Adolescence during a pandemic: Examining US adolescents’ time use and family and peer relationships during COVID-19

Public health recommendations to slow the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in closing schools and businesses and encouraging social distancing, which has reshaped adolescents’ ecologies. Adolescents’ time use during the pandemic offers insight into their lived experiences in unprecedented times, and adolescents’ activities may be shaped in important ways by their relationships and social locations. This study used a person-centered approach to describe distinct profiles of time use and examined the role of demographics, parent conflict, parent support, and friend support in differentiating time use profiles. Using a non-representative national U.S. sample of 555 adolescents, latent profile analysis of hours spent in 14 activities in a typical day identified three typologies of time use. Youth in the Education-Focused group were more likely to be male, had higher parent support, and had lower support from friends. High Media Users were more likely to be female and LGBQ-identifying and had lower parent support and higher friend support. Work-Focused youth, who were distinguished by working for pay, were more likely to be female and spend more time with friends in person. This pattern of findings suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic may be creating distinct trade-offs between family and friend support that map onto how adolescents are spending their time. Results have implications for ways to strengthen relational supports and reconsider the risks and benefits of different types of time use during this stressful period in history.