This paper presents the first causal estimates of the effect of weather on children's time allocation. It exploits exogenous variations in local weather observed during the random diary dates of two nationally representative cohorts of Australian children whose time-use diaries were surveyed biennially over 10 years. Unfavorable weather conditions, as represented by cold or hot temperature or rain, cause children to switch activities from outdoors to indoors, mainly by reducing the time allocated to active pursuits and travel and increasing the time allocated to media. Furthermore, the effects of bad weather are more pronounced on weekends and for children with asthma. Our results also provide some evidence of adaptation, as temperature tends to have greater impact not only in winter months but also in colder regions. Our findings are robust to a wide range of sensitivity checks, including controlling for individual fixed effects and using alternative model specifications. Overall, the results suggest that extreme weather conditions may diminish children's health, development and long-term achievements through their effects on children's time allocation.

African American female students' elevated suspension risk has received national attention. Despite a number of studies documenting racial/ethnic disparities in African American females' school suspension risk, few investigations have attempted to explain why these disparities occur. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of colorism in explaining suspension risk using a nationally representative sample of adolescent females. Controlling for individual- and school-level characteristics associated with school discipline such as student-teacher relationships, prior discipline history, school size and type, the results indicate that colorism was a significant predictor of school suspension risk. African American female adolescents with darker complexions were almost twice as likely to receive an out-of-school suspension as their White female peers. This finding was not found for African American female students with lighter skin complexions. Implications for adopting a colorist framework for understanding school discipline outcomes and future research for advancing the field in this area are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Summary This paper examines the effects of parental health on cognitive and noncognitive development in Australian children. The underlying nationally representative panel data and a child fixed effects estimator are used to deal with unobserved heterogeneity. We find that only father's serious mental illness worsens selected cognitive and noncognitive skills of children. Maternal poor health also deteriorates some cognitive and noncognitive outcomes of children of lone mothers only. Our results demonstrate that either failing to account for parent–child fixed effects or using child noncognitive skills reported by parents could overestimate the harmful impact of poor parental health on child development.