Finite time to learn and play

Annex A. Technical notes on the analysis in this paper

PISA 2022 indices used in this paper

This policy paper uses a few indices derived from the PISA 2022 student questionnaire. These indices summarise responses from students to a series of related questions. The questions were selected from a larger pool on the basis of theoretical considerations and previous research. The PISA 2022 Assessment and Analytical Framework provides an in-depth description of this conceptual foundation.

The PISA index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS)

The PISA index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) is a composite score derived, as in previous cycles, from three variables related to family background: parents’ highest level of education in years (PAREDINT), parents’ highest occupational status (HISEI), and home possessions (HOMEPOS).

• Parents’ highest level of education in years (PAREDINT): Students’ responses to questions ST005, ST006, ST007 and ST008 regarding their parents’ education were classified using ISCED-11 and recoded to derive the highest education levels of parent estimated in years.

• Parents’ highest occupational status (HISEI), Occupational data for both the student’s father and the student’s mother were obtained from responses to open-ended questions. The responses were coded to four-digit ISCO codes (ILO, 2007) and then mapped to the international socio-economic index of occupational status (ISEI) (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 2003[25]). In PISA 2022, the ISCO and ISEI in their 2008 version were used. Three indices were calculated based on this information: father’s occupational status (BFMJ2); mother’s occupational status (BMMJ1); and the highest occupational status of parents (HISEI), which corresponds to the higher ISEI score of either parent or to the only available parent’s ISEI score. For all three indices, higher ISEI scores indicate higher levels of occupational status.

• Home possessions (HOMEPOS) is a proxy measure for family wealth. In PISA 2022, students reported the availability of household items at home, including books at home and country-specific household items that were seen as appropriate measures of family wealth within the country’s context. HOMEPOS is a summary index of all household and possession items (ST250, ST251, ST253, ST254, ST255, ST256). Some HOMEPOS items used in PISA 2018 were removed in PISA 2022 while new ones were added (e.g., new items developed specifically with low-income countries in mind). Furthermore, some HOMEPOS that were previously dichotomous (yes/no) items were revised to polytomous items (1, 2, 3, etc.) allowing for capturing a greater variation in responses.

In PISA 2022, ESCS was computed by attributing equal weight to the three standardised components. The three components were standardised across the OECD countries, with each OECD country contributing equally. The final ESCS variable was transformed, with 0 the score of an average OECD student and 1 the standard deviation across equally weighted OECD countries.

Working for pay before and after school

Students’ answers on how many days during a typical school week they worked for pay before going to school and/or after leaving school in questions ST294 and ST295 were scaled into the index of “Work for pay before or after school”. Each item included six response options (“0 days”, “1 day”, “2 days”, “3 days”, “4 days”, “5 or more days”). Values on this index range from 0 (no work for pay) to 10 (10 or more times of working for pay per week).

Working in household or taking care of family members (WORKHOME)

Students’ answers on how many days during a typical school week they worked in the household or took care of a family member before going to school and/or after leaving school in questions ST294 and ST295 were scaled into the index of “Work in household or take care of family members”. Each item included six response options (“0 days”, “1 day”, “2 days”, “3 days”, “4 days”, “5 or more days”). Values on this index range from 0 (no work in household or care of family members) to 10 (10 or more times of working in household or caring for family members per week).

Sense of belonging (BELONG)

Students’ ratings of their agreement with six statements (e.g., “I feel like I belong at school.”, “I feel lonely at school.”) in question ST034 were scaled into the index of “Sense of belonging”. Note that this scale used a within-construct matrix sampling design and that it was linked to the BELONG scale in PISA 2018. Each of the six items included in this scale had four response options (“Strongly agree”, “Agree”, “Disagree”, “Strongly disagree”). T