Washington — The average American teen-ager spends two days a week unsupervised after school for a total of nearly five hours, according to a national survey released Tuesday by the YMCA of the USA.
The hours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. are the "danger zone," said Kenneth Gladish, executive director of the YMCA. Unsupervised teens are more likely to drink, smoke cigarettes or engage in sexual activity, he said, and don't do as well in school as youngsters who spend more time with a parent or in structured after-school programs.
The national telephone survey of 500 teens between the ages of 14 and 17 also found children from single-parent households tended to be left unsupervised more often than youths in two-parent households. Nearly 49 percent of the teens from single-parent households spend three or more days during the week home alone after school.
Half of the teens surveyed said they wished there were more after-school activities in their communities.
Also, more than 60 percent said their relationship with parents would be better if they spent more time together.
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