Adolescent Time Use and Well-being from a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This article compares adolescent time use in ten industrially developed countries and its changes over the past two decades. It builds upon the collective effort of researchers participating in the Comparative Study of Adolescent Time Use (CATUS). Data for the analyses were collected as part of national time use surveys administered by statistical agencies in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom, and the United States, and by the Ontario Survey of Adolescent Time Use and Well-being (OATUS), conducted by the Research Group on Leisure and Cultural Development of the University of Waterloo. The article examines historical trends, as well as gender and age differences in the allocation of adolescents' time to school-related activities, paid and domestic work, personal needs and free time activities. Relationships between different patterns of time use and their developmental and well-being outcomes are discussed based on time use and "experience sampling method" data (OATUS/ ESM). Special attention is paid to the emotional, well-being, and academic correlates of school-related time, part-time work, sleep, eating habits, mass media consumption, and relationship with parents and peers, participation in physically active leisure, and time pressure experienced by students.