Over-Scheduled or at Loose Ends? The Socioeconomic Correlates of American Adolescent Time Use in 1977-78 and 2003-05

Cathleen Zick, University of Utah

Adolescence is a period in which time use can provide important developmental experiences that in turn affect an individual’s ease of transition into adult roles. In this paper, time diary data on U.S. youth aged 15-17 gathered in 1977-78 and 2003-05 are used to create portraits of time use in middle adolescence with a focus on answering three questions. First, what does U.S. adolescents’ time use look like and to what extent has it changed over the past quarter century? Second, what roles do socioeconomic factors (e.g., adolescent wage rates, household income, parents’ education levels) play in adolescent time allocation and have these relationships changed over time? Finally, to what extent does the mix of leisure undertaken by today’s adolescents reflect a choice set that favors positive developmental experiences?