Where do they find the time?

Girls in Peel Region spend more time doing homework, volunteering, working part-time or looking after siblings, says an in-depth look at teens in one of Canada’s fastest growing regions.

The survey of 2,187 high school students, conducted by the Peel Children and Youth Initiative, looked at students’ interests and involvement, broken down by gender and family background — given the region’s diversity — and also found that girls of African descent have the highest levels of involvement when compared with other ethnic groups, both male and female.

“Doing things for the community is seen as a good thing, whether that involves helping out friends or neighbours — it’s a really big thing in African cultures,” said Omoye Otoide, an 18-year-old from Mississauga whose father is Nigerian and who has family members in St. Kitts and Trinidad on her mother’s side.

“Participating in different activities and doing well academically is a really big thing, especially for girls,” added Otoide, a first-year University of Guelph student who took part in the Peel survey when it was conducted in 2013 and helped craft it as a volunteer with the youth initiative.

“For girls, and specifically for African cultures, women are seen as the backbone of the family or community” and that is a motivator to “put themselves out there and succeed.”

The Peel survey is in line with a study released this week by the OECD that showed that girls in developed nations spend more time doing homework than boys — with almost a two-hour difference each week among males and females here in Canada.

In Peel, more than half of young women — 54 per cent — report that they study or do homework after school, compared with 31 per cent of boys. They volunteer at higher rates — 25 per cent of them, versus 18 per cent of males — and a higher percentage have part-time jobs.

Boys spend more time playing video games, but they also take part in more physical activity than girls, although girls report being more involved in school sports.

Still, both sexes spend most of their free time hanging out with friends, watching television or spending time on the Internet.

And in a finding that surprised even the researchers, roughly one-third of both males and females reported taking a nap daily of up to one hour.

“I would admit to that,” said 16-year-old Ryan Mullen, who is in Grade 11 at St. Martin Secondary School in Mississauga. “Sometimes it is hard to do that because I have two dogs, but if the opportunity is there, I will take a nap” after school.

Mullen often works the closing shift at his part-time job at Starbucks, and says he’ll do homework on the bus ride there and home. He works about 20 hours a week, plays football and frequently volunteers with a charity that helps the poor.

He said that among his friends, while everyone is busy, the females probably do more homework and activities than the males.

“Girls this young are already multi-tasking in a million ways,” said Heather Krause, research manager for the Peel youth initiative. And while she wasn’t surprised to find a gender gap, “the wideness of it did surprise me — especially in the area of video games and working.”

Krista Murray, communications manager for the youth initiative, said the city of Mississauga has used the data as a planning tool to provide better programming for youth. The data has also led to a region-wide, five-year strategy for youth engagement.

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The data also put to rest the assumption that girls from immigrant families “face unique cultural or religious barriers to participation,” because the data simply didn’t support it, Murray added.

Youth Initiative study findings

Young women are more likely to be employed than young men (36% vs. 30%)

Young women are more likely to provide sibling care (27% vs. 21%)

Young women are more likely participate in sports at their schools (26% vs. 18%)

Young women are much more likely to spend their time studying or doing homework (54% vs. 31%)

Young women are more likely to do volunteer work (25% vs. 18%)

Young men are more likely to be active – moderately (37% vs. 27%) and intensely (45% vs. 25%)

Young men are more likely to play computer or video games(43% vs. 11%)

Both young men and young women may take a nap (31% and 34%)

Source: Peel Children and Youth Initiative

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