How urban African American young adolescents spend their time: Time budgets for locations, activities, and companionship

The time budgets of a population of youth provide important information abo ut their daily experience and socialization. This study reports data on the time budgets of a sample of 253 urban African American poor to working- an d middle-class 5th-8th graders in Chicago. These youth were found to spend less time in school than other postindustrial adolescent populations, but s pent no less time doing homework than White suburban US. young adolescents. They spent large quantities of time at home and with their families-at rat es comparable to rates for young adolescents in a society with collectivist values like India. Unlike with other populations, early adolescence was no t associated with major age changes it time allocations. Amount of time in schoolwork did not differ by grade, and amount of time with family did not show the decline with age that has been found for European American suburba n adolescents.