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Free‐Time Activities in Middle Childhood: Links with Adjustment in Early Adolescence
Author(s) -
McHale Susan M.,
Crouter Ann C.,
Tucker Corinna J.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8624.00377
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , child development , adolescent development
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.