IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp16437.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Teen Social Interactions and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Kalenkoski, Charlene M.

    (James Madison University)

  • Pabilonia, Sabrina Wulff

    (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Abstract

Adolescence is an important developmental period when teens begin spending less time with their parents and more time with friends and others outside their households as they transition into adulthood. Using the 2017–2021 American Time Use Surveys and the 2012, 2013, and 2021 Well-being Modules, we examine how the time teens spent alone and with parents, friends, and others changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, shedding light on how the social isolation of the pandemic disrupted this crucial development period. We also examine how time spent on various activities changed during the pandemic. Teens spent more time alone during the pandemic than before and spent more of their leisure time alone, with large increases in time spent playing computer games, on social media, and watching TV. Results suggest that socializing and communicating with others improves teens' well-being over other activities. Thus, teens' well-being was severely impacted by the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Kalenkoski, Charlene M. & Pabilonia, Sabrina Wulff, 2023. "Teen Social Interactions and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IZA Discussion Papers 16437, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16437
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp16437.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthias Doepke & Giuseppe Sorrenti & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2019. "The Economics of Parenting," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 55-84, August.
    2. Abi Adams-Prassl & Teodora Boneva & Marta Golin & Christopher Rauh, 2022. "The impact of the coronavirus lockdown on mental health: evidence from the United States," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 37(109), pages 139-155.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Falk, Armin & Abeler, Johannes & Kosse, Fabian, 2021. "Malleability of preferences for honesty," CEPR Discussion Papers 16164, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Ekaterina Hertog & Muzhi Zhou, 2021. "Japanese adolescents' time use: The role of household income and parental education," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(9), pages 225-238.
    3. Matthias Doepke & Giuseppe Sorrenti & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2019. "The Economics of Parenting," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 55-84, August.
    4. Brenøe, Anne Ardila & Epper, Thomas, 2022. "Parenting values and the intergenerational transmission of time preferences," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    5. Jeong, Soyun & Fox, Ashley M., 2023. "Enhanced unemployment benefits, mental health, and substance use among low-income households during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    6. Ana Bravo-Moreno, 2021. "The Intersection of Reproductive, Work-Life Balance and Early-Education and Care Policies: ‘Solo’ Mothers by Choice in the UK and Spain," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-29, November.
    7. John A. List & Fatemeh Momeni & Yves Zenou, 2020. "The Social Side of Early Human Capital Formation: Using a Field Experiment to Estimate the Causal Impact of Neighborhoods," Working Papers 2020-187, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    8. Vincent Boucher & Carlo L. Del Bello & Fabrizio Panebianco & Thierry Verdier & Yves Zenou, 2023. "Education Transmission and Network Formation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(1), pages 129-173.
    9. repec:hal:wpaper:hal-03740701 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Molina, Teresa & Cho, Yoon Y., 2024. "The Importance of Existing Social Protection Programs for Mental Health in Pandemic Times," IZA Discussion Papers 16737, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Bingley, Paul & Cappellari, Lorenzo & Tatsiramos, Konstantinos, 2022. "Parental assortative mating and the intergenerational transmission of human capital," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    12. Ubaldi, Michele & Picchio, Matteo, 2023. "Intergenerational scars: The impact of parental unemployment on individual health later in life," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1271, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. Dunfrey Pires Aragão & Andouglas Gonçalves da Silva Junior & Adriano Mondini & Cosimo Distante & Luiz Marcos Garcia Gonçalves, 2023. "COVID-19 Patterns in Araraquara, Brazil: A Multimodal Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-21, March.
    14. Gordon B Dahl & Christina Felfe & Paul Frijters & Helmut Rainer, 2022. "Caught between Cultures: Unintended Consequences of Improving Opportunity for Immigrant Girls," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(5), pages 2491-2528.
    15. Jorge Luis García & James J. Heckman, 2023. "Parenting Promotes Social Mobility Within and Across Generations," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 15(1), pages 349-388, September.
    16. Ao, Xiang & Chen, Xuan & Zhao, Zhong, 2022. "Is care by grandparents or parents better for children's non-cognitive skills? Evidence on locus of control from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    17. Ahammer, Alexander & Glogowsky, Ulrich & Halla, Martin & Hener, Timo, 2023. "The Parenthood Penalty in Mental Health: Evidence from Austria and Denmark," IZA Discussion Papers 16459, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Brenøe, Anne Ardila & Epper, Thomas, 2019. "Parenting Values Moderate the Intergenerational Transmission of Time Preferences," Economics Working Paper Series 1917, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    19. Xiaodong Zheng & Yanran Zhou, 2024. "Are migrants a threat? Migrant children and human capital investments among local households in urban China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    20. Hashibul Hassan & Asad Islam & Abu Siddique & Liang Choon Wang, 2024. "Telementoring and Homeschooling During School Closures: a Randomised Experiment in Rural Bangladesh," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(662), pages 2418-2438.
    21. Rauh, C. & Renée, L., 2021. "Parenting Types," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2110, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    teens; adolescents; COVID-19; well-being; time use; gaming;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16437. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.