Children's time in structured and unstructured leisure activities

Using the 1981 Time Use Longitudinal Panel Study data, this study examines factors which influence children's time use in leisure activities. More time is spent in unstructured than structured leisure activities. Analysis of variance is performed on 32 categories of leisure time, including total leisure, to determine the influence of characteristics of the child and the mother and other socioeconomic characteristics. Males spend significantly more time than females in active sports, playing games, and passive leisure especially watching television on weekends. Females spend significantly more time than males socializing on weekends. The amount of time spent socializing increases with age but decreases with employment. Time spent playing games decreases with age, increases with number of children, and decreases as family income increases. Given the large number of children who do not participate in a given set of leisure activities, future research should examine the probability of participation.The data used in this article were made available by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data for Time Use Longitudinal Panel Study, 1975–1981 were originally collected by F. Thomas Juster, Martha S. Hill, Frank P. Stafford, and Jacquelynne Eccles Parsons of the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan. Neither the collector of the original data nor the Consortium bear any responsibility for the analysis or interpretation presented here.Carol B. Meeks is a Professor and Teresa Mauldin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Housing and Consumer Economics, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Dr. Meeks' research interests include time use, family structure, and economic aspects of housing. She received her Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Dr. Mauldin, who also received her Ph.D. from Ohio State University, is interested in time use, economic well being of individuals and families, and family structure.