Abstract
This paper uses individual-level data from both the 2003–2011 American Time Use Survey and Youth Risk Behavior Survey along with state-level unemployment rates to examine the effects of a weakening economy during the Great Recession on U.S. teenagers’ activities. Black male teenagers had less sex and spent more time with their parents. Hispanic male teenagers spent less time playing sports and more time watching time TV, and were more likely to be obese. Female teenagers, on the other hand, spent less time working, but made greater investments in their education. However, there were signs that female teenagers were stressed by the weak economic conditions, because they slept less and were more likely to smoke daily. Black females also consumed more alcohol.
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Notes
Height and weight were not reported before 1999. Therefore, it is possible to examine the effects of changes in economic conditions on the probability of being overweight or obese only between 1999 and 2011.
Height and weight were self-reported by students. Overweight is defined as greater than or equal to 85 % on the body-mass-index (BMI) percentile chart based upon age and gender. Obese is defined as greater than or equal to 95 % on the BMI percentile chart based upon age and gender.
For the labor force questions, the reference period in the ATUS is the 7 days prior to the interview with interviews occurring throughout the month while the reference period in the CPS is the week including the 12th of the month. Thus, the recall period is shorter in the ATUS. This difference could impact the analyses in this paper as many teenagers work sporadically at jobs such as babysitting and lawn mowing. The CPS reference week was chosen to avoid holidays. Frazis and Stewart (2004) found that average weekly hours were greater during CPS reference weeks than non-CPS reference weeks. Thus, the reference week is not representative of the entire month.
For consistency across years, when examining parental supervision, I did not include any time when the teen was doing paid work.
Youths interviewed from Memorial Day through Labor Day are excluded from the sample, because many teenagers are on summer vacation and the YRBS covered risky behaviors occurring during the school year.
Online appendix Table A2 explains the sample selection criteria.
However, a three-month rate produced similar estimates.
The wage and tax were adjusted for inflation using the CPI-U/100 (base year 1982–84).
The year effects absorb the effects of the national business cycle.
Physical activity could change because of changes in recreational sports or work-related exertion over the business cycle. For example, Colman and Dave (2011) found that among low-educated adult males, total physical exertion declined as work-related exertion due to job-loss decreased more than recreational sports, TV-watching, sleeping, childcare, and housework increased during the Great Recession.
When examining the probability of being employed or working on the diary day, I estimate linear probability models.
The ATUS collects only secondary childcare time for children under the age of 13. I also examined an alternative measure as the sum of both parents’ time with children (as suggested in Folbre et al. 2005), with similar results.
Estimates for all the covariates in this specification are in online Appendix Table A7.
Ninety-three percent of the sample had a proxy response in the CPS.
I also examined housework; but teens do little housework, and all the effects were insignificant.
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Acknowledgments
All views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The author would like to thank Charlene Kalenkoski, Melinda Sandler Morrill, Younghwan Song, Jay Stewart and participants at the 2011 International Perspectives on Time Use Conference at the University of Maryland and 2014 Society of Labor Economists’ Annual Meeting for useful suggestions.
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Pabilonia, S.W. Teenagers’ risky health behaviors and time use during the great recession. Rev Econ Household 15, 945–964 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-015-9297-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-015-9297-6