Productive Time Use among College Students: Testing the Time Trade-off Hypothesis

• In Event: 352 - Section on Children and Youth Paper Session. Children's Time Use: Theory and Application

Abstract

Everyday college students make decisions about how to allocate their time between academics, employment, and other activities. The time trade-off hypothesis suggests that activities compete for students’ time, with extracurricular activities such as employment reducing time available for academics. Yet, few studies have examined how college students allocate their time between multiple activities across days and semesters. The current study sought to fill this gap using longitudinal daily data from a sample of college students (n=644) that was followed for 14 consecutive days within each of 7 consecutive semesters (for up to 98 diary days per student). The aims of the study were twofold: A) To explore demographic correlates of productive time use (i.e., academic, employment, and organized activity time), and B) To provide a rigorous test of the time trade-off hypothesis. Results demonstrated that time use varied by gender, parental education, degree of financial contribution, immigrant generational status, and race/ethnicity. Furthermore, multi-level models testing the time trade-off hypothesis were mixed: Employment was linked to less time spent on academics across days and semesters whereas organized activities was only associated with less time on academics at the daily level. Results suggest that students may balance certain activities across days, whereas other activities may be in competition over longer time frames (i.e., semesters).

Authors

• Kaylin Greene, Montana State University

• Jennifer Maggs, Pennsylvania State University