High school girls spend about an hour more per week on their homework than their male counterparts, researchers at American University have found.
Their study, published last month in Educational Researcher, analyzed time-diary data from the American Time Use Survey and survey data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002.
The study found a gender gap of about 1.2 hours of nonschool study time per week. Boys on average spent a total of 4.33 hours a week on homework, while girls worked 6.33 hours. Researchers also noted additional gender gaps in both “during school” and “total” work time outside of classes, suggesting that boys tend not to compensate for missed homework during study halls.
The survey data also showed that boys were twice as likely as girls to participate in organized activities like sports on diary-entry days, while girls were two-thirds more likely to spend time caring for children in their households. But the gender differences in how students spent their time after school do not explain the overall differences in study time, researchers said.
