More Time Spent on Television and Video Games, Less Time Spent Studying?

This study attempts to characterize the trade-off between time spent on educational activities and that spent on alternative activities such as watching television or playing video games. Utilizing a nationally representative longitudinal dataset, robust evidence was found for a negative causal relationship between time spent on television/video games and that spent studying. However, because the effect size is nearly negligible, the time spent studying appears to be insensitive to these alternative activities. More importantly, this is greatly affected by the parental commitment to a child's study, even after controlling for their employment status and family structure. This suggests that, as compared to intervention to alter a child's learning environment, the direct interplay between parents and children may be a more important determinant of time spent studying.