COVID-19 is one of the most dangerous diseases in the present day, due to its high transmission rate and massive death tolls. Many cities across the world have shut down, instituting mandatory curfews, implementing social distancing, and... more
COVID-19 is one of the most dangerous diseases in the present day, due to its high transmission rate and massive death tolls. Many cities across the world have shut down, instituting mandatory curfews, implementing social distancing, and closing all but essential businesses. Schools also closed or went online for the rest of the 2020 spring semester. This study investigates whether such a transition had a large effect on the time allocation of US high school students, in four specific activities: sleeping, gaming, social media use, and schoolwork. The study also investigates other factors such as gender, race, grade level, region, grades, parental restrictions on screen time, and family bonding time to see if they had any effect on time use changes due to COVID-19. We hypothesize that COVID-19 would lead to more time spent on all four activities, and the changes in time allocations would be affected by all of the factors mentioned. Ultimately, we found that the time spent on sleeping, gaming, and social media all increased due to COVID-19, however the magnitude of the difference in time spent before and during COVID-19 depended on all the factors investigated.
