HOW CHILDREN SPEND THEIR TIME - A SAMPLE SURVEY FOR USE IN EXPOSURE AND RISK ASSESSMENTS

Children are becoming an increasingly important focus for exposure and risk assessments because they are more sensitive than adults to envir onmental contaminants. A necessary step in measuring the extent of chi ldren's exposure and in calculating risk assessments is to document ho w and where children spend their time. This 1990-1991 survey of 1000 h ouseholds was designed for this purpose, targeting children between 5 and 12 years of age, in six states in varied geographic regions. The b ehavior of children was sampled on both weekdays and weekends over all four seasons of the year using a retrospective time diary to allocate time to activities during the previous 24 h. Information was obtained on the kinds and locations of activities, the nature of the microenvi ronments of the locations, and the time spent in the different environ ments. Measures of variability in addition to mean hours per day are r eported. Results of this study closely match those of earlier research on California children's activities done by the California Air Resour ces Board. One important finding of the survey was that 5- to 12-year- old children in all geographic regions spend most of their time indoor s at home, indicating that risk assessments should focus on indoor, on site hazards.