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Free-Time Activities in Middle Childhood: Links with Adjustment in Early Adolescence
Abstract
This study assessed links between free-time activities in middle childhood (hobbies, sports, toys and games, outdoor play, reading, television viewing, and hanging out) and school grades, conduct, and depression symptoms both concurrently and 2 years later, in early adolescence. It also explored two mechanisms that might underlie activity–adjustment links: whether the social contexts of children's activities mediate these links, child effects explain these connections, or both. Participants were 198 children (M= 10.9 years, SD= .54 years) in Year 1, and their parents. In home interviews in Years 1 and 3 of the study, mothers rated children's conduct problems, children reported on their depression symptoms, and information was collected on school grades from report cards. In seven evening phone interviews, children reported on the time they spent in free-time activities during the day of the call and their companions in each activity. Links were found between the nature of children's free-time activities and their adjustment. The social contexts of free-time activities explained activity–adjustment links to a limited degree; with respect to child effects, evidence also suggested that better adjusted children became more involved in adaptive activities over time.
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“Fourteen studies identified in this systematic scoping review measured both ST and GT [234–238, 242–250].”
From Psychological impacts of “screen time” and “green time” for children and adolescents: A systematic scoping review (2020) · cites this paper as [242]
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Metadata
- Authors
- McHale, S. M., Crouter, A. C., & Tucker, C. J.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of New Hampshire (US)
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2001-11-01
- Volume
- 72
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1764-1778
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8624
- OpenAlex
- W2037109108
- Cited by
- 309
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 6.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of New Hampshire Scholars Repository (University of New Hampshire at Manchester) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD32336-02, R01HD032336)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Youth Development and Social Support
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management › Recreation, Leisure, Wilderness Management
- Keywords
- leisure, middle childhood, early adolescence, child adjustment, school grades, conduct problems, depressive symptoms, hobbies, sport, outdoor play, television viewing, reading, toys and games, child effects, peer companionship
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Child, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Leisure Activities, Male, Parents, Social Adjustment, Socioeconomic Factors
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