps through adolescence and into adulthood.

Caregiver Reports of Screen Time Use of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Study.

Screen based media have progressively become an integral part in the daily lives of children and youths with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, research that exclusively pursues the functionality of screen media use of children with ASD is extremely rare. Through a triangulated approach, the present study aims to fill this gap. We conducted 13 interviews with parents of children with ASD and supplemented this interview–study with an online survey including parents of children with ASD (n = 327). Children with ASD mostly used screen media (especially television) for their wellbeing, which is associated with chances and risks. Based on the parental interviews it is suggested that the media usage of children with ASD should be supervised. The results are discussed in terms of their practical implementation.

Engaged parenting, gender, and children's time use in transnational families: An assessment spanning three global regions.

Global circuits of migration regularly separate parents from children. How families navigate this separation has changed markedly. The sharp decline in the cost of international communication makes possible new forms of transnational parenting. In many contexts, migrants are now actively engaged parents, involved in decisions, knowledgeable of children's schooling, employment, and activities, and in some cases, even conversant face‐to‐face with children via videoconferencing. These practices, however, are not universal. We use data from surveys in three countries to document the frequency and variability of intensive, engaged transnational parenting in the diverse global regions of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We then ask whether the organisation of children's lives—specifically, time allocated to school homework, leisure, and household chores—varies by the degree to which migrant parents stay connected to sending homes. The gender of the migrant parent, stay‐behind caregiver, and the gender of the child emerge as explanatory factors for engaged parenting and children's time use. However, and unexpectedly, in the Philippines, migrant mothers are less likely to practice engaged parenting. In sending households, girls in two of the three countries spend more time doing household chores than boys, but parental migration does not mitigate this difference. Although we find some evidence of more traditional gender practices, we also find exceptions that suggest potentially fruitful avenues for future research.

Screen time exposure and sleep among children with developmental disabilities.

Children with developmental disabilities are at risk of excessive screen time and are more vulnerable to sleep problems. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of screen time use in children with developmental disabilities and its relationship with sleep duration. Consecutive children aged 6-15 years diagnosed with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth or Fifth Edition (DSM-IV or DSM-5) developmental disabilities were recruited for this study from December 2014 to April 2015. Of those recruited, 87.0% of families gave consent and provided questionnaire information on demographics and child's screen time use and completed the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire. Parents of 102 children in a tertiary-care developmental clinic completed the study. The mean age of children was 10 years, 1 month (standard deviation (SD), 22.7 months). The mean daily total screen time exposure was 2 h, 52.7 min (172.7 min, SD 120.8 min), with a median of 150.0 min. The mean amount of sleep per weekday was 8 h, 23.3 min (SD 64.6 min). Linear regression showed that, for every additional 9.17 min of screen time per day, sleep was reduced by 1 min (β = -0.11, P = 0.04). Older age (β = -0.64, P = 0.02) and living with a single parent (β = -69.29, P = 0.003) were also associated with less sleep. Among children with developmental disabilities, greater daily screen time is associated with lower sleep duration. Older children and those from single-parent families are at risk of lower sleep duration. Clinicians should routinely ask about screen time exposure and sleep habits in order to provide appropriate anticipatory guidance.

Financial Inclusion, Shocks and Poverty: Evidence from the Expansion of Mobile Money in Tanzania

We estimate the effect of mobile money adoption on consumption smoothing, poverty and human capital investments in Tanzania. We exploit the rapid expansion of the mobile money agent network between 2010 and 2012 and combine this with idiosyncratic shocks from variation in rainfall over time and across space in an instrumented DiD methodology. We find that adopter households are able to smooth consumption during periods of shocks and maintain their investments in human capital. Results on time use of children and labor force participation complement the findings on the important role of mobile money for the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Financial Inclusion, Shocks and Poverty: Evidence from the Expansion of Mobile Money in Tanzania

We estimate the effect of mobile money adoption on consumption smoothing, poverty and human capital investments in Tanzania. We exploit the rapid expansion of the mobile money agent network between 2010 and 2012 and combine this with idiosyncratic shocks from variation in rainfall over time and across space in an instrumented DiD methodology. We find that adopter households are able to smooth consumption during periods of shocks and maintain their investments in human capital. Results on time use of children and labor force participation complement the findings on the important role of mobile money for the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Siblings and children's time use in the United States

Eighty-two percent of children under age 18 live with at least one sibling, and the sibling relationship is typically the longest-lasting family relationship in an individual's life. Nevertheless, siblings remain understudied in the family demography liter

Parents' Nonstandard Work Hours and Children's Time Use in Spain: The Intersection of Parental Work Schedules, Gender, and Education

This study uses time-diary data from two-parent families with children aged 10-16 (N = 913) to analyse how parental work schedules interfere with children’s daily activities in Spain, a country where evening work is strongly institutionalised. Fathers’ work schedules are generally unrelated to children’s time use. Mothers’ evening work hours are significantly associated to less time on “developmental” family and educational activities, and with more time spent watching television and doing electronic activities without parents, two potentially “risky” activities in developmental terms. These associations generally apply to less-educated mothers, but not to high-educated mothers. On weekends, children with mothers who were more active on evening work during the week disproportionately participate in educational and family activities, reflecting partly a compensatory pattern in time use allocation. Overall, results suggest that constraints associated to evening work hours influence children’s daily activities, but with remarkable gendered and socioeconomic inequalities in family life.

Social protection for all ages? Impacts of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program on child nutrition

We investigate the impact of a large-scale social protection scheme, the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) in Ethiopia, on child nutritional outcomes. Children living in households that receive cash transfers should experience improved child nutrition. However, in the case of the PSNP, which for the majority of participants is a public works program, there are several potential threats to finding effects: first, without conditionality on child inputs, increased household income may not be translated into improved child nutrition. Second, the work requirement may impact on parental time, child time use and calories burned. Third, if there is a critical period for child human capital investment that closes before the age of 5 then children above this age may not see any improvement in medium-term nutritional outcomes, measured here as height-for-age. Using a cohort study that collected data both pre-and post-program implementation in 2002, 2006 and 2009, we exploit several novel aspects of the survey design to find estimates that can deal with non-random program placement. We present both matching and difference-in-differences estimates for the index children, as well as sibling-differences. Our estimates show an important positive medium-term nutritional impact of the program for children aged 5–15 that are comparable in size to Conditional Cash Transfer program impacts for much younger children. We show indicative evidence that the program impact on improved nutrition is associated with improved food security and reduced child working hours. Our robustness checks restrict the comparison group, by including only households who were shortlisted, but never received PSNP, and also exclude those who never received aid, thus identifying impact based on timing alone. We cannot rule out that the nutritional impact of the program is the same for younger and older children.

초등학교 저학년 아동의 성별과 생활시간이 자기조절학습능력에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether elementary children's time-use and self-regulated learning ability was different according to gender and whether children's gender and time-use effects self-regulated learning ability. Participants were 2,122 children who participated in KCYPS longitudinal study from their first grade to third grade. Time-use was reported by children's parents. Children's self-regulated learning is invented by Yang(2000). Components of self-regulated learning scale was achievement value, mastery goal orientation, action control, academic time management. The major findings were as follows. First, children's self-regulated learning was different according to chidren's gender. Girls' achievement value, mastery goal orientation, academic time management scores were higher than the boys'. Second, children's daily time was different according to their gender. Third, children's daily time-use affected their self-regulated leaning, however children's gender didn't.

Should Parents Work Away from or Close to Home? The Effect of Parental Absence on Children's Time Use in Vietnam

Working away from home might bring higher earnings than working near home. However, the absence of parents due to work can have unexpected effects on children. This paper examines the effects of the absence of parents due to work on time allocation of children aged 5–8 years old in Vietnam. The paper relies on fixed-effects regression and panel data from the Young Lives surveys in 2007 and 2009. It finds that children with parental absence tend to spend less time on home study but more time on leisure and playing. The effect of mother absence on home study of children is higher than the effect of father absence. Moreover, children with mother absence are more likely to do housework than other children. This finding highlights the important role of mothers in taking care of children in terms of both education and housework.

Time use clusters in children and their associations with sociodemographic factors.

Understanding patterns of time use of children is helpful in developing target-tailored intervention. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clustering of sedentary behaviours and physical activity in Chinese children and to examine the associations between sociodemographic factors and the time use clusters. Cluster analysis was conducted among 1013 Chinese children aged 9-13 years (49.5% boys) recruited in a cross-sectional survey study. Physical activity and sedentary behaviours were assessed using a validated questionnaire. Differences in sociodemographic variables were compared across the clusters. Five clusters were identified for boys and girls, respectively. For boys, the five clusters were labelled 'Actives' (9.1%), 'Inactives' (59.4%), 'Sedentary homeworkers' (4.7%), 'Sedentary TV viewers' (16.6%) and 'Sedentary games players' (10.2%). For girls, they were labelled 'Actives' (11.9%), 'Uninvolved inactives' (39.6%), 'Sedentary homeworkers' (11.3%), 'Sedentary TV viewers' (8.5%) and 'Sedentary Games players' (28.8%). Only parental education was found to differ across the five clusters in boys. The findings demonstrated that sedentariness in youth is multidimensional, and it could not be accurately represented by singular behaviour. There is a potential need when designing specific interventions to reduce a group of sedentary behaviours to tailor these interventions for specific clusters.

Media and human capital development: Can video game playing make you smarter?

According to the literature, video game playing can improve such cognitive skills as problem solving, abstract reasoning, and spatial logic. I test this hypothesis using The Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The endogeneity of video game playing is addressed by using panel data methods and controlling for an extensive list of child and family characteristics. To address the measurement error in video game playing, I instrument children's weekday time use with their weekend time use. After taking into account the endogeneity and measurement error, video game playing is found to positively affect children's problem solving ability. The effect of video game playing on problem solving ability is comparable to the effect of educational activities.

Family size, cognitive outcomes, and familial interaction in stable, two-parent families: United States, 1997-2002.

Measures of children's time use, particularly with parents and siblings, are used to evaluate three hypotheses in relation to the vocabulary and mathematical skills development: (1) the resource dilution hypothesis, which argues that parental and household resources are diluted in larger families; (2) the confluence hypothesis, which suggests that the intellectual milieu of families is lowered with additional children; and (3) the admixture ("no effect") hypothesis, which suggests that the negative relationship between family size and achievement is an artifact of cross-sectional research resulting from unobserved heterogeneity. Each hypothesis is tested using within-child estimates of change in cognitive scores over time with the addition of new children to families.

Aspects of Activity Participation as Risk Factors for Conduct Problems in Children and Adolescents: A Literature Review Using Ecological Systems Theory

This article reviews a wide range of risk factors associated with the development of conduct problems in children, with a particular focus on the influence of time spent engaged in different types of activities. The review reveals the behavioral benefits to children and adolescents of participation in activities with physical, social, and restful properties and those that can be described as structured. Further highlighted is the need for parents and occupational therapists to be aware of children's time use and daily activity participation, and the potential for these activities to be harnessed to facilitate positive behavioral outcomes for children.

Class Origin and College Graduates' Parenting Beliefs

Previous studies have documented relationships between parenting beliefs and social class. Few studies, however, have examined how parenting beliefs vary among those who share a class position. Drawing upon interviews with 54 college graduates—27 parents with working-class origins and their 27 spouses with middle-class origins—I show that heterogeneity in college-educated parents' beliefs cohered around class origin. Specifically, ideas of children's education and time use related to class origin, though ideas of how to talk with children did not. I discuss the implications of these findings in terms of cultural reproduction, cultural mobility, and intergenerational inequality.

Leisure education within the context of a childhood obesity intervention programme: parents’ experiences

Parents are viewed as critical agents in preventing and treating childhood obesity. Intervention programmes that target parents have included leisure education as a component. This study explored parents’ experiences in a leisure education process conducted as part of a childhood obesity intervention programme. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 parents before and after they had completed the programme. Parents became more aware of their children's free time use, interests, and experiences and developed an understanding of their role as facilitators of their children's leisure including discussing and better guiding that leisure.

Pictorial approaches for measuring time use in rural Ethiopia.

Time use researchers working in least developed countries (LDCs) face difficulties collecting data from illiterate populations who may conceptualize time differently than those in industrialized countries. We identify existing gaps in time use data collection methods and discuss two novel, pictorial methods to collect time use data from these populations. The first method is a modified recall interview modeled on participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods that asks respondents to place macaroni on pictures of activity categories in proportion to the amount of time spent on that activity during the previous day. The second is a simplified pictorial time diary that uses a timer and sequentially-numbered stickers to re-create the temporal order of activities in 30-minute increments. The latter method also avoids recall bias problems. We present time use data collected in 2009 using these methods in a study examining the impacts of water infrastructure on women and children's time use in rural Ethiopia. In total, we collected information using the first method from 263 household members over age 10, including 167 water collectors, and pilot-tested the pictorial diary approach with 10 adult respondents.