How is Adolescents’ Time Allocation Associated with their Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy? Evidence from Four Developing Countries
Adolescents’ time allocation is an important determinant of non-cognitive skills formation, but evidence from developing countries is limited. This study builds upon two previous studies using data from four developing countries. I estimate how adolescents’ time allocation determines their self-esteem and self-efficacy – two measures of non-cognitive skills – and I show how these estimates are sensitive to trade-offs across different types of activities. In every country, an additional hour of domestic work that reduces time for school or study reduces children’s self-efficacy, significant for all countries except Peru. Work is most harmful for girls in India and Vietnam, but not for boys in Ethiopia. However, domestic or economic work that shifts time away from leisure is no more or less determinative of adolescents’ self-efficacy or self-esteem in all countries analyzed. Attending school and studying outside school improve both self-efficacy and self-esteem for adolescents in Peru, but are statistically insignificant in the other three countries. Overall, these findings are mainly relevant for self-efficacy compared to self-esteem. The harmful effects of adolescents’ work are contextual, depending on the activity substituted, and the country studied.
The Origins of Cognitive Skills and Non-cognitive Skills: The Long-Term Effect of in-Utero Rainfall Shocks in India
Skills are an important predictor of labour, education, and wellbeing outcomes. Understanding the origins of skills formation is important for reducing future inequalities. This paper analyses the effect of shocks in-utero on human capital outcomes in childhood and adolescence in India. Combining historical rainfall data and longitudinal data from Young Lives, we estimate the effect of rainfall shocks in-utero on cognitive and non-cognitive skills development over the first 15 years of life. We find negative effects of rainfall shocks on receptive vocabulary at age 5, and on mathematics and non-cognitive skills at age 15. The negative effects on cognitive skills are driven by boys, while the effect for both cognitive and non-cognitive skills are driven by children of parents with lower education, suggesting that prenatal shocks might exacerbate pre-existing inequalities. Our findings support the implementation of policies aiming at reducing inequalities at very early stages in life.
Does paid work during university increase students’ locus of control?
This paper examines how university students’ employment affects their non-cognitive skills development, measured by locus of control. I use longitudinal data on a cohort of young people in the United Kingdom born in 1990/91, and model students’ locus of control production function based on their engagement in employment. Students who engage in term-time paid work have 0.12 standard deviations higher locus of control than students who do not work, significant at the 5% level. Students who work between 8 and 12 hours also stand to gain the most in LOC compared to other work hours. Term-time work may help students build their non-cognitive skills.
Is more screen time bad for adolescent wellbeing?
Whether increasing hours of screen time is bad for adolescent wellbeing is still contested because research show conflicting findings from varying definitions, measures, and sub-group analyses. The present article answers this question by conceptualising four screen activities – social screen time, internet/audio content, video games or watching TV/DVDs – and examine whether more screen time is bad for adolescent wellbeing, measured by self- reported happiness and selfesteem, and parent-reported behavioural problems of the child. Using time diaries of 14-year-olds in the UK, I use linear regressions to examine these relationships by gender and parental education. My findings show that social screen time and internet/audio content are harmful to all domains of adolescent wellbeing, especially if performed on a weekday, but playing video games are not. Girls have lower self-reported wellbeing than boys in relation to screen time, but sex differences are not present in parent-reported scores. To a lesser extent, I find some evidence that adolescents with higher educated parents have lower wellbeing scores from screen time compared to lower educated parents.
Grace Chang 