Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The meanings of time for children have been largely neglected in sociological studies of time use and studies of children's everyday lives, and there is generally a lack of in-depth empirical knowledge about how children spend and conceive of time. This study aimed to fill the gap in the literature through providing extensive qualitative and quantitative data on children's everyday time use at home and at school. The project aimed to provide a broad understanding of children's time by asking respondents how they spend their time and how much say they have in the matter. Focusing on children undergoing transition from primary to secondary school (conventionally perceived as a period of great change for children), the research explored the relationships between patterns of social organisation and children's age, independence and social competence. The study concentrated on children's experiences and practices of time in the home and at school. The project studied seventy 10-year-old children in Year 6 in three primary schools and two secondary schools in urban and rural settings in the north of England and followed a self-selected group of these children through the transition to secondary school. Ethnographic methods were used to study the children, and from these a quantitative questionnaire was developed. Data was then triangulated and the significance of key differentials such as gender and location for understanding children's time use was assessed. The UK Data Archive holds data from the questionnaire study only.

Main Topics:

The questionnaire gathered data on: gender, housing, household composition, household economic activity, journeys to and from school, timekeeping, school time, attitudes to particular curriculum subjects, extra-curricular activites, breaktimes, friends and peers, school work, homework, teachers, bullying, worries over school transition, 'growing up', overall attitudes to school, household chores, decision-making regarding timekeeping, parental control and discipline, leisure time activities, family members, effect of parents' working time on activities, holidays, attitudes to the future and any career plans.

Purposive selection/case studies

Self-completion