The majority of students carry out extracurricular activities at some point in their academic life and although when children are younger one of their objectives is to help parents reconcile their children’s school hours with their work hours, it is considers that they provide benefits to minors, since these extracurricular tasks usually include knowledge or the practice of sports that are not taught in normal classes (another language, music, programming, ballet, tennis, martial arts…).
However, virtue is in the middle, and it is just as bad to go too far as to fall short. Now, a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia has found that the time high school students spend on extracurricular activities, such as tutoring, sports, school clubs, and even homework, is negatively affecting their mental health. The study has also revealed that adding additional extracurricular activities is unlikely to bring academic benefits to students.
Although the ideal number of study hours varies from student to student, researchers have concluded that increasing extracurricular activities is probably not beneficial. Contrary to the popular belief that more study time or tutoring leads to good test scores and better grades, this research indicates that students have already reached their limit and that any additional “activity” could prove counterproductive.
“We found that the effect of those additional activities on cognitive skills, that last hour, is basically zero,” said Carolina Caetano, co-author of the study and assistant professor of economics in the Terry College of Business at UGA. “And what is more surprising is that that last hour dedicated to these activities is negatively affecting the child’s non-cognitive skills.” The findings have been published in Science Direct.
Make children’s schedules more flexible so they enjoy more free time
Non-cognitive skills include emotional regulation and well-being, and are related to resilience and communication skills. When analyzing how adolescents spend their time and how this influences cognitive or academic skills versus non-cognitive or social-emotional skills, Caetano noted that most high school students are maximizing the academic benefit of these activities while losing social-emotional skills.
Caetano suggests that it is best to view the relationship between extracurricular activities and these skills as a curve. Initially, an extra hour of studying, tutoring, or formal activity can help students gain more skills and move up the academic skills curve. However, there are only so many hours in a day, and the more time the student dedicates to extracurricular tasks, the less time he or she will have for other activities such as resting, socializing freely, and sleeping.
These activities are also valuable for navigating life and retaining knowledge. If a child does not get enough rest she could lose some of her academic gains because she cannot retain what she has learned, and she could also lose social-emotional gains because she does not socialize enough, or because she becomes stressed. Eventually the losses equal the gains and the benefits of extracurricular activities reach their maximum.
At this point, most students are at the top of the academic skills curve, and any additional enrichment will decrease their academic skills. In addition, this time is subtracted from activities that promote social-emotional skills, which is harmful and can generate anxiety, depression, and outbursts due to being overloaded. In fact, the student would have been better off, in terms of non-cognitive skills, if he had reduced extracurricular activities, Caetano says.
“Non-cognitive skills are very important, not only for future happiness, but also for career success, but people don’t always think about them because they are difficult to measure”
“You have reached the maximum of what you can acquire academically with that job,” he said. “But on the noncognitive skills curve, you’ve passed the peak and entered the downward part of the curve. At that point, you are losing social-emotional skills.” Psychologists and educators have pointed out the potential harm of activity overload for years, Caetano said, and this study provides strong causal evidence to support his argument.
This study used detailed data from 4,300 children from kindergarten to senior year of high school. The researchers examined three age groups: elementary, middle and high school children. High school students face the worst situation, according to Caetano, but that doesn’t mean younger students are doing well. They are at the top of the curve, she said, meaning any additional activity will lead to negative returns.
“If you look at primary and secondary school children, they are at zero performance for both cognitive and non-cognitive skills,” he said. “Although they have not yet entered a negative area, the additional work will probably hurt them.” If anything, Caetano said we should see the situation of younger students as an opportunity to develop more social and non-academic skills. Making children’s schedules more flexible and allowing them to enjoy more free time could lead to emotional regulation skills that will later benefit the crowded college preparation schedule that high school students face.
“Noncognitive skills are very important, not only for future happiness, but also for career success, but people don’t always think about them because they are difficult to measure,” he said. Caetano admits that finding a solution to over-scheduling is difficult. It is important for children to interact with other children without restrictions to develop their non-cognitive skills, and some parents may be concerned about distancing them from more measurable extracurricular activities.
However, the benefit of developing lifelong skills may be more important. “If you reduce children’s activities, they might regress slightly in cognitive skills, but their losses in non-cognitive skills are already so high that the change could be worth it,” Caetano said.
The study doesn’t indicate the perfect number of hours of extracurricular activities, but Caetano says parents should continually evaluate their mental well-being, as well as that of their children. “There will be variation between families, but if I had to give a recommendation I would say that if every time someone tries to meet you to play you are always busy, it is obvious that you are overloaded,” he concludes.
