Use of time and children’s behavior at the time of COVID

In this paper, we study the effect of time use on children’s behaviors six months after the lock down in Italy, in October 2020, when infections were growing again and new restrictions were going to be imposed. In particular, we look at the effect of usages of time that have increased or decreased due to the pandemic: recent literature shows that time with parents and time with digital devices has increased, while time with other peers and in extracurricular activities has decreased. Have these changes affected children’s non-cognitive development? Through what channels has inequality among children grown? By using representative data on one thousand 9-year-old Italian children, we find that children benefit from participation in extracurricular activities, that the suspension or reduction of these activities has not canceled out their benefits The time spent on digital devices is, instead, correlated with more behavioral problems. Finally, time spent with dads in stimulating activities leads to improved behaviors. These three usages of time, however, are distributed differently across households, thereby posing questions about inequality.