Finite time to learn and play

Executive summary

This PISA policy paper discusses the relationship between the intensity of online leisure time and students’ well-being and their academic performance. It builds upon earlier findings from PISA 2018 and PISA 2022 and investigates in more depth how 15-year-old students use their leisure time. It explores also the trade-offs they make between digital leisure and learning on the one hand, and digital leisure and other uses of time outside of learning. As time is finite, how students balance their use of time is important for their overall development and learning. This paper sheds light on some of these trade-offs in the digital age to support whole student development.

Students’ digital leisure habits outside of school

Fifteen-year-old students spend an average of 16% of their waking time on a weekday on digital leisure activities outside of school. On average, one in four students in OECD and high-income countries and economies spend more than four hours on digital leisure activities before or after school per day. This share varies from less than 10% in Paraguay, Viet Nam, Peru, Japan and Cambodia to over 40% in Poland and Estonia.

There is a trade-off between time spent on learning and digital leisure time outside of school. Countries in which students spend more time on digital leisure outside of school tend to report lower average homework time than other countries. For example, students in Finland reported one of the lowest average amounts of time spent on homework per day among PISA-participating countries and economies (0.8 hours) and one of the highest average amounts of time on digital devices for leisure before or after school (three hours). Within countries and economies, students who spend an excessive amount of time on digital leisure activities before or after school spend slightly less time on average on homework than those who spend less time on digital leisure activities.

Additionally, there are notable trade-offs in how students use their non learning time outside of school. Spending over four hours a day on digital leisure activities is associated with exercising less before or after school and helping out at home before or after school slightly less often. A trade-off between digital leisure and part-time employment is also observed in some countries and economies, and on average across OECD countries. Students who spend more than four hours a day on digital leisure activities also participate slightly less in weekly creative activities in some PISA participating countries and economies. These trade-offs do not indicate a cause-and-effect relationship. It’s also possible that students who spend time on other non-learning activities outside school simply have less time available for digital leisure.

Digital leisure time and students’ academic performance and sense of belonging at school

Contrary to digital leisure in school, spending time on digital devices for leisure outside of school, when it does not interfere directly with learning time -for example at the same time as time dedicated to doing homework, is not necessarily associated with lower performance scores and well-being at school. Moderate users of digital devices for leisure (two to four hours per day outside of school) tend to have higher mathematics performance than those who spend either less or more time on digital devices for leisure. This curvilinear relationship is observed across PISA 2022 participating countries, regardless of the national average time spent on digital leisure outside of school. For example, Estonia, the OECD country with the highest average time on digital leisure activities before or after school (3.7 hours) and Japan, with the lowest OECD average digital leisure time (one hour), both show the same shape of the relationship between digital leisure time and performance, with tipping points at two and four hours.

Moreover, students who spend an excessive amount of time on digital devices for leisure (over four hours per day outside of school) have a lower sense of belonging at school. However, different relationship is observed between digital leisure time outside of school and overall life satisfaction. Students who spend more than two hours a day on digital leisure activities are less satisfied with their lives overall than those who spend less time.

Excessive digital leisure time and student engagement with learning and schooling

Students who spend an excessive amount of time on digital recreation are more likely to be disengaged from school than those with more restrained use. Excessive users are more likely to skip or arrive late to school than those with moderate use. For example, in Korea and Viet Nam, students who spend at least four hours on digital devices for leisure before or after school are twice more likely to skip school than their peers after accounting for socio-economic status and mathematics performance.

Spending excessive time on digital recreation is associated not only with lower students’ engagement in school activities but also with lower motivation to learn. Students who spend 4 hours or more on digital devices for leisure before or after school are less likely to report loving to learn things in school on average across OECD countries.

Excessive digital leisure time and digital anxiety

Excessive users of digital devices for recreation suffer more from digital anxiety than more moderate users. Digital anxiety is defined as feeling anxious or nervous more than half of the time when students’ digital device is not nearby. Among those spending an excessive amount of time on digital leisure activities (more than four hours before or after school), over a quarter of students reported a dependency on, and anxiety related to, their digital device. In Türkiye, for example, about half (45%) of students who spend four hours or more on digital devices before or after school reported suffering from digital anxiety. Digital anxiety accounts for some of the observed difference in performance and sense of belonging between these two groups.

Students’ overall development and policy takeaways

Students who balance a moderate use of digital devices for leisure with a moderate time spent on homework, tend to have both higher academic and well-being outcomes than their peers. However, those who spend a moderate time on homework but an excessive amount of digital leisure time report a lower life satisfaction than their peers with more moderate use of digital devices for leisure. This indicates that, as hours in a day are limited, in order to maintain moderate learning time outside of schools, students who spend excessive time on digital leisure may be sacrificing other activities that are essential to their well-being. For example, those who spend an excessive amount of time on digital leisure have little time to dedicate to physical exercise outside of school, particularly if they strive to spend at least a moderate amount of time on homework.

This paper’s findings can be summarised in three key takeaways for policy and practice:

1. Provide guidance to students and families on strategies to regulate the time spent on digital leisure activities outside of school.

2. Provide additional support and tools to students from disadvantaged households to access and regulate their digital leisure time outside of school.

3. Support and stimulate participation in offline leisure activities outside school such as sports, music, and arts, which are important to students physical and mental well-being.

Finally, as is the case with all PISA analyses, it is worth remembering that this paper does not establish causality between digital leisure time outside of school and school-related outcomes. Further analysis and study are needed to understand the causes of the observed relationships between digital leisure time and students’ performance and well-being.

Some further areas of investigation are identified:

1. Further investigate the relationship between moderate use of digital leisure outside of school and well-being.

2. Further investigate the relationship between anxiety and digital leisure time.

3. Further investigate the relationship between digital leisure at school and learning and well-being outcomes at school