Experts challenge popular belief that today's children are 'over-scheduled'
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:
Leading child development experts are challenging the popular notion that today's children are "over-scheduled" as a result of the hurried and stressful lives from participating in too many organized activities.
In fact, an analysis of new data from a national study and a review of the scientific evidence by three scientific experts, as well as commentaries by three other top child development experts, concludes that children participate in organized activities because they enjoy them, they are exciting, they provide encouragement and support from friends and peers, they are challenging and they increase self worth.
The report also highlights that youth who participate in organized activities show healthier functioning than those who do not participate, in areas such as academic success, substance use, and the quality of relationships with their parents.
There is scant support for the over-scheduling hypothesis and considerable support for the positive youth development perspective."
On the other hand there can be powerful draws from work," according to Luthar, who looked at the evidence on over-scheduling among children of well-to-do families.
Luthar acknowledges the need for more research on parenting and child development in high-income families, but concludes that the distress seen among rich kids is not mainly because of over-scheduling.
The paper by Roth looked at the evidence on patterns of participation in extra-curricular activities.
On average, White and Black youth spent about 5 hours a week in organized activities, approximately the same amount of time they spent on out-of-school educational activities.
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