"47% of Elementary Students Spend Daytime at Home Without Adult Supervision Due to School Opening Delays"

On the 8th, a Green Umbrella with the names of 1,004 sponsors was installed at Cheonggyecheon in Seoul. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] Following the postponement of school openings at all levels due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), it was found that nearly half of elementary school students spent weekday afternoons at home without adult supervision.

According to a survey titled "Changes in Daily Life of Children and Adolescents Caused by COVID-19," released on the 3rd by the Green Umbrella Children’s Foundation, 46.8% of elementary school students stayed at home during weekday daytime hours without an adult guardian.

The survey was conducted by the foundation through Korea Research from the 13th to the 24th of last month, targeting 1,009 elementary, middle, and high school students nationwide. Among them, 384 were elementary students, 367 middle school students, and 258 high school students.

Among elementary students, 37.6% responded that they spent time with siblings under 18 years old, and 9.2% said they were alone. For middle school students, 55.9% reported staying at home without adult supervision during weekday daytime, and for high school students, the figure was 64.9%.

Lee Pil-young, Director of the Child Welfare Research Institute at the Green Umbrella Children’s Foundation, said, "The spread of COVID-19 caused the social care system to come to a sudden halt, creating blind spots in care. It is necessary to verify whether there are children and adolescents experiencing severe neglect depending on family structure."

As vacations lengthened and time spent at home increased, lifestyle patterns changed significantly.

First, sleep duration increased. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the average sleep time for children and adolescents on weekdays was 8 hours and 6 minutes, but after COVID-19, it increased by 41 minutes to 8 hours and 47 minutes.

The proportion of those going to bed after midnight rose sharply from 35.1% to 62.3%, showing a shift to a "night owl" lifestyle pattern during the postponed school opening period.

Spending more time at home also increased the proportion of those who talked with their parents for more than 3 hours a day from 11.2% to 29.8%, a rise of 18.6 percentage points.

On the other hand, time spent meeting friends or engaging in physical activities decreased significantly.

The proportion of those who said they had "no time at all to meet and play with friends" increased from 10.3% before COVID-19 to 56.3% after, a rise of 46.0 percentage points. The proportion of those whose exercise or physical activity time (excluding school and academies) was less than 30 minutes per day also rose from 31.2% to 55.6%, an increase of 24.4 percentage points.

Spending most of their time at home led to a significant increase in exposure to the internet and smartphones.

The proportion of those who spent more than 3 hours a day playing on smartphones and tablet PCs increased from 16.1% to 46.2%, a rise of 30.1 percentage points. The proportion of those who communicated online for more than 2 hours a day instead of meeting friends rose from 10.2% to 24.6%, an increase of 14.4 percentage points.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.