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TOPICS COVERED: There's so much discussion in the media about the "overscheduled child," but frankly, we don't buy it. Scheduled? Yes. But time use scholar Sandra Hofferth once remarked in an interview that yes, kids were busy, but they still spent an awful lot of time in front of the television. That pretty much solved it for us. But looking further, we saw that time use and how people raise children generally varies tremendously. In less developed countries where children are still at work in the fields and factories, economics play a huge role. But in more developed countries, the economic effect, which we originally had presumed was huge, but may not be as big as we first thought. But family structure, differences in between parents' educational, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds – even their ages – and larger societal expectations, all dramatically effect how parents raise their children. And if you think your kid spends all his time in front of a computer – that, too, has a huge effect.
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| The courts still use maternal preferences for determining child custody, but have slowly turned to looking at the best interest of the child to mean what is nurturing. For example, in 1968, the Supreme Court invalidated a state law which precluded illegitimate children from suing for the wrongful death of their mother; she raised them, “nurtured them,” and their legal status shouldn’t invalidate that. In 1972, the Supremes overturned a state law that an unmarried father of children is automatically an unfit parent and removed the children from the father’s care if the mother died (even if he’d raised them from day one). 1.
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| U.S. Courts generally have a presumption that parents have a natural affection, will nurture their children and will act in the best interests of their children. 2.
But “best” does not actually mean best for the child. As Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia explained in one decision:
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| "The best interests of the child," a venerable phrase familiar from divorce proceedings, is a proper and feasible criterion for making the decision as to which of two parents will be accorded custody. But it is not traditionally the sole criterion - much less the sole constitutional criterion - for other, less narrowly channeled judgments involving children, where their interests conflict in varying degrees with the interests of others. Even if it were shown, for example, that a particular couple desirous of adopting a child would best provide for the child's welfare, the child would nonetheless not be removed from the custody of its parents so long as they were providing for the child adequately. Similarly, "the best interests of the child" is not the legal standard that governs parents' or guardians' exercise of their custody: So long as certain minimum requirements of child care are met, the interests of the child may be subordinated to the interests of other children, or indeed even to the interests of the parents or guardians themselves. 3.
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| What and who is nurturing has meant a whole other set of problems: that is, who/what is a parent/family? Designation of someone as a parent brings with them the legal responsibility to care for the child, it also means they get the fruit of a child’s labor. (Yes, still. There are only a couple states that have laws requiring trust funds for child actors, etc.), and host of other privileges and responsibilities. 4.
In the late 1960s, the Supreme Court began to recognize that the child has at least some rights under the U.S. Constitution: they can have a lawyer for a juvenile proceeding, they have some first amendment rights. But, as they explained in 1979,
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| “A child, merely on account of his minority, is not beyond the protection of the Constitution. As the Court said . . . "whatever may be their precise impact, neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the Bill of Rights is for adults alone." This observation, of course, is but the beginning of the analysis. The Court long has recognized that the status of minors under the law is unique in many respects. As Mr. Justice Frankfurter aptly put it: "Children have a very special place in life which law should reflect. Legal theories and their phrasing in other cases readily lead to fallacious reasoning if uncritically transferred to determination of a State's duty towards children." . . . . The unique role in our society of the family, the institution by which "we inculcate and pass down many of our most cherished values, moral and cultural" . . . requires that constitutional principles be applied with sensitivity and flexibility to the special needs of parents and children. We have recognized three reasons justifying the conclusion that the constitutional rights of children cannot be equated with those of adults: the peculiar vulnerability of children; their inability to make critical decisions in an informed, mature manner; and the importance of the parental role in child rearing.” 5.
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| About 80 percent of parents of preschool-age children report having a warm relationship with their children: they frequently hug and kiss the kids, tell them "I love you," play with them at least once a week. But just 57 percent of parents of school-age children say they have a warm relationship with these older children. And it matters – a warm relationship with parents means that a child is happier, less withdrawn, and has less behavioral problems. 6.
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| HOW CHILDREN SPEND THEIR TIME:
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| In bed (68 hours), at school (32 hours) and in front of the television (14 hours). 7.
More sleep and time spent at meals –
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| Children who sleep more and spend more time at meals (usually an indicator of time spent with parents) have less behavioral problems. 8.
One hour and 22 minutes less
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| the amount of time children spent at mealtime in 2003 – seven hours and six minutes, compared to 1981's eight hours and 28 minutes. 9.
Around six hours more, each
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| Children got about six hours of sleep and spent six hours more in school in 2003 than they did in 1981: they were in school for 32 and a half hours, and they were in bed for 68 hours. 10.
About 2.2 hours a day
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| The amount of time 7-15 year-old boys in Bangladesh spend in school. 11.
About 7.9 hours a day
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| The amount of time 10-12 year-old boys in Bangladesh spend working – not much less than the adult's work day (8.2 hours). 12.
Five to six hours a week
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| The amount of time 6-17 year-old American children spend doing paid and household work. 13.
Two percent
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| Children in Orchard Town, New England spent two percent of their time doing work, while children of the same age in Nyansongo, Kenya, spent 41 percent of their time at work. 14.
Two hours more
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| the amount of time children spent doing in housework in 2003 – five hours and 43 minutes, compared to 1981's three hours and 43 minutes. 15.
Six to seven hours a day
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| The amount of time 6-17 year-old American children spend in school during the week. 16.
Only reading –
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| Between reading, studying and television, only increased time spent in reading translates to increased academic achievement. And don't tell the kids but – television may be a culprit for increased child obesity, but it does not adversely impact academic achievement. It has some negative effect, but it isn't significant. Another significant way to increase achievement – not terribly surprising – more hours in school. 17.
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| So, in a nightmarishly ironic turn of events, in the past 20 years,
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American kids have increased the amount of studying they do by an hour and 29 minutes
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| The weekly amount of time children spent studying in 2003: three hours and 58 minutes, compared to 1981's two hours and 28 minutes. 18.
but they cut the time they read by 10 minutes.
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| They only read for 1.3 hours a week. 19.
So the one thing outside of school that really has an impact, they only do for 1.3 hours a week –
but the thing that has no impact, they do for
– 13 to 14 hours a week
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| That being, the average amount of time an American child spends watching television each week. That is about one-fourth of all free-time children have in a week (51 hours of free time each week). 20.
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More than nine out of ten
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| of U.S. children age six to 12 watch television every week. 21.
Eight out of ten
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| of U.S. children age six to 12 do housework and play every week. 22.
Two to three hours
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| Each week, children in East Asia study about two to three hours a week more than their North American counterparts; for them, those hours are leisure time. 23.
More organized fun
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| While children in North America have more leisure time than children in East Asia, they spend more time in structured activities, especially sports. 24.
11 percent
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| Amount of time U.S. elementary school children spent in structured activities (e.g. sports, art, church, social activities) in 1981. 25.
20-22 percent
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| Amount of time U.S. elementary school children spent in structured activities (e.g. sports, art, church, social activities) in 1997. 26.
"No evidence" –
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| According to children's time use scholar Sandra L. Hofferth, there is no evidence that a child is harmed by having a schedule full of organized activities. Instead, the reverse may be the case, because they find confidence in their ability to master activities. 27.
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| HOW PARENTS EFFECT CHILDREN'S TIME USE:
An educated parent increases –
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| the amount of time a child spends reading, studying and doing housework. 28.
A higher parental income –
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| has really no effect on the way a child spends their time. Wealthier children spend slightly less time watching television, and slightly more time eating, but the differences are not as significant as those from other factors (such as race, education, family size, parental age). 29.
Children of single-parents –
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| read less, play more sports, have lower test scores, and more behavioral problems. 30.
Children in larger families –
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| play more on their own, are involved in more sports, and get lower test scores than children in smaller families. 31.
The difference between having both parents work and a stay-at-home mom –
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| In terms of time use, compared to children with a stay-at-home-mom, children of two-working parents:
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| spend more time in school,
spend less time at home playing,
watch less television,
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| A child watches a half hour of television less each week, for every year of additional education the head of the household has. 33.
12-14 hours more
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| Children of two-parent homes spend 12 to 14 hours a week more with their parents each week, than do children of single mothers. For children under the age of 13. 34.
No effect –
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| The head of the household's educational attainment or income level do not effect the amount of time children spend playing or in organized sports. 35.
You wish –
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| Sorry, but children don't do more housework, just because their mothers have jobs. 36.
Less time in church –
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| Compared to a father-breadwinner, full-time mother family, children in every other family form spend less time in church. A possible explanation for this, according to the researchers, are scheduling, but another reason they are considering is that the other families feeling less welcome in a church setting (for example, a family of a divorce or unmarried mother don't feel comfortable in a church.). 37.
An older parent –
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| Children of older parents spend more time at church and studying. 38.
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| HOW RACE, ETHNICITY AND A COMPUTER EFFECT CHILDREN'S TIME USE:
Less time playing –
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| U.S. Black, Hispanic, and Asian children all spend less time playing than do non-Hispanic white children. 39.
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| U.S. black children, compared to the other racial groups. The time they spend in church appears to be the additional time that the non-Hispanic white children have for play. 40.
More time in doing housework –
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| U.S. Hispanic children, compared to the other racial groups. The time they spend doing housework appears to be the additional time that the non-Hispanic white children have for play. 41.
More time in reading and watching television –
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| U.S. Asian children, compared to the other racial groups. The time they spend doing reading and watching television appears to be the additional time that the non-Hispanic white children have for play. 42.
More time in school –
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| Black children in the U.S. spend more time in school than other racial groups. 43.
More time studying –
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| U.S. Black, Hispanic, and Asian children all spend more time studying than do non-Hispanic white children. 44.
More time watching television –
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| U.S. Black and Asian children watch more television than non-Hispanic white children: black children watch 2 and 2/3 hours more and Asians watch five hours more than white children. 45.
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| 15 to 17 year old U.S. teens without a computer get 10 more hours of sleep a week than 15-17 year-olds with a computer and the internet. 46.
Seven and a half hours a week more –
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| 15 to 17 year-old teenagers in the U.S. without a computer watch about seven and a half hours more of t.v. a week than 15-17 year-old with a computer and the internet. 47.
A hour and a half more –
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| 15 to 17 year-old teens with a computer and access to the internet take about an hour and a half longer to eat each week, than those without a computer. 48.
So much for kids with computers never leaving the videogame:
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| 15 to 17 year olds with the computer and the internet spend more time doing sports and outdoor activities than their computer-less peers, by an hour and 37 minutes each week. 49.
And the days of computer whiz = social geek may be over, too –
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| 15 to 17 year olds with a computer and the internet spend about socialized an extra hour and 20 minutes compared to their computer-less peers. 50.
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| Average number of hours a U.S. preschool-aged child spends, each week, in some form of regularly arranged child care, if his mother is not employed. 51.
36
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| Average number of hours a U.S. preschool-aged child spends, each week, in some form of regularly arranged child care, if his mother is employed. 52.
19 percent
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| of U.S. grade school-aged children who have working mothers are in enrichment programs at least once a week, compared to just 10.5 percent of children whose mothers are not employed. 53.
7.7 percent
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| of U.S. grade school-aged children who have working mothers are in sports programs at least once a week, compared to five percent of children whose mothers are not employed. 54.
Left to their own devices –
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| Beginning to attend school at the age of seven, children in Finland go to school by themselves, and then, after school, they spend the rest of the day by themselves or with friends. Since, compared to the supervised schedule in other European nations, some see this as neglect, there has been some movement to provide supervised programs for the seven and eight year olds. 55.
5.8 million
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| U.S. grade school-aged children care for themselves, without adult supervision, on a regular basis. That's 15 percent of all grade-school aged children in the U.S. 56.
"No evidence" –
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| There is no evidence that children's self-care is inherently harmful to children. Instead, it depends on the maturity of the individual child. 57.
18.6 percent
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| of U.S. grade school-aged children, with working mothers, care for themselves, without adult supervision, on a regular basis, compared to 7.1 percent of children who care for themselves, but their mothers are not employed. 58.
2.8 percent
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| of the U.S. children five to eight years old with working mothers, care for themselves, without adult supervision, on a regular basis. 59.
15.1 percent
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| of the U.S. children 11 to 13 years old with working mothers, care for themselves, without adult supervision, on a regular basis. 60.
39.3 percent
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| of the U.S. children 12 to 14 years old with working mothers, care for themselves, without adult supervision, on a regular basis. 61.
Five hours a week
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| Of the U.S. children five to 11 years old who regularly care for themselves, they average about five hours a week on their own. 62.
Seven hours a week
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| In West Africa, from as soon as they can walk, children are given increasing responsibilities – beginning with small errands around the house to then farming tasks. While the children's work is an important contribution to the family's finances, this is the core method for teaching children their roles, and skills. 64.
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| In Kenya, 5-year old children take care of infants, for 3-year-old boys to drive cows, and 8-year-old girls cook the family dinner – but they have difficulty with simple cognitive tests, such as telling a story. American children couldn't do any of the household tasks given to the Kenyan children, but they have no problem with the cognitive tasks. 65.
Are the parents supposed to be the children's teachers?
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| In studies, "educated middle-class Anglo-American mothers are found to consider it important to provide early stimulation to children, even during pregnancy, whereas lower-class Black mothers think it is the school's job to ‘teach children.’ Similarly, Mexican -American mothers do not see themselves as ‘teachers,’ but Chinese and Japanese mothers coach and give specific instructions regarding school work.” 66.
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| “Whether there is extensive verbalization with the child may also have something to do with some general cultural conceptions of childhood. Specifically, whether or not caregivers see themselves in an active, child development-oriented, consciously goal-directed ‘childrearing’ role appears to be important. This type of self-role definition is common among educated middle-class (especially Western and particularly American) parents. In contrast . . . Indian caregivers emphasize pleasure between adult and child and experience little pressure to mold the child in a given direction." 67.
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| ". . . many less-educated, traditional Turkish mothers, talk about the child growing-up (büyür), rather than being brought up (yetistirilir). If they mention childrearing, it is more in the sense of enabling the physical growth of the child (büyütmek)(the root verb büyü-mek means literally ‘to get bigger.’”)." 68.
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| “Most ethnic minorities in the industrialized countries of Europe, North America, and Australia are rather recent immigrants from less developed countries and especially from their rural areas . . . [where] a socially rather than a cognitively oriented conception of competence is valued, stressing conformity – obedience goals, and early learning in the family is based mainly on observation and imitation." 69.
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| “Indeed, research with ethnic minority families points to this type of parental conception and finds a misfit between this cultural conception of competence and that of the school culture in the host society . . . . immigrant Mexican parents in the United States believe, erroneously, that if their children are quiet and obedient and listen to the teacher, then they will succeed in school. . . . immigrant parents from Cambodian, Mexico, the Philippines, and Vietnam, noncognitive characteristics (i.e., motivation, social skills, and practical school skills) were as important as or more important than cognitive characteristics (problem-solving skills, verbal ability, creative ability) to their conceptions of an ‘intelligent first-grade child’– but not for Anglo-American parents. Furthermore, parents’ beliefs about the importance of conformity correlated negatively with children’s school performance, and American-born parents favored developing autonomy over conformity.” 70.
73 percent
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| of mothers in Turkey will not tolerate a child interrupting an adult conversation. 71.
40 percent
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| of mothers in Turkey say that they never, almost never, or seldom give children their full attention, other than at meal times. 90 percent of the mothers do household chores when their kids are home, and have little direct interaction with their children. 72.
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| “. . . compared to Western children in the United States, France, and Russia, non-Western children reach the two-word sequence of linguistic development at a substantially slower pace. He [this scholar] attributed this difference to the lower density of language addressed to young children in non-Western cultures.” 73.
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| “. . . less educated Hispanic mothers typically used less verbal interaction with their young children, less praise, and less inquiring, but more modeling, directives, and negative physical control than Anglo mothers. [A study] found differences between Hispanic and Anglo children’s performance . . . as early as 2 1/2 years of age, showing the importance of early language development. Similarly, [another study] noted the lack of decontextualized communication and play with young children in Black families in the United States. She indicated that this factor explains why Black infants who surpass White infants in early sensory-motor intelligence fall behind in later language-based cognitive performance.” 74.
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