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JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, 19(1), 151–172 r 2009, Copyright the Author(s) Journal Compilation r 2009, Society for Research on Adolescence

Academic Achievement and Adolescents’ Daily Time Use in the Social and Academic Domains
Melissa R. Witkow
Willamette University

The present study used the daily diary method to investigate the role of achievement in adolescents’ patterns oftime use in the academic and social domains. A diverse sample of over 700 ninth grade students completed three-page checklists every night for 14 consecutive nights, providing information on their time use for the day. As hypothesized, averaged over the 14-day study period, high achieving adolescents spent more time studying without spending less time with their friends than lower achieving students.However, differences between high and low achieving students were not just in their average time use, but also varied on a daily basis. These daily differences helped explain how high achieving students were able to spend more time overall than lower achieving students across these two domains. The role of achievement in adolescents’ time use patterns was similar for boys and girls and acrossethnic groups.

Two of the major contexts of life during adolescence in American society are the school and the peer group (Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1998), and success in each of these domains is associated with a host of positive adjustment outcomes. Successful peer relationships during adolescence are associated with academic achievement and motivation (e.g., SavinWilliams & Berndt, 1990; Wentzel,Barry, & Caldwell, 2004), psychological well-being (e.g., Hartup & Stevens, 1997; Hussong, 2000), and reduced risk
Requests for reprints should be sent to Melissa R. Witkow, Department of Psychology, Willamette University, 900 State Street, Salem, OR 97301. E-mail: mwitkow@willamette.edu This article was based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of California, Los Angeles.152

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of criminality and psychopathology (Parker & Asher, 1987). In turn, academic success is associated with indicators of social competence (e.g., Wentzel, 1991), and persistence toward high school graduation is central for future educational and occupational opportunities (Halperin, 1998). However, while success in each domain is important, they are not equally immediately rewardingto adolescents. While spending time with friends is associated with positive affect during adolescence, spending time on schoolwork is more likely to be described in negative terms (Csikszentmihalyi & Hunter, 2003; Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1984; Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998; Larson, 2001; Leone & Richards, 1989), and rewards in the academic domain during adolescence are more oftenextrinsic and based on long-term expectations. Overall, these differences between the two domains are associated with an increase in the amount of time that individuals spend with their friends from childhood to adolescence (Larson & Richards, 1991) and a decrease in motivation in school and a desire to spend time on school-related activities (e.g., Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried, 2001). Even with thistrend toward a loss of motivation and interest in schoolwork, however, there are students who continue to do well in school during adolescence. Further, these high achieving adolescents do not differ from their lower achieving peers in terms of the negative affect associated with spending time on homework (Leone & Richards, 1989). High achieving adolescents also tend to be just as successful intheir social relationships as their lower achieving peers (e.g., Savin-Williams & Berndt, 1990; Wentzel et al., 2004). The current body of research does little to address how high achieving adolescents are able to be successful in both domains or how the social and academic behaviors of adolescents differ depending on how successful they are at school. Instead, much of the existing research on...