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Overscheduled Kids, Underconnected Families: The Research Evidence

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• Changes in Children's and Families' Time
• Value of Family Meals for Children and Youth

April 2005
Prepared by William J. Doherty, Ph.D.
Family Social Science Department, University of Minnesota

Changes in Children's and Families' Time

1. A major decline in the free time of children ages 3-12 between 1981 and 1997. (Findings from national time diary surveys conducted in 1981 and 1997 by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan.¹   All findings reported below are from this study unless otherwise footnoted.  Unfortunately, there are no more recent comprehensive studies like this one.)
   • Free time: 12 hours per week decline in overall free time for children
   • Playtime: Decreased by three hours per week (a 25% drop from about 16 hours to about 13 hours for the whole group —less than 9 hours per week for older children).
   • Unstructured outdoor activities: Fell by 50% (includes activities such as walking, hiking or camping)
2. Decline in family and religious participation time
   • Household conversations: dropped by 100%, which means that in 1997 the average American family spent no time per week when talking as a family was the primary activity.  (The 1981 baseline was not high, however.)  Overall, children in 1997 averaged about 45 minutes per week in conversation with anyone in the family, when the conversation was the primary activity.
   • Family meal time: declined by about 10 percent from 1981-1997, from about 9 hours per week to about 8 hours per week.
   • Family dinners: A 33% decrease over three decades in families who say they definitely have dinner regularly as a whole family. (This finding is from repeated annual surveys of American families.2)  In a 1995 national poll, only one-third of U.S. families said they "usually have their evening meal together on a daily basis."²   But family meals may be making a comeback; a poll that tracked adolescents from 1998-2004 found a 28 percent increase in families having dinner together 5 or more times per week.9
   • Vacations: A 28% decrease over two decades in number of families taking a vacation (from annual surveys of American families).³
   • Religious participation: a decline of 40% in hours per week in children's (ages 3-12) religious participation time from 1981-19971; and a decline of 24% of high school students with weekly religious attendance (from 40% in 1981 to 31% in 1997, based on annual surveys of high school students4).
3. Major increases from 1981-1997 in children's time
   • Structured sports: doubled from 2 hours, 20 minutes per week to 5 hours, 17 minutes per week from 1981-1997. Boys and girls increased equally in structured sports time, but boys spent still spent twice as much time as girls in sports.
   • Passive, spectator leisure (not counting television or other forms of "screen time"): five fold increase from 30 minutes per week to over three hours per week. This includes watching siblings play structured sports.
   • Studying: increased by almost 50% from 1981-1997.

Value of Family Meals for Children and Youth

1. Young Children and Meal Time at Home. The University of Michigan study of children's time found that more meal time at home was the single strongest predictor of better achievement scores and fewer behavioral problems. Meal time was more powerful than time spent in school, studying, church, playing sports, or art activities. (Results were statistically controlled for age and gender of child, race and ethnicity, education and age of the head of the family, family structure and employment, income, and family size.)¹
2. Adolescents and Family Dinners: National Study. The largest federally funded study of American teenagers found a strong association between regular family meals (five or more dinners per week with a parent) and academic success, psychological adjustment, and lower rates of alcohol use, drug use, early sexual behavior, and suicidal risk. (Results held for both one parent and two parent families and after controlling for social class factors).⁵
3. Adolescents and Family Meals: Twin Cities Study. A large study of Minneapolis/St. Paul metro adolescents found that having more family meals was associated with less tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use; higher grade point average; fewer depressive symptoms; and less risk for suicide. The findings held after the researchers statistically controlled for the level of family connectedness; in other words, family meals conveyed benefits beyond the teen's general sense of how close the family is. They also controlled for age, family structure, race, and social class.⁶
4. Regular family dinners and nutritional intake. A medical study of children ages 9-14 found that children who have more regular dinners with their families have more healthful dietary patterns, including more fruits and vegetables, less saturated and trans fat, fewer fried foods and sodas, and more vitamins and other micro-nutrients. (Findings were based on children's own reports of what they ate in the last 24 hours, and held up after statistical controls for household income, maternal employment, body mass index, physical activity, and other factors.)⁷