| By: |
Meroni, Elena Claudia (European Commission, Joint Research Centre);
Piazzalunga, Daniela (University of Verona);
Pronzato, Chiara D. (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: |
In this paper, we study the effects of extra-school activities on children's
non-cognitive development, using data from the Millennium Cohort Study (UK)
and focusing on children aged 7-11 years old. We classify the time spent out
of school into six homogenous groups of activities, using principal component
analysis, and estimate the relationship thereof with five behavioural
dimensions drawn from the Strength and Difficulties questionnaire, exploiting
the panel structure of the data. Results show the beneficial effects on
children's behaviour of sports, school-related activities, time with parents
and household chores, while a small detrimental effect of video-screen time is
detected. We test the robustness of our estimates against omitted variable
bias, and the results are confirmed. We also observe that children from more
advantaged backgrounds have easier access to more beneficial activities.
Overall, our results suggest that different uses of time may reinforce
inequalities across children from different backgrounds. |
| Keywords: |
child time use, extra-curricular activities, Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire, longitudinal data, Millennium Cohort Study, non-cognitive development, omitted variable bias |
| JEL: |
J13 D1 |
| Date: |
2018–06 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11606&r=spo |