Finite time to learn and play

This policy paper examines how much time 15-year-old students dedicate to digital leisure outside of school and explores the relationship between digital leisure and students’ learning outcomes and well-being at school. The paper finds that when digital leisure takes place outside school hours, it is only after 4 hours a day that the relationships between time spent on digital leisure and students’ mathematics scores and sense of belonging at school are negative. Students who balance a moderate use of digital devices for leisure with a moderate time spent on learning outside of school have both higher academic and well-being outcomes than their peers.