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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative impacts on student well-being and behavioral engagement (Shutterstock)

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

A Stanford researcher found that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance and even alienation from society. More than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive, according to the study.

Denise Pope

Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,” wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students’ views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

“The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students’ advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being,” Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

• Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

• Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

• Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as “pointless” or “mindless” in order to keep their grades up.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development,” wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or “self-reporting” methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for “typical adolescent complaining” – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

share this!

August 16, 2021

Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in

by Sara M Moniuszko

homework

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide-range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas over workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework .

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy work loads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold, says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace, says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression.

And for all the distress homework causes, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night.

"Most students, especially at these high-achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school ," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely, but to be more mindful of the type of work students go home with, suggests Kang, who was a high-school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework, I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the last two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic, making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized... sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking assignments up can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

©2021 USA Today Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Execu-Sensory & Neuropedagogy Educational Consulting Services

Providing practical, long-term solutions via neuroplastic learning connections., the balancing act homework and extracurricular lives in school-aged children.

For every generation of parents who have school age children, there is a theme that binds parents from the past to present: either there is too much homework, or too many extracurricular activities. Modern life has sped up the pace incredibly, especially in metropolitan cities around the world, making the demands after the school day on the family become even more stressful.

And it isn’t actually an unusual complaint or observation from a parent. The perception that homework has increased in recent years is supported by the results of a research study from the University of Michigan in 2000.  The Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan found that time spent on home study by 6- to 8-year-old children more than doubled between 1981 and 1997 (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2000) . Their results found a 146% increase between 1981 and 1997 in the time that six- to eight-year-old children (generally in grades K-3) spent on home study. In 1981, time diaries that were used to record homework times indicated that primary-grade children spent an average of 52 minutes studying per week; this figure increased to 128 minutes per week in 1997 (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2000). The proportional increase seemed very large because the baseline measurement—time spent on study in 1981—was very small. Moreover, the ISR study found no substantial increase in home study time over the same period for nine to twelve-year-old children (generally third to sixth graders). Their average weekly home study time was 3:22 in 1981 and 3:41 in 1997— a difference that was not large enough to achieve statistical significance. (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2000)

homework

In 2003, The Journal of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis published a study by Brian P. Gill and Steven L. Schlossman entitled,   “A Nation at Rest: The American Way of Homework .” The researchers found that the great majority of American children at all grade levels then spent less than one hour studying on a typical day—an amount that has not changed substantially in at least 20 years. High school students in the late 1940s and early 1950s studied no more than their counterparts did in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Gill and Schlossman have also concluded that changes in educational opinion on homework over the last half century prior to 2003 have had little effect on student behavior, with only two notable exceptions: a temporary increase in homework time in the decade following Sputnik, and a new willingness in the two decades before the 2000’s to assign small amounts to primary-grade students. Does this signify then that homework is dictated by current events and/or standings of students when ranked side by side their peers from other countries?

As a standard, homework recommendations from the National Education Association  conclude that, “The National PTA recommendations fall in line with general guidelines suggested by researcher Harris Cooper: 10-20 minutes per night in the first grade , and an additional 10 minutes per grade level thereafter (e.g., 20 minutes for second grade, 120 minutes for twelfth). High school students may sometimes do more, depending on what classes they take.”

They also cite that homework usually falls into one of three categories: practice, preparation, or extension; the purpose usually varies by grade. Individualized assignments that tap into students’ existing skills or interests can be motivating. At the elementary school level, homework can help students develop study skills and habits and can keep families informed about their child’s learning. At the secondary school level, student homework is associated with greater academic achievement. ( Review of Educational Research, 2006 ).

The Review of Educational Research published a comprehensive survey of all the studies on homework and achievement performed between 1987 and 2003. A strong connection was found between the two particularly in high school. In elementary grades, homework helps youngsters establish healthy study habits and keeps parents connected to what their children are doing at school. Homework in high school also lead to higher scholastic success. However, more recently in 2014, a Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter. The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education co-authored a  study  published in the Journal of Experimental Education  with Mollie Galloway and Jerusha Conner, found that too much homework is associated with:

• Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

• Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. 

• Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicated that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “ not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills ,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

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On the flipside, there are students who value time to engage in their interests and communities via extracurricular activities on top of homework. Participation in activities such as sports, clubs, private lessons, and religious activities enrich students’ lives by supporting social skills.  Several studies emphasize the benefits of extracurricular activities and homework, while others focus on the negative consequences of each. Overscheduled children may not have as much time to complete homework assignments, leading to a decline in academic achievement. According to the critics too much involvement in extracurricular activities takes away from time that could be spent studying or completing homework.  On the other hand there were many students who also felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

A bit of history on the extracurricular path into student lives.  Extracurricular activities began in the United States in the 19th century. At first they were just an additional part to the normal academic schedule for the year and usually had some practical or vocational interest that was included into the activities. The first extracurricular activities that were well known in schools started at Harvard and Yale University. They were literacy clubs that consisted of different debate clubs and Greek systems such as fraternities and sororities.

Students in American schools were the first to initiate athletic clubs which soon became popular while literacy clubs began to decline. Around the time of World War I, schools started adding clubs such as journalism, and newspaper. (Casinger, J. 2011) Now these clubs have become popular and many public high schools and grade schools have clubs for all interests. In the year 2010, about 1 in 4 students participated in academic clubs. (Miller, Zittleman, 2010).

To determine the relationship between extracurricular involvement and homework performance,  a research study was conducted by Rachel Johnson and Ryana Moulden entitled, “ A Correlational Study of Extracurricular Involvement and Homework Performance of Third Grade Students .”  Data was collected in two third grade classes for the four-week study in two elementary schools. For the first two weeks, math homework scores were recorded, and the second two weeks, language arts homework scores were recorded. No significant correlation was found between the number of hours spent in extracurricular activities and math homework performance, however the results revealed a significant negative relationship between the number of hours spent in extracurricular activities and language arts homework performance.

In his article, “Extracurricular Activities,”   Fred C. Lunenburg  states, “Extracurricular activities serve the same goals and functions as the required and elective courses in the curriculum. However, they provide experiences that are not included in formal courses of study. They allow students to apply the knowledge that they have learned in other classes and acquire concepts of democratic life.”(2010)  The positive effects that extracurricular activities have on students’ education are behavior, better grades, school completion, positive aspects to become successful adults, and a social aspect. Higher grades and positive attitudes towards school are secondary effects that extracurricular activities have on students. Self esteem can be a predictor of academic performance. Students who don’t like school won’t do as well as the students who do like school because they are not motivated to succeed. The students who don’t like school usually feel as though they are not succeeding or that they can succeed.

A study done by the United States Department of Education  revealed that, “Students who participate in extracurricular activities are three times more likely to have a grade point average of a 3.0 or higher. This is higher than students who did not participate in extracurricular activities. This is regardless of their previous background or achievement.” Students that participate in extracurricular activities also showed positive changes in students self confidence, teacher perception, and greater confidence, and then developed positive school related adult attachments. Extracurricular activities increases a students connection to school, raises their self esteem, and positive social natures.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,241 adults (of whom 457 have school-aged children) surveyed online between June 11 and 17, 2014. With parents of K-12 students reporting their children spend an average of 38.4 hours per week on scheduled activities during the school year (including school time, extra-curricular school activities and other scheduled commitments), while maintaining an average of 19.1 hours of free time , this finds America’s school-aged children with a roughly 2:1 ratio of scheduled to free/leisure time.  Perhaps not surprisingly, parents whose children have 1 5 or more hours per week of combined extracurricular and other “scheduled” time are much more likely than those whose children have under 15 hours to report feeling pressured to put their child in activities that other children are doing (21% <15 hours, 36% 15+ hours). They are then also more likely to worry their child is “over-programmed” (18% and 35%, respectively).

At the end of the day, it is a balance between time and aptitude between homework and extracurricular activities, as both are a part of character and brain development for students. In the Harris Poll where some adults see a crowded calendar, others see the opportunity for new experiences, and nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) wish they had the opportunity to have as many varied experiences as children do today. This sentiment is significantly stronger among those with school-aged children (73%) than among those without (62%).

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After-School Extracurricular Activities Participation and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Early Adolescents: Moderating Effect of Gender and Family Economic Status

1 Research Institute of Social Development, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China; nc.ude.efuws@gynap (Y.P.); moc.361@639iduohz (D.Z.)

Daniel T. L. Shek

2 Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China

Associated Data

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the first author on reasonable request.

Although Western studies showed that participation in extracurricular activities was intimately linked to adolescents’ psychological adjustment, very few studies have addressed this issue among early adolescents in China. Based on a nationally representative sample of 9672 Chinese junior high school students ( M age = 14.54 years, SD = 0.70 years), this study investigated the relationship between participation in different extracurricular activities and depressive symptoms among Chinese early adolescents, and the moderating role of gender and family economic status. Results indicated that time spent completing homework, attending extracurricular tutoring, and playing online games after school was positively related to students’ depressive symptoms, whereas time spent on participating in physical exercise was negatively associated with students’ depressive symptoms. Besides, the relationships between after-school activities participation and student depressive symptoms were moderated by gender and family economic status. The theoretical and practical implications for the arrangement of after-school activities for Chinese early adolescents are discussed.

1. Introduction

Depression is a serious mental health problem that has detrimental effects on adolescent psychosocial functioning [ 1 ]. Early adolescents are vulnerable to depression [ 2 , 3 ] because early adolescence is an important transition period from childhood to adolescence during which adolescents face challenges and stressors arising from different psychosocial domains [ 4 , 5 ]. According to the Report on National Mental Health Development in China (2019–2020), 24.6% of adolescents suffered from depression in China in 2020, with 7.4% and 17.2% with major depression and mild depression, respectively [ 6 ]. Moreover, a meta-analysis showed that the prevalence of depressive symptoms among adolescents in middle schools in mainland China was 24.3% [ 7 ]. As depressive symptoms have adverse impacts on early adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment, it is essential to identify related protective and risk factors to inform prevention and intervention directions.

Participation in extracurricular activities, such as physical exercise, could protect adolescents from depressive symptoms [ 8 ]. In the United States, after-school activities are a very important part of the public service system, which could help students effectively use their after-school time and prevent students from having behavioral problems [ 9 ]. In China, students participate in many kinds of after-school activities, including doing homework, extracurricular tutoring, attending interest classes, having physical exercise, watching TV, and surfing the Internet as well as playing online games [ 10 ]. However, very few studies have explored the relationship between participation in different extracurricular activities and student psychological adjustment. Moreover, few studies have examined moderators involved in the relationships between after-school activities and psychological well-being. Furthermore, existing studies have seldom employed nationally representative samples to examine this issue, including in China. Therefore, this study investigated the relationships between participation in extracurricular activities and depressive symptoms among a nationally representative sample of junior high school students in China, as well as the related moderators.

1.1. Types of Extracurricular Activities in China

In China, the Central Government clearly requires schools to enrich students’ extracurricular activities, reduce their academic burden, and comprehensively promote quality education, as well as to encourage students to participate in society and gain practical experience [ 11 ]. However, influenced by an examination-oriented education culture, Chinese students’ extracurricular activities are characterized by “schoolization”. In reality, the time spent on schoolwork accounts for a large proportion of Chinese students’ after-school time, and extracurricular tutoring is increasing [ 12 , 13 ]. Cross-culturally speaking, Hu [ 14 ] investigated extracurricular activities among students from China, Japan, and the United States, and found that Chinese students spent the most time on study and the least time on practical activities in their free time.

Studies showed that extracurricular activities among primary and middle school students in China mainly include learning activities and recreational activities. Wu et al. [ 15 ] investigated 5976 teenagers’ extracurricular learning in Beijing and found that extracurricular learning was mainly an extension of school learning and that participation in extracurricular tutoring (tutorial classes, family tutoring) was common. Xie and Jia [ 12 ] also reported that 45.2% of students attended various interest classes that they liked or disliked (probably arranged by their parents) on weekends and holidays. Moreover, for leisure and entertainment activities, Chen and Du [ 16 ] found that 55% of students surfed the Internet during holidays and that 59% surfed the Internet every day. Besides, many primary and middle school students showed addictive symptoms in online games [ 6 ]. In addition, 65% of students spent their holidays watching TV and movies.

1.2. Participation in After-School Activities and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Regarding the relationship between participation in after-school activities and depressive symptoms, Oberle et al. [ 17 ] found that sedentary leisure activities (such as watching TV and surfing the Internet and playing video games) were positively related to adolescent depressive symptoms, while physical sports and interest class extracurricular activities were negatively associated with adolescent depressive symptoms. Other studies also found that teenagers who were addicted to the Internet or video games or spending too much time watching TV tended to have anxiety, depression, sensitivity, withdrawal, inferiority, a lack of social courage, and behavioral problems [ 18 , 19 , 20 ].

Moreover, studies have shown that spending long hours on homework was positively related to student depressive symptoms. Yeo et al. [ 21 ] surveyed 1225 adolescents from eight secondary schools in Singapore and found that those who spent long hours doing homework or studying showed more depressive symptoms and that those who spent five hours a day doing homework on weekends showed anhedonia and anxiety symptoms. With regard to the relationship between tutoring and depressive symptoms, Kuan [ 22 ] found that although tutoring could improve students’ academic performance, it also significantly increased their risk of depression. Dui and Li [ 23 ] found that moderate tutoring could improve children’s non-cognitive ability, but excessive tutoring reduced non-cognitive ability and increased children’s depression. According to the stress theory of depression, when individuals confront stressful life events, latent negative or depressogenic self-schemas are activated in an automatic, repetitive, unintended, and uncontrollable way [ 24 ]. This leads to specific negative cognitions (automatic thoughts), including negative views of oneself, resulting in sadness and other depressive symptoms [ 24 , 25 ]. As Chinese parents generally believe that adolescence is the golden stage of life, learning is regarded as the main task of teenagers, resulting in increased academic pressure, which constitutes an important stressful life event for teenagers [ 26 ]. Fan et al. [ 27 ] investigated depressive disorder in middle school students, and found that learning burden, failure or unsatisfactory examination, and pressure of further studies were the top three stressors faced by adolescents.

On the other hand, there are studies showing that participation in physical exercise can keep individuals in a good state of mind and protect them from depressive symptoms and anxiety [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]. Physical activity is useful both in preventing chronic and degenerative diseases and for socialization, which is vital for the optimal physical and psychological development of adolescents [ 31 , 32 ]. Besides, regarding the relationship between participation in interest classes and adolescent depressive symptoms, studies suggested that art education might stimulate the right brain and promote the function of the left brain, which is beneficial to student mental health and harmonious interpersonal relationships [ 33 , 34 ].

1.3. Gender and Family Economic Status as Moderators

Due to gender differences in physiological and psychological development during adolescence, the associations of participation in different types of extracurricular activities with depressive symptoms may vary between boys and girls. First, compared with boys, girls showed more depressive symptoms when they faced stress [ 35 , 36 ]. Thus, when faced with the same academic pressure, girls may show more depression symptoms than boys. Second, due to biological sex differences and cultural expectations, boys and girls might have different interests in the use of media such as television and the Internet. Ha and Hwang [ 37 ] found gender differences in Internet addiction behaviors, with higher prevalence of Internet addiction in boys than in girls. Moreover, researchers suggested that gender might moderate the relationship between problematic Internet use and mental health. Liang et al. [ 38 ] argued that as girls spent a large amount of time chatting online and browsing social networking sites (hence leading to a reduction in social support in real life), girls might become more sensitive to a lack of interpersonal relationships. As such, problematic Internet use might be more positively associated with depressive symptoms among girls than boys. Third, with regard to the role of gender on the relationship between physical exercise and adolescent depressive symptoms, Liu [ 39 ] found that the frequency and intensity of physical exercise in boys were usually higher than in girls. Thus, relative to boys, girls could obtain higher marginal returns from physical exercise, with physical exercise having more positive effects on the mental health among girls.

In addition to gender, family economic status may moderate the association between participation in after-school extracurricular activities and depressive symptoms among early adolescents. Zhang and Wu [ 40 ] found that extra-curricular tutoring (tutorial classes, family tutoring) mainly occurs in socioeconomically middle- and high-class children. However, children from a lower class might benefit from homework, extra-curricular tutoring, and interest classes because the related activities would promote human capital, which would help them to move up the social ladder. Moreover, children with high family economic status spent more time on watching TV and surfing the Internet and playing online games than did children with low family economic status [ 41 ] probably because they have more financial resources (such as paying for the Wifi data) and less parental supervision. On the other hand, such activities may simply be “entertainment” for poor children because they usually have limited financial resource. Furthermore, studies showed that SES differences were potential correlates of physical activity among adolescents. For example, some studies found a positive relationship between families SES and participation in extra-curricular physical activity [ 32 , 42 ], whereas other studies found a negative relationship [ 43 , 44 ].

1.4. The Present Study

Although previous studies suggested that extra-curricular activities are related to adolescent development, there are several limitations of the scientific literature. First, previous literature on adolescent participation in after school activities tends to focus on structured after-school activities, with few studies investigating the relationship between unstructured after-school activities and adolescents’ well-being. Second, previous studies are predominantly Western studies with very few studies examining this issue in non-Western contexts such as China [ 45 , 46 ]. Third, the sample size in some studies was small [ 8 ]. Finally, very few studies have explored the mediators between adolescents’ participation in extracurricular activities and their development, such as gender and family economic status. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the relationship between Chinese adolescents’ participation in after-school extracurricular activities and depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating effects of gender and family economic status. Specifically, the present study attempted to answer the following five questions.

Question 1: Are there gender differences in the participation in different kinds of extra-curricular activities and depression in early adolescents? Based on the literature, we proposed that girls would spend more time on homework [ 47 , 48 ], extracurricular tutoring [ 49 , 50 ], and interest classes [ 33 ] (Hypothesis 1a), while boys would spend more time on watching TV, surfing online and playing online games [ 51 , 52 , 53 ], and physical exercise [ 39 , 54 ] (Hypothesis 1b). Additionally, with reference to the literature [ 35 , 36 , 55 ], we proposed that girls would have greater depressive symptoms compared to boys (Hypothesis 1c).

Question 2: Do adolescents from different family economic status differ in their participation in different types of extra-curricular activities and depressive symptoms? Based on previous studies, we proposed that time spent on homework, extracurricular tutoring, interest classes [ 50 , 56 ], and physical exercise [ 31 , 32 ] would be higher among students with a higher family economic status (Hypothesis 2a), while time spent on watching TV and surfing online and playing online games [ 57 ] would be higher among students with a lower family economic status (Hypothesis 2b). Based on the scientific literature [ 58 ], we also proposed that students with a lower family economic status would have greater depressive symptoms relative to students with a high family economic status (Hypothesis 2c).

Question 3: Is participation in different after-school activities related to depressive symptoms among Chinese early adolescents? Based on the literature, we proposed time spent on homework [ 21 ], extracurricular tutoring [ 22 , 23 ], watching TV, and surfing online and playing online games [ 18 , 19 , 20 ] would be positively associated with depressive symptoms among Chinese early adolescents (Hypothesis 3a). On the other hand, time spent on interest classes [ 33 , 34 ] and physical exercise [ 28 , 29 , 30 ] would be negatively associated with depressive symptoms among Chinese early adolescents (Hypothesis 3b).

Question 4: Does gender moderate the relationship between participation in after-school activities and depressive symptoms among Chinese early adolescents? Based on the previous studies, we proposed that time spent on homework, extracurricular tutoring, and interest classes [ 35 , 36 ] (Hypothesis 4a), as well as watching TV and surfing online and playing online games [ 38 ] (Hypothesis 4b) would have a stronger positive relationship with depressive symptoms among girls than boys. On the other hand, the duration of extracurricular physical exercise [ 39 ] would be more strongly related to depressive symptoms in negative manner among girls than boys (Hypothesis 4c).

Question 5: Does family economic status moderate the relationship between extracurricular activities and depressive symptoms among Chinese early adolescents? As educational and interest activities may promote human capital of adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage, we proposed that time spent on homework, extracurricular tutoring, and interest classes [ 40 ] (Hypothesis 5a) would have stronger negative relationships with depression in adolescents with a lower economic status. On the other hand, as poorer adolescents typically lack entertainment activities because of economic constraints, watching TV, and surfing online and playing games online, would have stronger relationships with depressive symptoms among students with a higher family economic status relative to students with lower family economic status [ 41 ] (Hypothesis 5b). Finally, we proposed that time spent on physical exercise would have a stronger negative relationship with depressive symptoms in students with a lower family economic status relative to students with a higher family economic status [ 42 , 43 ] (Hypothesis 5c).

Participants and Procedure

The research data were derived from the China Education Panel Study (CEPS). The CEPS survey took the seventh and ninth grades of the 2013–2014 school year as the starting point; it was followed up annually thereafter. The CEPS took the average education level of the population and the proportion of the floating population as stratified variables and used the multistage probability proportional to scale (PPS) sampling method to randomly select 112 schools in 28 counties. The CEPS survey collected detailed information from students and their parents, school administrators, class teachers, and teachers. So far, only the data of the 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 school year are open for application from scholars.

In the present study, given that the baseline survey questionnaire and the follow-up questionnaire have different items and scoring methods for participation in extracurricular activities, and the items in the follow-up survey questionnaire are more comprehensive and specific, we used the follow-up data of the 2014–2015 academic year (Grade 8). After we removed the participants without follow-up data or with missing information, there were 9672 students ( M age = 14.54 years, SD = 0.70 years) in the final sample. Among them, there were 4342 girls, 4706 boys, and 624 without gender information. Regarding residence, 4820 students had a rural registered permanent residence, 4392 students had an urban registered permanent residence, and 460 were without related information.

3. Measures

3.1. depressive symptoms.

Depressive symptoms were measured by 9 items in the CEPS Student Questionnaire. The items were selected from the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D). The PHQ-9 is a commonly used depression assessment scale with 9 items [ 59 ], and the CES-D scale is a short self-reported scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population [ 60 ]. These items asked participants whether they had the following feelings in the past 7 days: depressed, too depressed to concentrate on doing things, unhappy, bored with life, unable to do things, sad, nervous, overly worried, and having a bad presentiment. All of the items were rated on the following 5-point scale: never = 1, rarely = 2, sometimes = 3, often = 4, always = 5. The average score of these 9 items was used to generate a depressive symptoms score, with a high average score indicating a high level of depressive symptoms. This scale was reported to be reliable and valid in previous studies [ 61 ]. The Cronbach’s alpha in this study was 0.92.

3.2. After-School Activity Participation

The predictor variable was time spent by students in extracurricular activities on weekdays and weekends. We used question C13 and the five sub-items of questions B7 and B8 from the CEPS Student Questionnaire. Questions B7 and B8 ask participants, “From Monday to Friday, how do you arrange your after-school activities each day?” and “On weekends, how do you arrange your after-school activities each day?” The selected sub-items were “completing homework assigned by teachers”, “attending extracurricular tutoring (related to schoolwork)”, “attending interest classes (unrelated to schoolwork)”, “watching TV”, and “surfing the Internet and playing games”. The answer choices for after-school activities from Monday to Friday were 1 = none, 2 = less than 1 h, 3 = approximately 1–2 h, 4 = approximately 2–3 h, 5 = approximately 3–4 h, and 6 = approximately 4 h or more. The answer choices for weekend after-school activities were 1 = none, 2 = less than 2 h, 3 = approximately 2–4 h, 4 = approximately 4–6 h, 5 = approximately 6–8 h, and 6 = approximately 8 h or more. Question C13 was completed by students and measured the students’ weekly physical exercise time in the following format: usually ___ days per week, ___ minutes per day. The value of this question is converted into natural logarithmic form.

3.3. Demographic Measures

First, demographic variables including gender, household registration and only child status were set as dummy variables. For these variables, boys, agricultural household registration, and only children were assigned a value of 1, and the other categories were assigned a value of 0. Second, we also used other demographic variables including family economic status, parents’ highest educational level, and school ranking. Among them, family economic status was measured by questions “What is the current economic condition of your family?” in the parents’ questionnaire and “How do you feel about your family’s financial situation right now?” in the student questionnaire, with a 5-point frequency response scale used in both items: 1 = very difficult, 2 = relatively difficult, 3 = moderate, 4 = relatively wealthy, and 5 = very wealthy. We gave priority to data reported by parents; when the parent-reported data were missing, we filled in data reported by students. The final data were merged into three categories: 1 and 2 = difficult (1), 3 = moderate (2), and 4 and 5 = wealthy (3). As a result, there were 1917 students (19.8%) from families with a difficult economic status, 6734 students (69.6%) from families with a moderate economic status, and 537 students (5.6%) from families with a wealthy economic status, with 484 cases with missing information.

For parents’ highest educational level, the educational levels of the student’s father and mother were compared, and the higher value was taken, with the following categories: 1 = no education, 2 = primary school, 3 = middle school, 4 = technical secondary school/technical school, 5 = vocational high school, 6 = high school, 7 = college, 8 = bachelor’s degree, 9 = graduate and above.

School ranking was reported by the school authority. The ranking of schools in the county (district) was divided into five categories: worst, inferior, middle, upper middle, and best. The five categories were combined into three categories, namely, middle and below, upper middle, and best, which were assigned as values of 1, 2, and 3, respectively. This categorization method was used in previous studies [ 62 ].

3.4. Data Analytic Strategy

The data in this study involved two levels (i.e., students were nested in schools), with students at the first level and schools at the second level. Considering that the school environment is an important factor affecting student mental health, and that learning in different types of schools may have different impacts on students, it was necessary to test whether it was suitable to adopt the two-level linear model analysis method. The results based on the intercept model show that the intragroup correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.03 [0.022/(0.022 + 0.704)]. When the ICC does not reach 0.059, there is no group effect, and the multilevel model analysis method is unnecessary [ 63 ]. Therefore, we used a multiple regression model to analyze the data, controlling for school rank, family economic status, parents’ highest educational level, student gender, household registration, and only child status. In the multiple regression analyses, Model 1 contained only the controlled variables, and we added all variables of after-school activities in Model 2. Moreover, in order to examine the moderating effects of gender and family economic status on the associations between after-school activities and adolescent depression symptoms, we added the interaction between gender and extracurricular activities, and the interaction between family economic status and extracurricular activities in Model 3 and Model 4, respectively. Simple effect tests were conducted using multiple regression analyses to explore the relationship between extracurricular activity participation and depressive symptoms among adolescents with different gender and with different family economic status, respectively. All analyses were performed using SPSS 21.0 (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA).

4.1. Gender and Family Economic Status Differences on All Variables

Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations of all variables according to student’s gender (boys and girls) and family economic status (difficult, moderate, and wealthy).

Means and standard deviations of all variables by gender and family economic status.

Note: * p < 0.05, *** p < 0.001. Standard deviations are in parentheses. Bold is used to distinguish dependent variable (depression), independent variables (extracurricular activities on weekdays and weekends), and control variables.

Regarding various extracurricular activities, girls spent more time completing homework assigned by teachers on weekdays and weekends (weekdays: t homework = 7.98, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.18; weekends: t homework = 5.00, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.11), attending extracurricular tutoring on weekend ( t tutoring = 2.48, p < 0.05, Cohen’s d = 0.06), and attending interest classes on weekends ( t interest class = 3.27, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.06) than did boys, while boys spent more time attending extracurricular tutoring on weekdays (weekdays: t tutoring = −2.13, p < 0.05, Cohen’s d = −0.04), watching TV (weekdays: t watching TV = −5.81, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d =−0.13; weekends: t watching TV = −5.96, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = −0.13), surfing the Internet (weekdays: t online = −9.92, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = −0.21; weekends: t online = −16.47, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = −0.36), and exercising ( t exercising = −11.31, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = −0.25) than did girls. These results supported Hypothesis 1a and 1b, except for the extracurricular tutoring on weekdays. Finally, girls’ depressive symptoms were significantly higher than those of boys ( t = 4.13, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.09). This result supported Hypothesis 1c.

Second, there were significant differences in the time spent in various extracurricular activities among students from families with different economic statuses. Specifically, students from families with “difficult” economic status spent less time completing homework assigned by teachers (weekdays: M difficult = 3.37, M moderate = 3.54, M wealthy = 3.61; weekends: M difficult = 2.89, M moderate = 3.04, M wealthy = 3.06), attending extracurricular tutoring (weekdays: M difficult = 1.38, M moderate = 1.65, M wealthy = 1.80; weekends: M difficult = 1.33, M moderate = 1.77, M wealthy = 1.99), taking interest classes (weekdays: M difficult = 1.29, M moderate = 1.38, M wealthy = 1.59; weekends: M difficult = 1.24, M moderate = 1.40, M wealthy = 1.57), playing games online (weekdays: M difficult = 2.11, M moderate = 2.25, M wealthy = 2.52; weekends: M difficult = 2.32, M moderate = 2.66, M wealthy = 2.93), and physical exercising ( M difficult = 4.52, M moderate = 4.72, M wealthy = 4.92) than did students from moderate and wealthy families. On the other hand, students from families with difficult economic status spent more time watching TV (weekdays: M difficult = 2.63, M moderate = 2.42, M wealthy = 2.47; weekends: M difficult = 2.83, M moderate = 2.74, M wealthy = 2.73). These results supported Hypothesis 2a and partially supported Hypothesis 2b (watching TV). Besides, depressive symptoms of students from families with different economic statuses were significantly different ( F (2, 9185) = 20.37, p < 0.001), and depressive symptoms of students from families with a difficult economic status were higher than those of students from families with moderate and wealthy economic statuses ( M difficult = 2.29, M moderate = 2.16, M wealthy = 2.09). This result supported Hypothesis 2c. The findings are presented in Table 1 .

4.2. Predictive Effects of Extracurricular Activities on Depressive Symptoms

Correlation analyses showed that for most extracurricular activities, time spent on the activity was significantly correlated with depressive symptoms (see Table 2 ). Except for time spent attending extracurricular tutoring classes on weekends and attending interest classes on weekdays and weekends, time spent on the other extracurricular activities was significantly correlated with students’ depressive symptoms. Specifically, time spent on physical exercise was negatively related to depressive symptoms ( r = −0.065), while time spent on the other extracurricular activities was positively associated with depressive symptoms ( r = 0.032~0.090), with a low effect size.

Correlation between extracurricular activities and depressive symptoms.

Note: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. Bold is used to distinguish independent variables (extracurricular activities on weekdays and weekends) and control variables.

The results of Model 1 in Table 3 indicated that girls’ depressive symptoms were higher than those of boys ( β = −0.041, p < 0.001), that family economic status had a significant negative effect on students’ depressive symptoms ( β = −0.060, p < 0.001), and that the depressive symptoms of non-only children were higher than those of only children ( β = 0.039, p = 0.001).

Effects of extracurricular activities on depressive symptoms.

Note: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. Two dummy variables were generated for school ranking: upper middle vs. medium and below, and best vs. medium and below. The reference group is medium and below. Bold is used to distinguish independent variables (extracurricular activities) and control variables.

The results of Model 2 show that time spent completing homework assigned by teachers on weekdays and weekends had a positive effect on students’ depressive symptoms ( β = 0.099, p < 0.001; β = 0.076, p < 0.001, respectively). Time spent attending extracurricular tutoring on weekdays and weekends also had positive effects on students’ depressive symptoms ( β = 0.031, p = 0.009; β = 0.025, p < 0.05, respectively). In addition, for recreational activities, time spent surfing the Internet and playing games had a positive effect on students’ depressive symptoms (weekdays: β = 0.070, p < 0.001; weekends: β = 0.097, p < 0.001), while time spent watching TV did not have an effect on students’ depressive symptoms. Hypothesis 3a was partially supported. Moreover, participating in physical exercise on weekdays and weekends had negative effects on students’ depressive symptoms ( β = −0.056, p < 0.001; β = −0.059, p < 0.001). Hypothesis 3b was partially supported.

4.3. Gender and Family Economic Status as Moderators on the Relationship between Extracurricular Activities and Depressive Symptoms

The results in Table 4 show that the interaction between time spent attending interest classes on weekends and gender on depressive symptoms was significant ( β = −0.035, p < 0.05). Moreover, the interaction of time spent surfing the Internet and playing games with gender was significant (weekdays: β = −0.059, p < 0.005; weekends: β = −0.038, p < 0.05). The simple effect test ( Table 5 ) showed that time spent attending interest classes on weekends had a positive effect on girls’ depressive symptoms ( β girls = 0.034, p < 0.05), while the effect was not significant for boys ( β boys = −0.016, p > 0.05). Moreover, time spent playing online games on weekdays and weekends had greater positive effects on depressive symptoms among girls than boys (weekdays: β boys < 0.05, p = 0.019; β girls = 0.108, p < 0.001; weekends: β boys = 0.079, p < 0.001; β girls = 0.119, p < 0.001). Therefore, while Hypotheses 4a and 4b were partially supported, Hypothesis 4c was not supported.

Moderating effects of gender and family economic status on the effects of extracurricular activities on depressive symptoms.

Note: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. Two dummy variables were generated for family economic status: moderate vs. difficult and wealthy vs. difficult. The reference group is the difficult group. Bold is used to distinguish independent variables (extracurricular activities) and control variables.

Effects of extracurricular activities on depressive symptoms among boys and girls.

Note: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. Bold is used to distinguish independent variables (extracurricular activities) and control variables.

Model 4 in Table 4 shows the interactive effect between extracurricular activities and family economic status on depressive symptoms; Table 6 shows the simple effect test for the effect of extracurricular activities on depressive symptoms among students from families with different economic statuses. First, results indicated that the interactive effects between time spent completing homework assigned by teachers and family economic status on students’ depressive symptoms were significant (weekdays: β moderate vs. difficult = 0.081, p < 0.001; β wealthy vs. difficult = 0.038, p < 0.005; weekends: β moderate vs. difficult = 0.071, p < 0.005; β wealthy vs. difficult = 0.028, p ≤ 0.05). The simple effect test indicates that the positive effects of time spent completing homework on depressive symptoms among students from moderate and wealthy families were significant (weekdays: β moderate = 0.113, p < 0.001; β wealthy = 0.164, p < 0.001; weekends: β moderate = 0.091, p < 0.001; β wealthy = 0.114, p < 0.05), while the effects among students from families with difficult economic status were not significant (Weekdays: β difficult = 0.032, p > 0.05; Weekends: β difficult = 0.009, p > 0.05). Hypothesis 5a was supported.

Effects of extracurricular activities on depressive symptoms in different family economic status groups.

Second, the results indicated that the effects of time spent attending extracurricular tutoring on students’ depressive symptoms were moderated by family economic status (weekdays: β wealthy vs. difficult = 0.034, p < 0.05; β moderate vs. difficult = 0.065, p < 0.05; weekends: β wealthy vs. difficult = 0.032, p < 0.05). The results of the simple effect test show that the positive effects of time attending extracurricular tutoring on depressive symptoms among students from moderate and wealthy families were significant (weekdays: β moderate = 0.033, p < 0.05; β wealthy = 0.100, p < 0.05; weekends: β wealthy = 0.104, p < 0.05), while the effects among students from a difficult family economic status were not significant (weekdays: β difficult = −0.024, p > 0.05; weekends: β difficult = 0.005, p > 0.05). Hypothesis 5a was supported.

Third, we found that the effects of time spent surfing the Internet and playing games on students’ depressive symptoms were moderated by family economic status (weekdays: β moderate vs. difficult = 0.056, p < 0.001; weekends: β wealthy vs. difficult = 0.033, p < 0.05). The simple effect test indicates that time spent surfing the Internet and playing games on weekdays had a greater positive effect on depressive symptoms among students from moderate families than among students from families with a difficult economic status ( β moderate = 0.055, p < 0.001; β difficult = 0.092, p < 0.005) and that time spent surfing the Internet and playing games on weekends had a greater positive effect on depressive symptoms among students from wealthy families than among students from families with a difficult economic status ( β wealthy = 0.254, p < 0.001; β difficult = 0.100, p < 0.001). Therefore, while Hypotheses 5a and 5b was partially supported, Hypothesis 5c was not supported. In summary, we present the degree of support for the different hypotheses in Table 7 .

Summarizing the support for the different hypotheses.

5. Discussion

Generally speaking, the present findings showed that participation in extracurricular activities such as study, leisure, interest, and exercise were associated with depressive symptoms among Chinese early adolescents and that the relationships were moderated by gender and family economic status. As no related findings have been reported in different Chinese contexts, the present study is a pioneer. However, it should be noted that the effect size of the significant findings is low.

5.1. Extracurricular Activities and Depressive Symptoms among Early Adolescents

We found that time spent writing homework assigned by teachers, attending extracurricular tutoring classes, and playing online games were positively associated with students’ depressive symptoms. This observation is consistent with the previous studies [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Besides, consistent with other studies [ 28 , 29 , 30 ], time spent taking part in physical exercise was negatively associated with students’ depressive symptoms.

We explain the above observations in terms of the socio-cultural attributes of China. Influenced by traditional Confucian values, Chinese parents attach great importance to their children’s educational achievements and regard these achievements as bringing glory to the whole family [ 64 ]. Hence, parents and schoolteachers would have excessive academic requirements for teenagers, such as asking them to participate in many remedial classes. Unfortunately, excessive time spent in inactive learning may lead to excessive learning pressure, which may in turn lead to depressive symptoms among adolescents [ 23 ].

Moreover, although the effectiveness of physical exercise in improving an individual’s emotional state has been supported by many Western studies [ 28 , 30 ], few studies have been conducted in China. When people take part in physical exercise, their attention is diverted, which releases psychological pressure, regulates nervous emotions, and improves negative emotions such as anxiety and irritability. Additionally, physical exercise can improve the functions of various organs and increase the endurance of the heart and lungs. Improving physical health to promote mental health is an important way that physical exercise has psychological effects [ 65 , 66 ]. Unfortunately, Chinese parents may hold the traditional belief that too much “play” involving physical activities is non-beneficial to the development of children. Finally, many studies showed that adolescents’ addiction to the Internet contributed to psychological maladjustment [ 23 ].

The positive association of time spent surfing the Internet and playing online games with depressive symptoms was greater for girls than boys, which is consistent with most previous study results [ 38 ]. The reason for this gender difference may be due to the difference in self-efficacy. Studies have pointed out that men have always play a dominant role in the development of computers and the Internet and that they have a strong spirit of exploration and better technological skills to use the Internet. As a result, boys can gain more self-efficacy in the use of the Internet. Moreover, the emergence of online games has allowed men to gain a higher sense of accomplishment and experience more self-worth via the virtual environment [ 51 , 52 , 53 ]. However, girls are more sensitive to the negative impact of excessive use of the Internet because society does not advocate excessive use of the Internet [ 67 ]. Girl’s stronger recognition of social norms makes them more likely to experience self-blame as they surf the Internet, which leads to a decrease in happiness and an increase in negative experiences such as depressive symptoms. In addition, we have found that time spent attending interest classes on weekends would be more strongly related to the depressive symptoms among girls than boys in a positive manner, which is inconsistent with previous studies [ 33 ]. Yu [ 68 ] argued that, in China, the first consideration for many interest classes was parents’ needs. Some parents made decisions for their children according to their own expectations of their children’s growth. Typically, those “interests” that can improve academic performance and contribute to career achievement are often quite popular (such as foreign languages). Obviously, to a large extent, interest classes are constructed with reference to the adult world, not children’s real interests and preferences. If joining the interest class is not the children’s own choice, it may lead to their resentment and have negative consequences. Such negative effect is more intense among girls probably because girls in fact spend more time in interest classes than boys on weekends, which may make them feel tired and burdensome. Obviously, future research should investigate whether adolescents choose to join the interest classes in a voluntary manner would have any effect on their well-being.

Besides gender, family economic status was also found to be a moderating factor. Time spent completing homework assigned by teachers on weekdays and weekends and time spent attending extracurricular tutoring classes on weekdays were positively associated with depressive symptoms among students from financially moderate families and wealthy families, while no similar effect was found in students from families with economic difficulty, thus supporting Hypothesis 5a. This result can be explained by the conjecture that parents with higher family economic status tend to value their children’s academic achievements, and they may “orchestrate” their children to join academic activities with stronger supervision [ 40 , 69 ]. Greater parental participation and academic supervision implies higher academic expectations and requirements for children, as well as greater competition and psychological stress for adolescents, which may further lead to an increase in adolescent depressive symptoms. On the other hand, lower class children might benefit from homework, extra-curricular tutoring, and interest classes because the related activities would promote human capital helping them to move up the social ladder.

Moreover, we found that time spent surfing the Internet and playing games had a stronger positive relationship with depressive symptoms among students from financially moderate and wealthy families than among students from families with a difficult economic status, thus providing support for Hypothesis 5b. This observation may be due to the fact that teenagers with high family economic status have more material possessions (e.g., computers), and their families are more likely to provide them with the opportunity and time to surf the Internet without much parental supervision at their free time [ 41 ]. As a result, such adolescents would suffer from depressive symptoms when spending excessive time playing online games. However, for children with low family economic status, surfing Internet and playing online games may simply be entertainment because they lack entertainment due to financial constraint.

5.2. Strengths and Limitations

This study makes important contributions to the literature by systematically examining the associations between participation in after-school activities and early adolescents’ depressive symptoms and further investigating the moderating effects of adolescents’ gender and family economic status. First, as predicted, we found that there are gender as well as socio-economic differences in early adolescents’ participation in extra-curricular activities and depressive symptoms. Although some of the findings are “commonly known”, they are still important because no study has been conducted in China. Second, the present study found that participation in different after-school extracurricular activities were differentially associated with depressive symptoms among early adolescents in China. Third, we found that gender and socio-economic status are moderators of the relationships between participation in extra-curricular activities and depression. Specifically, gender moderated the relationships on some measures of extra-curricular activities. Besides, while excessive extracurricular academic activities and playing games online are detrimental to adolescent mental health, especially among students from moderate and wealthy families, physical exercise is beneficial to adolescent mental health in all participants. Theoretically, the present study expands our understanding of the relationship between participation in extra-curricular activities and adolescent depression and the related moderators, which is not well-articulated in the existing scientific literature. Besides, this pioneer study contributes to the Chinese scientific literature. As pointed out by Oberle et al. [ 70 ], as “many of the previous studies in this field have been conducted in the context of the United States” (p. 13), the present study in the Chinese context is an important contribution to the field.

Although we obtained some novel findings, there are some limitations in this study. First, this study adopted a cross-sectional survey design, which is not as powerful as longitudinal designs. In this study, we were unable to adequately test the causes and effects of after-school extracurricular activities and depression symptoms because both variables occurred at the same time. Future research should consider adopting longitudinal research designs to examine the predictive relationships between participation in after-school extracurricular activities and adolescents’ depressive symptoms. Second, the China Education Panel Survey collected data from students by a self-reported questionnaire, which may cause response bias. However, this approach is commonly used to understand adolescent behavior in the field. Obviously, future research should gather information from adolescents, parents, and teachers. Third, in the current study, after-school extracurricular activities and depressive symptoms were measured by using self-reported questionnaires from the CEPS. However, it is noteworthy that self-reported rating scales, such as the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), have been commonly used to assess depression [ 71 , 72 ]. Fourth, it should be noted that different motivation for participating in after-school activities will influence the feedback of the activities, such as happiness, enjoyment, depression, and frustration [ 73 ]. While activities of surfing the Internet and attending interest classes may be “entertainment”, they are also activities for promoting human capital in the future. As such, the motivation for participating in after-school extracurricular activities and individual adolescents’ related variability should be considered in future studies. Fifth, other factors related to depressive symptoms were not taken into account, such as negative automatic thoughts, learning achievement, health status, interpersonal relations, and school types [ 74 ]. Future research should include these factors where appropriate. Finally, as our findings showed that the magnitude of the effect was low, the significant results may simply be due to large sample. As there is a distinction between theoretical significance and practical significance, we should be cautious in interpreting these results. However, as argued by Orberle et al. [ 70 ], studies in this field commonly generated findings with a small effect size. Besides, they pointed out that “even small effect sizes indicating the positive links between ECAs (extracurricular activities) and positive outcomes are important because effects are cumulative in nature of development where small changes compound over contexts and time” (p. 12).

5.3. Practical Implications

First, our results showed that excessive time spent on extracurricular tutoring was associated with an increase in depression, and parents should re-think about the role of tutoring to avoid unnecessary and compulsory tutoring and respect students’ independent choices. Second, as addiction to TV or the Internet was associated with depressive symptoms, schools, parents, and society must strengthen education and guidance, create conditions for students to participate in suitable leisure activities, and prevent them from over-engaging in extracurricular activities in the virtual world. Third, schools, parents, and adolescents should recognize the benefits of appropriate physical exercise for early adolescents’ mental health, which could reduce the academic burden of adolescents. Finally, we should also take gender and family economic conditions into account when designing youth enhancement programs for families with early adolescents. For example, we found that the positive associations between time spent playing online games and depressive symptoms were stronger among girls than boys, parents should pay more attention to the Internet use and emotional problems of adolescent girls and adopt emotionally warm education in the process of parental guidance. Additionally, parents of financially better families also need to arrange their children’s after-school life with care and supervise their children’s online entertainment time to avoid the negative affect on their children’ s mental health. In short, as argued by Oberle et al. [ 70 ], examination of the relationship between extra-curricular activities and adolescent well-being is “critical because it contributes to identifying ways for promoting the positive development of the whole child with a specific focus on extracurricular programs that take place in the community”(p.12). Besides, arranging appropriate extra-curricular activities for students is in line with the holistic model of child development [ 75 ]. Most importantly, extra-curricular activities may play an important role to promote the psychological well-being of students under COVID-19 [ 76 , 77 ].

6. Conclusions

Overall, our findings suggested that (1) there were gender and class differences in participation in extra-curricular activities; (2) time spent completing homework assigned by teachers, attending extracurricular tutoring, and playing online games were positively associated with students’ depressive symptoms, while time spent participating in physical exercise were negatively associated with students’ depressive symptoms; and (3) the associations of extracurricular activities with students’ depressive symptoms were moderated by gender and family economic status. In particular, the positive associations between time spent playing online games on weekdays and weekends and depressive symptoms were stronger among girls than boys. Time spent completing homework and playing online games were more positively associated with depressive symptoms among students from moderate and wealthy families than among students from families with a relatively poorer economic status.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, Y.P. and D.Z.; Methodology, Y.P. and D.T.L.S.; Formal Analysis, D.Z. and Y.P.; Writing—original draft preparation, D.Z. and Y.P.; Writing—review and editing, D.T.L.S. and Y.P. Supervision, D.T.L.S.; Project administration, D.T.L.S. and Y.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [21BSH083]. DS’s involvement in this paper is financially supported by Wofoo Foundation (PolyU Project No. 8.54.CC.845D).

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Renmin University of China. Ethical review and approval were waived by the Research Ethics Committee of the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, due to first author’s accessing to secondary dataset, which does not involve “human subjects” as defined under 45 CFR 46.102 and not accessing identifiable private information.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

Data Availability Statement

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Is Homework Necessary? Education Inequity and Its Impact on Students

homework effect on extracurricular activities

The Problem with Homework: It Highlights Inequalities

How much homework is too much homework, when does homework actually help, negative effects of homework for students, how teachers can help.

Schools are getting rid of homework from Essex, Mass., to Los Angeles, Calif. Although the no-homework trend may sound alarming, especially to parents dreaming of their child’s acceptance to Harvard, Stanford or Yale, there is mounting evidence that eliminating homework in grade school may actually have great benefits , especially with regard to educational equity.

In fact, while the push to eliminate homework may come as a surprise to many adults, the debate is not new . Parents and educators have been talking about this subject for the last century, so that the educational pendulum continues to swing back and forth between the need for homework and the need to eliminate homework.

One of the most pressing talking points around homework is how it disproportionately affects students from less affluent families. The American Psychological Association (APA) explained:

“Kids from wealthier homes are more likely to have resources such as computers, internet connections, dedicated areas to do schoolwork and parents who tend to be more educated and more available to help them with tricky assignments. Kids from disadvantaged homes are more likely to work at afterschool jobs, or to be home without supervision in the evenings while their parents work multiple jobs.”

[RELATED] How to Advance Your Career: A Guide for Educators >> 

While students growing up in more affluent areas are likely playing sports, participating in other recreational activities after school, or receiving additional tutoring, children in disadvantaged areas are more likely headed to work after school, taking care of siblings while their parents work or dealing with an unstable home life. Adding homework into the mix is one more thing to deal with — and if the student is struggling, the task of completing homework can be too much to consider at the end of an already long school day.

While all students may groan at the mention of homework, it may be more than just a nuisance for poor and disadvantaged children, instead becoming another burden to carry and contend with.

Beyond the logistical issues, homework can negatively impact physical health and stress — and once again this may be a more significant problem among economically disadvantaged youth who typically already have a higher stress level than peers from more financially stable families .

Yet, today, it is not just the disadvantaged who suffer from the stressors that homework inflicts. A 2014 CNN article, “Is Homework Making Your Child Sick?” , covered the issue of extreme pressure placed on children of the affluent. The article looked at the results of a study surveying more than 4,300 students from 10 high-performing public and private high schools in upper-middle-class California communities.

“Their findings were troubling: Research showed that excessive homework is associated with high stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children’s lives; 56% of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their lives,” according to the CNN story. “That children growing up in poverty are at-risk for a number of ailments is both intuitive and well-supported by research. More difficult to believe is the growing consensus that children on the other end of the spectrum, children raised in affluence, may also be at risk.”

When it comes to health and stress it is clear that excessive homework, for children at both ends of the spectrum, can be damaging. Which begs the question, how much homework is too much?

The National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association recommend that students spend 10 minutes per grade level per night on homework . That means that first graders should spend 10 minutes on homework, second graders 20 minutes and so on. But a study published by The American Journal of Family Therapy found that students are getting much more than that.

While 10 minutes per day doesn’t sound like much, that quickly adds up to an hour per night by sixth grade. The National Center for Education Statistics found that high school students get an average of 6.8 hours of homework per week, a figure that is much too high according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It is also to be noted that this figure does not take into consideration the needs of underprivileged student populations.

In a study conducted by the OECD it was found that “after around four hours of homework per week, the additional time invested in homework has a negligible impact on performance .” That means that by asking our children to put in an hour or more per day of dedicated homework time, we are not only not helping them, but — according to the aforementioned studies — we are hurting them, both physically and emotionally.

What’s more is that homework is, as the name implies, to be completed at home, after a full day of learning that is typically six to seven hours long with breaks and lunch included. However, a study by the APA on how people develop expertise found that elite musicians, scientists and athletes do their most productive work for about only four hours per day. Similarly, companies like Tower Paddle Boards are experimenting with a five-hour workday, under the assumption that people are not able to be truly productive for much longer than that. CEO Stephan Aarstol told CNBC that he believes most Americans only get about two to three hours of work done in an eight-hour day.

In the scope of world history, homework is a fairly new construct in the U.S. Students of all ages have been receiving work to complete at home for centuries, but it was educational reformer Horace Mann who first brought the concept to America from Prussia. 

Since then, homework’s popularity has ebbed and flowed in the court of public opinion. In the 1930s, it was considered child labor (as, ironically, it compromised children’s ability to do chores at home). Then, in the 1950s, implementing mandatory homework was hailed as a way to ensure America’s youth were always one step ahead of Soviet children during the Cold War. Homework was formally mandated as a tool for boosting educational quality in 1986 by the U.S. Department of Education, and has remained in common practice ever since.  

School work assigned and completed outside of school hours is not without its benefits. Numerous studies have shown that regular homework has a hand in improving student performance and connecting students to their learning. When reviewing these studies, take them with a grain of salt; there are strong arguments for both sides, and only you will know which solution is best for your students or school. 

Homework improves student achievement.

  • Source: The High School Journal, “ When is Homework Worth the Time?: Evaluating the Association between Homework and Achievement in High School Science and Math ,” 2012. 
  • Source: IZA.org, “ Does High School Homework Increase Academic Achievement? ,” 2014. **Note: Study sample comprised only high school boys. 

Homework helps reinforce classroom learning.

  • Source: “ Debunk This: People Remember 10 Percent of What They Read ,” 2015.

Homework helps students develop good study habits and life skills.

  • Sources: The Repository @ St. Cloud State, “ Types of Homework and Their Effect on Student Achievement ,” 2017; Journal of Advanced Academics, “ Developing Self-Regulation Skills: The Important Role of Homework ,” 2011.
  • Source: Journal of Advanced Academics, “ Developing Self-Regulation Skills: The Important Role of Homework ,” 2011.

Homework allows parents to be involved with their children’s learning.

  • Parents can see what their children are learning and working on in school every day. 
  • Parents can participate in their children’s learning by guiding them through homework assignments and reinforcing positive study and research habits.
  • Homework observation and participation can help parents understand their children’s academic strengths and weaknesses, and even identify possible learning difficulties.
  • Source: Phys.org, “ Sociologist Upends Notions about Parental Help with Homework ,” 2018.

While some amount of homework may help students connect to their learning and enhance their in-class performance, too much homework can have damaging effects. 

Students with too much homework have elevated stress levels. 

  • Source: USA Today, “ Is It Time to Get Rid of Homework? Mental Health Experts Weigh In ,” 2021.
  • Source: Stanford University, “ Stanford Research Shows Pitfalls of Homework ,” 2014.

Students with too much homework may be tempted to cheat. 

  • Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education, “ High-Tech Cheating Abounds, and Professors Bear Some Blame ,” 2010.
  • Source: The American Journal of Family Therapy, “ Homework and Family Stress: With Consideration of Parents’ Self Confidence, Educational Level, and Cultural Background ,” 2015.

Homework highlights digital inequity. 

  • Sources: NEAToday.org, “ The Homework Gap: The ‘Cruelest Part of the Digital Divide’ ,” 2016; CNET.com, “ The Digital Divide Has Left Millions of School Kids Behind ,” 2021.
  • Source: Investopedia, “ Digital Divide ,” 2022; International Journal of Education and Social Science, “ Getting the Homework Done: Social Class and Parents’ Relationship to Homework ,” 2015.
  • Source: World Economic Forum, “ COVID-19 exposed the digital divide. Here’s how we can close it ,” 2021.

Homework does not help younger students.

  • Source: Review of Educational Research, “ Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? A Synthesis of Researcher, 1987-2003 ,” 2006.

To help students find the right balance and succeed, teachers and educators must start the homework conversation, both internally at their school and with parents. But in order to successfully advocate on behalf of students, teachers must be well educated on the subject, fully understanding the research and the outcomes that can be achieved by eliminating or reducing the homework burden. There is a plethora of research and writing on the subject for those interested in self-study.

For teachers looking for a more in-depth approach or for educators with a keen interest in educational equity, formal education may be the best route. If this latter option sounds appealing, there are now many reputable schools offering online master of education degree programs to help educators balance the demands of work and family life while furthering their education in the quest to help others.

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How to Balance Your Homework With Extracurricular Activities or Friends

Last Updated: January 31, 2023 References

This article was co-authored by Emily Listmann, MA . Emily Listmann is a private tutor in San Carlos, California. She has worked as a Social Studies Teacher, Curriculum Coordinator, and an SAT Prep Teacher. She received her MA in Education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 2014. There are 14 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 32,668 times.

Schoolwork, friends, family, activities...life is busy these days! You want to do it all, but finding a healthy balance between schoolwork and social activities can prove to be quite a challenge. Thankfully, juggling both is possible by learning how to efficiently divvy up your time.

Organizing and Focusing

Step 1 Make a “master” to-do list.

  • Include anything that you want or need to devote time to in your list. If you have a project due next week, write it in. If you have in mind to complete a college application by next month, put that on the list as well. And yes, playing that awesome new video game for an hour the day it comes out should also be factored into your list.
  • Create a realistic timeline you will use to meet your goals. Set a due date next to each item, and organize your list by due date. This way, you can hold yourself accountable for meeting your goals by the dates you have established. [2] X Research source

Step 2 Complete the tasks you delineated in your to-do list.

  • Cross off each task as you complete it. This will help you keep track of the work you have done and what you have left to do. You will also feel a great sense of validation when you look back and see all that you’ve accomplished!
  • Be flexible. If you plan to do your homework immediately after school but find that you can actually focus better if you do it after dinner, adjust your schedule accordingly.
  • Reward yourself occasionally. You’re meeting your goals! Keep up the great work.

Step 3 Organize your daily activities by creating a timetable.

  • Leave a bit of a cushion for unexpected events and for transitions between different activities in your timetable. You never know what could arise, and you want to be prepared and flexible enough so that unforeseen circumstances don’t throw your schedule and your productivity out of sync. [5] X Research source
  • Schedule breaks into your timetable. Breaks are conducive to mental acuity - don’t underestimate their power! [6] X Research source Go for a nice walk or watch a funny animal video - just get your brain out of “work” mode for a few minutes.
  • Complete the most urgent items in your timetable earlier in the day. [7] X Research source This way you can also ensure that you get all of your most time-sensitive work done.

Step 4 Purchase a planner or use a free service like Google Calendar.

  • Consider the type of planner you will use very carefully. Planners come in all shapes and sizes - from daily to weekly to monthly- and you should pick the format that works best for you so that you get the most out of its usage.
  • Adjust your schedule accordingly, such as dropping an extracurricular activity or sticking with the “regular” class instead of signing up for the AP course.

Merging School Life with Social Activities

Step 1 Make studying social by organizing a study party.

  • Keep joint social-study events fun, but not too fun. Stay focused on your work.

Step 2 Study in a common area.

Distinguishing Socializing from Schoolwork

Step 1 Set aside a Saturday or Sunday every weekend just for social activities.

  • Observing or directly asking your friends how they balance their work and social lives can be helpful!
  • Share your schedule with your friends. Explain when you’re free so they’re not tempting you to hang out when you’ve scheduled study time or an extracurricular activity.

Expert Q&A

  • Get enough sleep. Take in the 9 recommended hours of sleep a night to be fully awake, alert, and productive the following day. [13] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Build stress-relieving activities into your schedule - whatever this may mean to you (meditation, yoga, running, shopping, and reading just a few suggestions). [14] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Turn off all distractions when studying, including cell phones, laptops (unless strictly necessary), T.V., and video games. If distractions are an issue, consider downloading a blocker app like StayFocusd. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Don’t waste time or allow your homework to pile up. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 1
  • Don’t let your social study sessions derail into non-school related chats. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 1

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Ask for Feedback

  • ↑ https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_05.htm
  • ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/vanessaloder/2014/06/02/five-best-to-do-list-tips/#711c5e6f51b5
  • ↑ http://www.mikedelgado.org/productivity/deadlines/
  • ↑ http://au.reachout.com/how-to-write-a-study-timetable
  • ↑ http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9721.html
  • ↑ http://www.fastcompany.com/3034928/the-future-of-work/why-you-need-to-stop-thinking-you-are-too-busy-to-take-breaks
  • ↑ http://www.fastcompany.com/3000619/what-successful-people-do-first-hour-their-work-day
  • ↑ https://www.themuse.com/advice/7-perfect-planners-to-buy-for-2015
  • ↑ http://www.girlslife.com/fab/parties/9639/study-party
  • ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/working-best-at-coffee-shops/237372/
  • ↑ http://www.howtostudy.com/create-a-study-plan/
  • ↑ http://source.southuniversity.edu/commuter-students-connect-through-extracurricular-activities-101876.aspx
  • ↑ http://sleepcenter.ucla.edu/sleep-and-teens
  • ↑ http://greatist.com/happiness/23-scientifically-backed-ways-reduce-stress-right-now

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Emily Listmann, MA

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What a thing to be a high school student! Academics, activities, athletics, all ask for your time. Family and fun are important too. It is a true juggle!

As a former head of school, teacher, IB EE coordinator, research instructor, and current college counselor, I have seen many high school students do this dance. I have seen first-hand what the pressures of not getting the balance right can do to student well-being. Here at Collegewise, we are focused on bringing more joy and sanity into the college application process and have helped thousands of students navigate these years. Tips on how to manage your schedule come naturally to us! Balancing your school work, extracurricular obligations, family time, and social life is key.

How to Balance Academics & Extracurriculars

High school can be a time of great discovery and learning, combined with growth and fun. It is also really busy. You are expected to perform well, across a rather broad spectrum of academic disciplines, while also paying attention to who you are and what you enjoy, while also excelling at athletics and extracurricular interests. You’re doing this all on a schedule that you have little control over - likely determined by the hours of the school day. It is exhausting to describe, let alone to live!

How to get it all done? How to balance the school day with homework and activities and sports and maybe even part-time work? And, how to determine when it is too much. This juggle can be tough, and most high school students face this quandary. 

An important first step is to reflect. Are you doing things you care about? Are you pursuing interests that you enjoy? At Collegewise we understand that the default assumption can be “the more the better!” But the reality is that being the best version of yourself is what will ultimately make an impact - for you and your time in high school. Being incredibly busy is not the goal! Being involved and curious and interested and active in what matters to you - that is the goal.

To get to the other side, and still enjoy what is important to you, requires planning: your time, your schedule, your tasks, your system, and some solid reflection on how and when you work best. Take stock of your activities, and then check out these tips to make the best use of your time and set yourself up for success.

Below are ideas - some you have likely seen before - some are reframed. Try some on for size - see what works for you - and go for it. With the proper structure AND flexibility in place, you can enjoy the socializing, activities, (and school work), that add up to mean high school!

Find Your System: Planners, Calendars, and To-Do Lists

You have heard it over and over, likely even in middle school when teachers did a daily "planner check." Get yourself a planning system. Your dad might use Google. Your bestie might use their iPhone. Your teacher might use a notebook or paper planner. That’s great for them, and you are welcome to listen and nod politely when they tell you it is the BEST and THE ONLY way to go. 

Just as we recommend finding the best way for you to study, discovering your learning style and study skills that are a match , you can explore and try on different ways to organize yourself.  Try some methods until you find what works for you.  

As research evolves to show the benefits of writing vs. typing , it is worth exploring a nice, paper planner. Be sure it includes the full year as well as monthly and weekly sections - and what a bonus if it has blank pages as well! Use it to plot out long-term assignments, your daily schedule for work or athletics, and to set aside time for friends. Seeing the scope of days, weeks, and months as your school year progresses is really helpful. This system also gives a solid visual of how you spend your time.

Electronic calendars have advantages as well. Setting reminders, inviting others, storing contact info - these all make an app on your phone a viable and productive system. There are many to choose from - and digital planners combine the benefits of electronic calendars with the chance to write, using a stylus. Try color-coding your time: activities, school, work, fun, etc. - and you will be able to see the larger picture of where you are dedicating your efforts. You might not be able to doodle in the margins as you can with a paper calendar, but an electronic system could be a solid match for you.

Ultimately, what counts is that you find the system that works best for you. If it supports your productivity and helps you keep on track - go for it. Create a calendar with due dates of assignments. Schedule homework time, and free time. See a ton of work shifts coming up the same week as a research paper deadline?  Either organizer makes it super easy to catch it - and make necessary changes.

No matter which way you go, be sure to include a running to-do list. This action can calm anxiety, provide structure, and serve as proof that you are getting through it all. It can be positively thrilling to cross items off of a list.  In my years in education with teenagers, I have seen massive Post-it notes on walls, a dedicated binder section, a dedicated planner section, and a phone app all work to support students as they balance extracurriculars and schoolwork. And while it can do in very specific scenarios, like reminding you to take your dirty clothes downstairs, I don’t recommend writing your to-do list on your hand!

When it is time to add the college application process to your to-do list, having these structures already in place will help you fold in the additional work more easily. 

How to Manage Your Tasks

The term ‘time management’ is tossed to high school students regularly. But to me, it means managing more than just time.

It is helpful to understand how and when you are at your best . When are you most able to pay attention and produce your strongest efforts?  Early risers who are clear-headed and ready to go first thing in the morning can consider completing an intense writing analysis before leaving for school. Those who struggle to make it out the door in the morning but feel crisp and energized after school can save that writing for the early evening. Both types of students can save creative and less structured tasks for the times of day when they are not at 100%.

Your planner can help you here, too. Leafing or scrolling through your calendar can help you see not just when you spend your time but how - what is most important to you? You can use this reflection to curate your schedule of things you love to do AND to help you sort through obligations that you must do, but are not your favorite. 

Getting solid rest and exercise, engaging in self-care, and having a dedicated work space all also play a part in boosting task/attention management. And, as much as you may not want to hear it, putting down your phone and stepping away from social media will help too. Can Instagram be a nice way to relax? Sure - but it can also suck away your time - so be careful!

When you balance your time by prioritizing tasks and attention, and by learning your best time to produce specific types of work, you will find a steady path ahead!

When to Change it Up & Re-Prioritize

The color-coded calendar that lets you keep track of your life and visualize what matters to you can also help you decide when it is time to make adjustments beyond shifting your work schedule when a big meet or assignment is coming. If you see a consistent pattern of changes it might be time to reflect on what matters most to you. Work? The track team? Academics? Calendars, planners, and to-lists can help you organize and prioritize your time, but they can't tell you if you're spending your time in ways you find meaningful (although if you feel a sense of dread as you look at your next block of time, that could be one indication).

If you find yourself overwhelmed and not quite as into your activities as you have been in the past, it might be time to take a step back and reflect. Is it hard to find time to do your school work? Maybe you keep having to cancel on friends? Overcommitting is common. And there are solutions. 

Let your grown-ups know. Sit down with your parents. Talk to your school counselor or favorite teacher. And, if you are working with a private college admissions counselor, ask them to help you prioritize. Even the most organized and balanced among us need to regroup. My career spans 30 years, and this is a classic conversation I have with students. You are not alone if you feel stressed and overloaded; lots of people care and can listen and help.

Doing what matters to you helps you be the best version of yourself you can be! And that is what colleges seek. So, find your system, manage your attention and tasks, find your productive time, and go for it. Take care to reflect and make choices as needed. Before you know it, you will be doing this and more - but with a much more open schedule - at college! 

Do you or someone you know need an extra pair of hands when it comes to balancing academics, exploring extracurriculars, and preparing for college applications? We're here to help!

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About Us: With more than twenty years of experience, Collegewise counselors and tutors are at the forefront of the ever-evolving admissions landscape. Our work has always centered on you: the family. And just like we’ve always done, we look for ways for your student to be their best self - whether in the classroom, the applications, or in the right-fit college environment. Our range of counseling ,  test prep ,  academic tutoring , and essay management, all with the support of our proprietary platform , lead to 4x higher than average admissions rates. 

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Homework or Personal Lives?

Many students get home and the first thing they do is homework. They’re pressured by their parents to do their homework while simultaneously being encouraged to spend time with family, eat, spend time with friends, go outside, participate in sports or other extracurricular activities, and sleep for 7+ hours. Rather than motivating students to master material and learn efficiently, homework negatively impacts students by taking away from personal time that is necessary for them to lead balanced lives.

In an article published by The Washington Post by Gerald K LeTendre, a professor of education in education policy studies at Penn State, states that, “Worldwide, homework is not associated with high national levels of academic achievement.” This means that there is no direct correlation between homework and test grades, and very few studies have been able to prove this, and the ones that have were more of a reach. At Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia,  16 out of 19 of the students in Fire Stream agreed that homework adds extra stress onto them or takes time away from other things that they’re encouraged to do, such as sports, extra classes, extracurricular activities, family time, etc. This means that just over 84% of students in Fire Stream have agreed that homework is added stress and takes time away from things that they’re encouraged to do outside of school. Many students participate in these activities because they’re passionate about them and it makes them happy. Sports and exercise is proven to relieve stress, homework adds stress and if time for this stress reliever is taken away that just means more stress, this can cause more problems in many aspects of their lives.

In an article written by CNN about how homework has been banned in some cities and not others, “What is clear is that parents and kids don't live in the world of academic research; they live in the real world where there are piles of homework on the kitchen table.” Meaning that students don’t have the luxury of just easily saying that homework helps their academic performance or not, and they don’t have the luxury of just not doing homework. That is especially true to highschool students who have to regularly chose between sleep and doing work, especially when they get homework from every class every night and homework can be up to 30% of their grade. Students in every grade get piles of homework and a lot of the time they don’t have resources on hand to see if they’re right or to get help, meaning they might do it wrong and not learn anything at all.  Even if students do try and do their homework it might take a while, according to Nationwide Children’s Hospital adolescents should be getting 9 to 9 ½ hours of sleep per night. Due to homework and trying to fit other after school activities in many adolescents don’t get the necessary amount of sleep. Sleep deprivation in teens has many negative effects such as mood changes, being more inclined to engage in risky behavior such as driving fast, drinking, etc, doing worse in school, and declined cognitive abilities.

In an article published by the New York Times, a mother explained how… , “The stress homework places on families starts early.” The article also talks about how homework takes away from family time and family activities. The author also says that her kids “are fighting not just over the homework, but also over their share of my coveted attention and my unique ability to download and print images.” This shows how homework adds extra pressure and can cause tension in families. It takes away from family time and causes more stress on students and parents. It’s almost as if once children start school and the homework starts that it never stops, and that more family time is taken away while more stress is added.

In a study concluded in 2003 by Dr. Harris Cooper he tries to argue that homework has a positive effect on students, but his studies also found no direct correlation between increased homework for students and improved test scores. Cooper himself said that “The analysis also showed that too much homework can be counter-productive for students at all levels.” Meaning that excessive amounts of homework can cause negative effects on students, but who is judging what excessive amounts of homework means? He talks about the “10 minute rule” meaning that every grade that a student increases they should get 10 more minutes of homework, meaning that a second grader should get 20 minutes, and a twelfth grader should get around 2 hours of homework. That would seem ideal, but in most high school settings teachers don’t interact with each other to see how much homework each of them give to equal it out to around 2 hours. This means that one class’s homework could take a student 2 hours alone and that would be what the ideal amount of homework is, so if it takes 2 hours for one class’s homework then how are students supposed to have positive benefits from doing all of their homework? Cooper’s research was also limited because very little research was done to see if student’s race, socioeconomic status, or even their ability levels has an affect on how much homework is “good” for said age range. This means that other aspects than just that they’re students in a certain grade weren’t taken into consideration. These things could cause major changes to the data that was collected.

Rather than encouraging students to master material and learn efficiently, homework negatively impacts students and families by causing more stress and taking away from family time. This is a problem not just for the overworked students, but also for students who have more complex personal lives. Many students work or have family obligations that they have to deal with, but don’t necessarily feel comfortable talking to a teacher about them. Although teachers might not think that the amount of homework that they give matters much,its influence goes beyond giving students work to do at home to how they interact in other important personal aspects of their life.

Works Cited:

LeTendre, Gerald K. “Homework Could Have an Effect on Kids’ Health. Should Schools Ban It?” The Washington Post , WP Company, 2 Sept. 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/02/homework-could-have-an-effect-on-kids-health-should-schools-ban-it/?utm_term=.3ed6d0fa2c72.

Kralovec, Etta. “Should Schools Ban Homework?” CNN , Cable News Network, 5 Sept. 2014, www.cnn.com/2014/09/05/opinion/kralovec-ban-homework/index.html.

Dell'Antonia, Kj. “Homework's Emotional Toll on Students and Families.” The New York Times , The New York Times, 12 Mar. 2014, parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/homeworks-emotional-toll-on-students-and-families/.

“Duke Study: Homework Helps Students Succeed in School, As Long as There Isn't Too Much.” Duke Today , Duke Today, 7 Mar. 2006, today.duke.edu/2006/03/homework.html.

“Sleep in Adolescents (13-18 Years).” Sleep in Adolescents :: Nationwide Children's Hospital , www.nationwidechildrens.org/sleep-in-adolescents

Comments (1)

Mindy Saw (Student 2019)

A question that I have after reading this is in what other ways can we as students improve our learning without homework?

This 2fer has changed my opinion about how much homework affects a student's life in a bad way more than a good way.

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homework effect on extracurricular activities

It Doesn’t Have to be Homework vs. Extracurricular Activities: You Can Find a Balance

  • By Emily Summers
  • October 17, 2019

Extracurricular activities does wonders for school-age children, from teaching them new skills and helping them socialize, to developing their passions and providing a constructive outlet for their energy (not to mention act as a stress reliever from school-related stressors).

Of course, this isn’t even mentioning that most colleges prefer kids with tons of extracurricular activities on the grounds that this makes them well-rounded and accomplished individuals. However, with the sheer amount of activities now available to children, and with the pressure that college admission committees put on these kids to have as many extracurricular activities as they can have, what was supposed to be fun, after-school activities, becomes just another form of homework they need to do.

Speaking of homework, high school students on average need to finish around 3 and a half hours of homework per day . This is on top of the extracurricular activities that kids are ‘encouraged’ (read: pressured) to have, leading many to debate whether homework or extracurricular activities are more important, or if they’re doing too much of either.

Keeping your child’s body and mind engaged in fruitful activities is all well and good, but how much is too much? And if you had to choose, which one is more important: homework or extracurricular activities?

It turns out, you don’t have to choose one over the other, and knowing when it gets too much for your child is as easy as paying attention to how they’re responding to both.

Structured Free Time vs. Unstructured Play

homework effect on extracurricular activities

In order to acquire a balance between homework and extracurricular activities without putting too much stress or pressure on a developing child, many psychiatrists and educators advocate finding a balance between what they call ‘structured free time’ and unstructured play.

Structured free time is when a child is given free time outside of school work to pursue certain passions and activities, but with those activities having a structured schedule that helps maximize the free time they get. This is in contrast to unstructured play, where kids are given free rein to do whatever they want in an allotted amount of time.

Debates rage on about whether or not structured or unstructured free time is more or less beneficial to children, but one thing is for sure: finding the right balance between a structured schedule and allowing your child the autonomy to pursue what they want is the right way to go.

Having structured free time helps your child transition from homework to extracurricular activities without losing the discipline and rigor they learned from the former. An after-school schedule that gives children enough time to finish their homework and engage in their extracurriculars optimizes the limited time that they get while allowing them enough time for sleep and rest. More importantly for older students, structured free time goes a long way to preventing dangerous behaviors like substance abuse or violence.

Meanwhile, allowing your child to have unstructured play is equally important, as this teaches them critical life skills like autonomy, self-direction, decision-making, and independence, not to mention allowing them the opportunity to socialize with children their age. Artistic pursuits have been proven to help children with their self-esteem and creativity, all of which leads to a healthier, well-rounded identity development.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

homework effect on extracurricular activities

Of course, too much of a good thing can be bad; overscheduling homework and extracurricular activities can lead to undue stress on children. While stress is a natural part of life, too much of it, especially for a developing child, can do so much more harm than good.

Overscheduling too many things at any given time spreads out a child’s physical and mental focus too thinly, leading to a decline in mastery, the exact opposite of what parents try to achieve when they schedule homework and extracurricular activities. The fatigue alone can be bad enough, but that kind of mental exhaustion can severely affect teenagers and can potentially lead to depression or anxiety.

Often, parents see all the great extracurricular activities that are on offer and sign up their child for as many as they possibly can, in the hopes that college admission committees see this and favor their child better. However, for admission committees, it’s less about how many extracurricular activities your child goes through, but more of the quality of their focus, both in accomplishing their homework while having extracurriculars after school.

That’s the whole point of being a ‘well-rounded individual’: having a balance of academic excellence, creativity, athletics, socialization, and leadership. It’s not a numbers game, it’s all about looking it at how a child manages to juggle friends, school, and sports while finding the time to rest in between.

Finding the Balance

homework effect on extracurricular activities

All of this information begs two questions: one, how much homework is too much homework, and two, how many extracurricular activities is too many ? While there is no hard number for either of these things, many child psychologists give a very simple answer: if it starts interfering with your child’s life, i.e. if it cuts into their socialization, family time, as well as rest and recreation, then it’s probably way too much.

When it comes to choosing homework vs. extracurricular activities, obviously homework should come first, but this doesn’t mean that your child will no longer have time for their non-academic pursuits. However, this also doesn’t mean that your child’s extracurricular activities should interfere with their studies. And neither of those two should interfere with your child’s social and familial life.

As parents, you’ll need to be able to communicate with your child openly to determine whether or not they’re getting too stressed out with everything they’re doing and how you can fix it. Remember: no two kids are the same, some might do well with a highly structured play type of schedule, while others might require more unstructured play. Try to alleviate the pressure of college admissions by reminding your child that focus is better than quantity, and that while homework is important, so is being a well-rounded individual.

Finding the balance between homework and extracurricular activities then depends on your child, and finding that out is as simple as talking to them and communicating with them.

About the Author

Emily summers.

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How does homework affect students.

Posted by Kenny Gill

Homework is essential in the learning process of all students. It benefits them in managing time, being organized, and thinking beyond the classroom work. When students develop good habits towards homework, they enjoy good grades. The amount of homework given to students has risen by 51 percent. In most cases, this pushes them to order for custom essays online. A lot of homework can be overwhelming, affecting students in negative ways.

How homework affects the psyche of students Homework plays a crucial role in ensuring students succeeds both inside and outside the classroom. The numerous hours they spend in class, on school work, and away from family and friends lead to them experiencing exhaustion. Too much homework leads to students becoming disheartened by the school, and it chips away at their motivation for succeeding.

As a result, homework becomes an uphill battle, which they feel they will never win despite putting an effort. When they continue to find homework difficult, they consider other ways of working on it, such as cheating.

Getting enough time to relax, engage with friends and family members helps the students to have fun, thus, raising their spirit and their psyche on school work.  However, when homework exceeds, it affects their emotional well-being making them sad and unproductive students who would rather cheat their way through school.

How does homework affect students?

As a result, they have to struggle with a lack of enough sleep, loss of weight, stomach problems, headaches, and fatigue. Poor eating habits where students rely on fast foods also occasions as they struggle to complete all their assignments. When combined with lack of physical activity, the students suffer from obesity and other health-related conditions. Also, they experience depression and anxiety. The pressure to attend all classes, finish the much homework, as well as have time to make social connections cripples them.

How can parents help with homework? Being an active parent in the life of your child goes a long way towards promoting the health and well-being of children. Participating in their process of doing homework helps you identify if your child is facing challenges, and provide the much-needed support.

The first step is identifying the problem your child has by establishing whether their homework is too much. In elementary school, students should not spend over twenty minutes on homework while in high school they should spend an average of two hours. If it exceeds these guidelines, then you know that the homework is too much and you need to talk with the teachers.

The other step is ensuring your child focuses on their work by eliminating distractions. Texting with friends, watching videos, and playing video games can distract your child. Next, help them create a homework routine by having a designated area for studying and organizing their time for each activity.

Why it is better to do homework with friends Extracurricular activities such as sports and volunteer work that students engage in are vital. The events allow them to refresh their minds, catch up, and share with friends, and sharpen their communication skills. Homework is better done with friends as it helps them get these benefits. Through working together, interacting, and sharing with friends, their stress reduces.

Working on assignments with friends relaxes the students. It ensures they have the help they need when tackling the work, making even too much homework bearable. Also, it develops their communication skills. Deterioration of communication skills is a prominent reason as to why homework is bad. Too much of it keeps one away from classmates and friends, making it difficult for one to communicate with other people.

Working on homework with friends, however, ensures one learns how to express themselves and solve issues, making one an excellent communicator.

How does a lot of homework affect students’ performance? Burnout is a negative effect of homework. After spending the entire day learning, having to spend more hours doing too much homework lead to burnout. When it occurs, students begin dragging their feet when it comes to working on assignments and in some cases, fail to complete them. Therefore, they end up getting poor grades, which affects their overall performance.

Excessive homework also overshadows active learning, which is essential in the learning process. It encourages active participation of students in analyzing and applying what they learn in class in the real world. As a result, this limits the involvement of parents in the process of learning and children collaboration with friends. Instead, it causes boredom, difficulties for the students to work alongside others, and lack of skills in solving problems.

Should students have homework? Well, this is the question many parents and students ask when they consider these adverse effects of homework. Homework is vital in the learning process of any student. However, in most cases, it has crossed the line from being a tool for learning and becomes a source of suffering for students. With such effects, a balance is necessary to help students learn, remain healthy, and be all rounded individuals in society.

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Great info and really valuable for teachers and tutors. This is a really very wonderful post. I really appreciate it; this post is very helpful for education.

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Here's why homework is bad according to research

It is probably best that schools ban homework totally.

Homework might just have some negative effects [Education Hub]

For as long as we can all remember, homework has long been a part of the education system.

Recommended articles.

It is said that homework is a great way to reinforce learning, promote independent study habits, and prepare students for academic success.

However, recent research has revealed that homework might just have some negative effects. These include;

Negative impact on mental health

One reason why homework is bad is that it can have a negative impact on students' mental health. Excessive homework has been linked to increased stress, anxiety, and even depression, particularly among high school students who are already grappling with academic pressure and social obligations.

It reduces family time

Kids and students these days spend a lot of hours in school, and homework can encroach upon valuable family time when they are at home, depriving students of opportunities to bond with their loved ones, pursue hobbies, and engage in extracurricular activities. This lack of balance can lead to feelings of isolation and resentment, ultimately undermining the quality of family relationships.

It's not that effective in reinforcing learning

Contrary to popular belief, research suggests that homework may have limited effectiveness in reinforcing learning, especially when it involves rote memorisation or busywork. Instead of deepening understanding and mastery of concepts, excessive homework can lead to surface-level learning and a focus on grades rather than genuine comprehension.

Loss of interest in learning

Homework leads to stress in some students and this can in turn affect students' intrinsic motivation to learn and explore new ideas. Instead of making them love learning, excessive homework can instil a sense of apathy and disengagement, leading students to view education as a chore rather than a source of inspiration.

Impact on physical health

Spending long hours hunched over textbooks and screens trying to complete homework can take a toll on students' physical health, contributing to issues such as eyestrain, headaches, and poor posture. Lack of sufficient sleep, often a result of late-night homework sessions, can further compound these problems and impair cognitive function.

With these few reasons explaining why homework is bad, it is probably best that schools should ban homework totally. Or maybe I'm being biased because I actually hate doing homework, what do you think?

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Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!

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  1. ≫ Homework and Extracurricular Activities for Students Free Essay

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  6. The Complete List of Extracurricular Activities for Kids

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COMMENTS

  1. Balancing Extracurriculars and Passion with Homework in High School

    extracurricular activities, homework, sports Balancing Extracurriculars and Passion with Homework in High School Extracurriculars can be as important to your students as their homework assignments. Several years ago, my school decided to make homework voluntary and not part of final grades.

  2. More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research

    • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers.

  3. Infographic: How Does Homework Actually Affect Students?

    Extracurricular activities and social time gives students a chance to refresh their minds and bodies. But students who have large amounts of homework have less time to spend with their families and friends. This can leave them feeling isolated and without a support system.

  4. Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

    • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers.

  5. Is homework a necessary evil?

    "Some kids have up to 40 hours a week — a full-time job's worth — of extracurricular activities." And homework is yet one more commitment on top of all the others. ... J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic effects of homework in privileged, high-performing high schools. The Journal of Experimental Education, 81(4), 490-510. doi: 10.1080 ...

  6. Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in

    "Most students, especially at these high-achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends from their families, their extracurricular activities.

  7. Homework or Extracurricular Activities? Why Some ...

    Most children may feel overwhelmed by the amount of homework they have to complete, particularly if they are struggling to understand the material or have other commitments such as extracurricular activities, leading to increased stress and anxiety levels, which can negatively affect their mental and physical health.

  8. The Long-Term Effects of Time Use during High School on Positive

    Homework, Extracurricular Activities, and Time Spent with Peers. Despite some controversy about the drawbacks of too much homework (e.g. Zuzanek, 2009) and the challenges of homework for students with learning disabilities or economically disadvantaged students (Bennet & Kalish, 2006), studies of homework time and effort have consistently demonstrated positive associations with academic ...

  9. Why Homework is Bad: Stress and Consequences

    "School, homework, extracurricular activities, sleep, repeat — that's what it can be for some of these students," said Noelle Leonard, PhD, a senior research scientist at the New York ...

  10. Participation in After-School Extracurricular Activities and Cognitive

    Extracurricular Activities and Cognitive Ability. There are many possible after-school extracurricular activities, ranging from highly structured activities (e.g., club activities) to relatively unstructured activities (e.g., surfing online) ().The after-school extracurricular activities among junior high school students in China mainly include completing homework, attending extracurricular ...

  11. The Balancing Act Homework and Extracurricular Lives in School-Aged

    Higher grades and positive attitudes towards school are secondary effects that extracurricular activities have on students. Self esteem can be a predictor of academic performance. ... At the end of the day, it is a balance between time and aptitude between homework and extracurricular activities, as both are a part of character and brain ...

  12. After-School Extracurricular Activities Participation and Depressive

    The simple effect test indicates that the positive effects of time spent completing homework on depressive symptoms among students from moderate and wealthy families were significant ... Most importantly, extra-curricular activities may play an important role to promote the psychological well-being of students under COVID-19 [76,77]. 6. Conclusions

  13. Is Homework Necessary? Education Inequity and Its Impact on Students

    Excessive homework takes time away from activities that boost students' social-emotional development, such as extracurricular activities, hobbies and socializing. Source: Stanford University, "Stanford Research Shows Pitfalls of Homework," 2014. Students with too much homework may be tempted to cheat.

  14. How to Balance Your Homework With Extracurricular Activities or Friends

    1 Make a "master" to-do list. This is a list of all your academic, extracurricular, and social goals, desires, and obligations. Do this both for short- and long-term goals you'd like to meet. This will allow you to clearly see what your goals and interests are at the moment and will give you an idea of how you should be dividing up your time. [1]

  15. Full article: Extracurricular activities and educational ouctomes

    A particular concern is the potential trade-off between time spent on extracurricular activities and time spent on homework, recreation, and other beneficial activities outside of school (Schmidt, Citation 1983). This trade-off is important since both access to high-quality extracurricular activities and availability of alternative pastimes can ...

  16. How to Balance Homework and Extracurricular Activities

    Try color-coding your time: activities, school, work, fun, etc. - and you will be able to see the larger picture of where you are dedicating your efforts. You might not be able to doodle in the margins as you can with a paper calendar, but an electronic system could be a solid match for you. Ultimately, what counts is that you find the system ...

  17. Homework or Personal Lives?

    They're pressured by their parents to do their homework while simultaneously being encouraged to spend time with family, eat, spend time with friends, go outside, participate in sports or other extracurricular activities, and sleep for 7+ hours.

  18. Find the Balance Between Homework and Extracurricular Activities

    Extracurricular activities does wonders for school-age children, from teaching them new skills and helping them socialize, to developing their passions and providing a constructive outlet for their energy (not to mention act as a stress reliever from school-related stressors).

  19. The impact of extra-curricular activity on the student experience

    In addition to supporting existing theories on the academic and skills acquisition effect of extra-curricular activities, the article contributes by identifying a wide range of additionalities to the student experience that participants attribute to their participation in extra-curricular activities. The modern higher education context

  20. PDF The Benefits of Participating in Extracurricular Activities ...

    Students who participate in extracurricular activities have greater academic success, greater character development, especially in the areas of time-management and leadership skills, more positive social development, and greater interest in community involvement.

  21. Effects of Extracurricular Activities on Students

    Abstract. The students who actively participate in extracurricular activities get a lot of benefits including higher grades, and test scores, higher educational achievements, more regularity in ...

  22. How does homework affect students?

    Extracurricular activities such as sports and volunteer work that students engage in are vital. The events allow them to refresh their minds, catch up, and share with friends, and sharpen their communication skills. ... Burnout is a negative effect of homework. After spending the entire day learning, having to spend more hours doing too much ...

  23. Extracurricular Activities and Student Outcomes in Elementary and

    Furthermore, as research has shown, educational inequality begins early (Downey 2001; Entwisle, Alexander, and Olson 1997), so this data set permits us to assess the effect of extracurricular participation on achievement when they begin participation in these activities. By focusing on early childhood participation, we are likely identifying ...

  24. Here's why homework is bad according to research

    ADVERTISEMENT. One reason why homework is bad is that it can have a negative impact on students' mental health. Excessive homework has been linked to increased stress, anxiety, and even depression ...