LATENT TYPES OF CHILDREN’S TIME USE: DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES

It seems that the unbalanced life of the children in South Korea is taken for granted, as shown by the fact that as children advance to a higher grade, they spend less time playing on the playground and spend infinite time studying behind a desk. Some argue that this level of academic demands has been the driving force of the rapid growth of South Korea, but it must be remembered that there are only 24 hours in a day, and if one spends much time engaging in some activities, one will have less time engaging in some other activities. It is obvious that the mental and physical health and development of children may be hampered if they will not get enough sleep or exercise because of the excessive academic demands on them and the need for them to prepare well for the rigid entrance examinations. In this context, this study aimed to provide the directions for the advocacy of the rights of children by understanding the context of the lifestyle of the children in South Korea according to their time use. For this purpose, the children’s time use was categorized into latent types, and the factors affecting the latent types of children’s time use and the correlations among the latent types of children’s time use and the children’s development outcomes in elementary, junior high, and high school were analyzed.

The study data were obtained from the Survey on Children’s Time Use in South Korea by ChildFund Korea. The survey was conducted among 1,000 students: 271 from elementary school, 361 from junior high school, and 368 from high school. The data were then subjected to descriptive analysis, latent profile analysis (LPA), multinominal logistic model analysis, and ANOVA via SPSS 22.0 and Mplus 7.31.