The risk of ‘overscheduling’ children

Many parents push their children to attend a host of after-school activities like homework guidance, classes to learn new skills, or tutoring to boost school results. But new research unearths a possible negative link between these activities and the childrens’ mental health. 

Take for example extra tutoring after school, classified as ‘enrichment’ activities by the researchers. These work a bit like a curve, they explain: “For a while, an additional hour of studying, tutoring, or formal activity will help students get more skills and climb up the curve of academic skills.” 

“But there is only so much time in the day, and the more time the student spends on enrichment, the less time they can spend on non-enrichment activities such as relaxing, freely socializing, and sleeping. These non-enrichment activities are also valuable for life skills and knowledge retention. If a child does not get enough rest, they could lose some of their academic gains because they cannot retain what they learned.”

If you go over the peak of the curve, it is actually more likely that children lose out in other areas of development, like unrestricted play to develop social skills, or the pressure they experience leads to stress and anxiety. 

These results support a concern that psychologists and educators have been worried about for years: The overscheduling of children under the presumption that more enriching activities lead to more development.  

The study does not provide a specific amount of hours that are ideal but the researchers do provide one helpful tip to manage and detect overscheduling: “If whenever someone contacts you for a play date, you are always scheduled, then it’s very clear that you are overscheduled.”