The Parental Conundrum of Balancing Child Activity
Driector Sandra Hofferth's work on the "Hurried Child" featured in the Associated Press (Asbury Park Press).
As the range of activities available to the modern child rapidly accelerates, parents face the task of disentangling 'choice' and affixing the time-activity schedule. Increasingly, households are struggling to reach a balance between extra-curricular and family time. The title of an Associated Press article written by Angie Wagner, "How many activities should a 6-year-old be doing?" plays to the widely held belief that children may be struggling to cope with too many activities. However, as she points out, research by Dr. Hofferth rebuffs this theory and gives new evidence that in fact children with many activities thrive and it is the parents, rather, who struggle.
Research from Hofferth's study debunks the myth of the "Hurried Child" with empirical findings that suggests that children who were most withdrawn and exhibiting signs of low self esteem and, social withdrawal were uninvolved in activities. The research was based on the nationally representative Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) survey of children and their famililies and a qualitative study in two communities in the American Midwest.
Read Dr. Hofferth's paper “Hurried” Child: Myth vs. Reality