Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
On average, a schoolchild spends 48 hours a week studying, which is comparable to a six-day workweek for an adult. Experts spoke about this at the round table “Assessment of areas of children’s well-being for the purpose of developing human potential and developing evidence-based social policy,” which was held as part of XXV Yasinsky (April) International Scientific Conference.
The event was opened by the Vice-Rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Director Institute of Social Policy HSE University Liliya Ovcharova. She noted that children’s well-being is one of the key topics not only on the global agenda, but also in Russian national projects.
The Vice-Rector of the HSE identified two trends that are of greatest concern to experts today: children’s health, including mental health, and their life in the digital environment. “The Internet and gadgets make leisure more accessible and diverse, but at the same time, it is worth considering that the length of time spent in the digital reality is also a threat today,” she emphasized.
The OECD report notes that the optimal time that children and adolescents can spend online without negatively affecting their health and well-being is 2 hours on a working day and 4 hours on a weekend. In reality, children spend much more time in the digital environment.
Head of the departmental project office of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs Leyla Zotova spoke about the measures implemented within the framework of the national project “Youth and Children”. According to her, the national project covers all the main components of children’s well-being: family, environment, relationships with peers, emotional intelligence, support and encouragement of initiatives, physical activity, creativity.
Deputy Vice-Rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Head Center for Research on Population Well-Being and Time Budgets Maria Nagernyak and the center’s expert Natalia Mikhailova spoke about a study devoted to the time budgets of Russian children. The project “Perception of the quality of life by children and parents and children’s time budgets” was implemented within the framework of the project of the world-class Scientific Center “Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Human Potential“.
The study involved over 1,200 parents and their children aged 5–17, with both parents and children filling out questionnaires. It turned out that, on average, a schoolchild spends 48 hours a week studying, which is comparable to a six-day workweek for an adult. In high school (14–17 years old), girls have less time for leisure compared to middle school (11–13 years old), while boys have a stable time. Children of parents with higher education spend more free time on educational activities on weekdays, on average, while children of parents without higher education spend significantly more time on online games on weekdays.
The most fashionable activities among children and their friends are online games, watching short videos and attending sports clubs. On average, children spend about 5.5 hours with gadgets on a weekday, and this time increases with age. Children of parents with a higher level of well-being are more involved in educational and active leisure than children of parents with a lower level of well-being.
Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, Head of the Moscow Bureau of the Regional Office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for Europe and Central Asia, and Karen Avanesyan, Statistician and Monitoring Specialist of the UNICEF Department of Data, Analysis, Planning and Monitoring, shared their international experience and reported on the results of a comparative analysis of children’s well-being in different countries. Kuralai Mukhambetova and Gulaziya Isakhova, representatives of the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (Kazakhstan), and Olga Melnik, an expert from the Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank, shared their countries’ experience in studying and assessing children’s well-being.
The round table was also attended by the Vice-Rector for Development of the Russian State University for the Humanities Sergey Pilipenko and the CEO of the company “Mikhailov and Partners. Analytics” Lyudmila Goryunova, who touched on the topic of bullying and cybersecurity of Russian schoolchildren.
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