WORK, REST AND LEISURE - TRENDS IN LATE ADOLESCENT TIME USE IN AUSTRALIA IN THE 1990S

Although how teenagers spend their days is fundamentally linked to their psychological and physiological well-being, the analysis of their actual time use is very limited. This paper aims to provide a profile of how young people in late adolescence (between the ages of 15 to 19) spent their time at the end of the 20th century in Australia. The way adolescents spent their school and non-school days in work, rest and leisure were examined using two national time use surveys. Changes in the time use of young people in late adolescence were investigated for the five-year period from 1992 to 1997 in the attempt to find out whether teenagers were working harder and resting or engaging in leisure less. Although Australian teenagers in the late 1990s were spending less time working and more time at leisure, the type of activities they were spending their free time on (watching television and playing computer games) may have a negative impact on their health and well-being.