Introduction

Teenage and early adulthood is a period marked by increasing independence from parents and increasing freedom among young people regarding lifestyle and use of time. It is also a fundamental period for acquiring human, social, and cultural capital (Buchmann, 1989). And yet, not all young people experience their transition to adulthood successfully. While the majority of young people prepare successfully for their future adult roles, others miss out on good opportunities, fail to reach their educational potential, may become entrapped in problem behaviour, and face the risk of permanent exclusion from mainstream society (Macdonald, 1997). Inequalities in the everyday life of young people are substantial and consequential (Green, 1998).

This chapter examines some of these inequalities by analysing the patterns of time use of teenagers and young adults, aged 15 to 24 years old, in four industrialised countries: Austria, Canada, Finland, and Italy. Our aim is to document the inequalities among young people, both between and within countries, as revealed by their patterns of time use. The data used in this chapter provides an extremely rich window into the world of young people, but is unfortunately not completely adequate to capture important differences in the nature and quality of young people’s experiences and daily activities. The chapter summarises a first exploration of time budget data to approach the complex topic of inequalities and social exclusion.

Literature

The literature on successful ageing demonstrates the positive impact of physical activities, social contacts and volunteer work on elderly people’s health and well-being (Palmore, 1979; Rowe and Kahn, 1998). Similarly, the literature on youth points to the importance of formal education, structured extra-curricular activities and voluntary work in keeping young people out of trouble and providing them with the essential skills to enter the labour market and adulthood (Carnegie Corporation, 1992). Participation in structured leisure activities, such as extra-curricular, volunteer and community activities has been found to be associated with higher educational achievement and lower risk of delinquency (Furstenberg and Hughes, 1995). Parents’ involvement with their children, family activities, social contacts with friends, participation in arts, cultural activities and sport have also been shown to have a positive effect on youth development (Larson and Verma, 1999).