Middle class angst eased... for now

Here's the latest news on how our hurried, middle class children are faring.

"Dr Hofferth found in her study of 331 children aged from nine to 12 that the best off led a balanced life with involvement in one or two activities, for less than four hours, over the two days tracked in the study. Almost 60 per cent of the children fell into this category. But even the 25 per cent who best fitted the description of "over-scheduled" were doing almost as well on a range of measures".

So the basic message in the rest of the article is that kids who engage in some extracurricular activities can benefit, providing their cortisol levels aren't shooting through the roof. Moderation and balance are key.

Kids with no extracurricular activities however are now in the spotlight as they apparently lack self esteem and social skills. This inevitably, although unwillingly and unwittingly on behalf of the researchers I'm sure, feeds into a 'poor people are responsible for their own poverty' mentality because it will be the poor and disadvantaged children who are less likely to engage in extracurricular activities . Poor social skills and low self esteem are also attributed to children who don't attend early childhood services. It could be interesting to break the research down into which children attended some form of early childhood service and which did not to see how early years education may or may not ameliorate those low self esteem and social skills issues for the children who do not get to engage in regular French, ballet and tennis lessons!