Gendered adolescent time use in Japan, Korea, Finland, and the United Kingdom across three decades

Background: Little is known about gendered adolescent time allocation across East Asian and Western contexts across time. East Asian societies have distinct Confucian-based parenting practices and time use. Examining these contexts helps us understand factors contributing to adult gender inequality and the levels of universalisation or divergence in time patterns. Methods: Using harmonised time diaries, we examine the gendered differences in time spent on sleep/personal care, education, TV/radio, general leisure, sports/exercise, and domestic work in South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Finland across three decades (1985–1990, 1991–2000, 2001–2010). Results: There are minimal gender gaps in sleep/personal care and education. Globally, girls spend more time on domestic work, and there is a rise in general leisure across decades, but gender gaps have not narrowed across time. Gender gaps in East Asia are most pronounced in sports/exercise and leisure, but gender gaps in domestic work are larger in Western societies. Over time, the gender gaps in East Asia remain stable, showing slower progress than in Western contexts. Conclusions: Across contexts, gender gaps are smallest in ‘essential’ activities, but there are distinct gender gaps in East Asian and Western contexts. The persistent gender gaps in East Asia across time reflect persistent adult gender inequality, but we find that gender gaps are not necessarily smaller in more gender-equal societies. Contribution: We contribute findings about adolescents’ time use in East Asian and Western contexts, which is rarely studied due to data limitations. We also extend previous work by using contexts over three decades.