Kids Like Adults Are Facing A Time

Crunch Essay, Research Paper

women into the labor force has had area) effect on and the mother stays at home, parents spend an Computers have had onlya moderate impact childhood schedules, causing a shasp decline in the average of 22 hours a week engaged with their children’s time. The typical &year ld Spend Amencan children toda} spend less time hours children can spend playing tag outside, for children, compared with 19 hours a week in half-hour each week on the computer, whfl#a rlttng television than the’ did in the early example, or in other unplanned activities families where both parents work, and nine hours year ld spends an hour and 12 minutetJosand less time eating, but more tonem sports Free time left after school eating and sleeping, for single-parent families, the study found. The timediaries arepartofa much I sizybdy more time on schoolwork according the study found, has decreased from 40 percent of After collecting minute-by-minute time diaries that looks at hbw wefl today’s chddren are tiri a national study released today. a child’s dav in 1981 to 25 percent last year. from the families of 3,600 children, researchers Researchers found, for e,ample, that cv Among the most striking changes is the ‘Children are affected by the same time crunch were able to describe in detail how a typical child’s hour spent reading each week translates int rease in time spent at school, up by an average that their parents are affected by,” said Sandra week plays out, from the average 74 hours half-point increase in achrevementtefl soot norethan90minutesaweek since 1981. That is Hoffeith, a senior research scientist at the inst- sleeping to the nine hours spent consuming meals. while each additional Isour spent watching tek rnng not because academic school days are tute. “Parents are busy, and children are spending Overall, children average about 90 minutes in sion deceeases test scotes lay onetenth of ai po iget, but because more children are in preschool much more time in structured environments.” front of televisions on weekdays, down from two on tests in which the mean scote was IOEL dIeters- and after-school child-care programs, The researchers do not conclude that this hours in 1981. But television still occupies far The study suggests that the amount of ti, searchers said,transformation in fiamily routines is necessarilv more time than schoolwork or reading.parents spend with yheir children is less import’ The study by the University of Michigan’s had for children. In fact, said Hoffeith. who headed Average study time on weekdays has gone up than how they spend it attitute for Social Research, the tlrst look in the study, “there has been a lot of concern that for boys from 14 minutes to 21 minutes since the “The evidence is fairly compelling now that arly two decades at how the nation’s children parents may be neglecting their children, but early ‘SOs. For girls, the figure has gone from 19 mere fact of having working parents doesn’t aa end theit time, offers a detailed pottrait of there’s very little evidence of that.” minutes to 22 minutes. Reading at home occupies problems for children,” said Andrew Cherlin eden family life. It shows that the entn,’ of more In traditional families where the father works less than 1+ hours a week, no more than in 1981. sociologist at Johns Hopkins University.