Essays on adolescents' time allocation and development

Chang, Grace (2024) Essays on adolescents' time allocation and development. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

This thesis examines which kinds of activities foster or hinder adolescents’ socio-emotional skills and mental wellbeing across three chapters. First, I examine how adolescents’ time allocation is associated with their self-esteem and self-efficacy at age 15, building upon research by Borga 2019 and Keane, Krutikova, and Neal 2020, also using longitudinal data for Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. I estimate these relationships controlling for prior non-cognitive skills and background characteristics. I find that an additional hour of domestic work instead of education-related activities is associated with lower self-efficacy, significant for all countries except Peru. Work is more harmful for girls than boys, especially in India and Vietnam. More time in work instead of education-related activities is associated with lower skills, but not if adolescents spend more time in work instead of leisure. Second, I examine whether students can develop life skills through paid work. Using longitudinal data on a cohort of English students, I model the development of university students’ internal locus of control – the belief in one’s ability to have control over their life events – at age 20/21. I find that engagement in paid work, but not hours spent in work, is associated with greater students’ internal locus of control. Third, I examine if more screen time is bad for adolescent mental wellbeing, distinguishing the types of screen activities and wellbeing measures. Using time diaries of 14-year-olds, I examine this relationship by gender and parental education, controlling for adolescents’ prior mental wellbeing and background characteristics. Spending more time on social screen activities and internet browsing are more adversely associated with self-reported mental wellbeing, compared to playing e-games and passive video viewing. Girls are more vulnerable to the harmful associations of social screen time than boys, and parental education is not a protective factor for girls.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2024 Grace Chang
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Sets:	Departments > Social Policy
Supervisor:	Özcan, Berkay and Jenkins, Stephen P.
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4649

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