Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom on adolescent’s time use (CONTRAST study)
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major changes in everyone's lives, including adolescents. Given that adolescence is a crucial developmental stage, designing strategies to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 on adolescents is critical. Furthermore, there is a growing literature on the relationship between how adolescents spend their time and impact upon health, nutrition, educational attainment and overall well-being outcomes, and the existence of a socioeconomic gradient with how time is allocated. Therefore, this study explored changes in adolescents' time use during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK and the relationship between these changes and individual-level socioeconomic indicators including family affluence, free school meal eligibility, and food insecurity. METHODS: The data were collected from 11-15-year-olds using an online survey, which contained questions on demographic characteristics, socioeconomic indicators, and time use across a range of activities before and during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Changes in time use in relation to socioeconomic indicators were explored using descriptive and regression analysis. RESULTS: 687 adolescents completed the survey. There was an overall decrease in the amount of time spent on school work, an increase in screen time, and an increase in sleep duration during the week. Descriptive analysis showed evidence of inequalities with changes in time use. In adjusted regression analyses, family affluence was associated with a greater increase in time spent on socialising with household members and a decrease in time spent on exercise. Free school meal eligibility and experience of food insecurity were associated with an increase in sleep duration. DISCUSSION: This study contributes to the body of evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people and suggests that some of the pre-lockdown inequalities in time allocation were attenuated as a result of the lockdown. Furthermore, the results underscore the need for longer term surveillance to monitor changes in time use in adolescents to mitigate the impact on outcomes over the life course.
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Lockdown may have had a leveling effect on associations between social media use and loneliness.
“Moreover, lockdown may have had a leveling effect on associations between social media use and loneliness: patterns of usage that previously differentiated lonely from nonlonely individuals may not have done so at a time when the entire population had drastically fewer activities with which to fill their leisure time. 38”
From Social media use, online experiences, and loneliness among young adults: A cohort study (2025) · cites this paper as [38]
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References 49 · Cited by 2
- Authors
- Pokhilenko, I., Frew, E., Murphy, M., & Pallan, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Pokhilenko, Irina
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2025-01-16
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- e0310597
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC11737780
- OpenAlex
- W4406484012
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2
- FWCI
- 2.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (Impact Acceleration Account Urgency Fund)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Social impacts of COVID-19
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Education › Education during COVID-19 pandemic
- Keywords
- COVID-19 lockdown, adolescent time use, screen time, sleep duration, family affluence, food insecurity, socioeconomic disparities, school work, physical activity, socializing, youth welfare
- MeSH terms
- Screen Time, Food Insecurity, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adolescent, Child, Communicable Disease Control, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Quarantine, Surveys and Questionnaires, Schools, Sleep, Socioeconomic Factors, Time Factors, Pandemics
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