Unsupervised free time increases the likelihood that adolescents will engage in violent behavior

 

A study involving more than 58,000 adolescents from 21 countries found that “unstructured free time” – defined as periods without adult supervision or activities guided by educational, cultural, or athletic goals – is strongly associated with delinquent behavior and exposure to violence among young people.

The study was published in May in the journal PLOS ONE by researchers affiliated with the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD) consortium, which brings together teams from various countries to investigate, through anonymous questionnaires, adolescents’ involvement in crimes and their exposure to violence as victims or perpetrators.

“The study shows that unstructured free time is a very important variable for understanding adolescents’ involvement in violence,” says Marina Rezende Bazon, a psychologist  and professor at the Ribeirão Preto Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters at the University of São Paulo (FFCLRP-USP) who coordinates the Brazilian team in the ISRD.

According to her, the concept refers to the time when adolescents decide for themselves what to do without adult supervision or participation in structured activities. “It’s that time when young people wander around without a specific goal, often in contexts of vulnerability and exposure to criminal opportunities,” she explains. 

The study analyzed two main types of unstructured free time: at home, which is especially related to internet use, and outside the home, which involves spending time on the streets, in neighborhoods, and in public spaces without supervision.

The analyses showed that the strongest predictor of involvement in crime is association with delinquent peers. However, unstructured free time was a close second as an important, cross-cultural explanatory factor. That is, it was relevant in explaining young people’s involvement in crime and situations of violence in all the countries surveyed. “When we combine delinquent peers and unstructured free time, we have a particularly problematic combination,” Bazon warns.