The Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) asks children how many days in the past week they participated in organized activities between 3pm and 6pm.
Sometimes children in the middle years are not participating in after-school activities because the options available do not interest them. The MDI gives children a chance to identify the activities they wish to be doing.
Children also have the opportunity to describe the reasons they are not doing the activities they wish they could be doing. These barriers may include having to go straight home from school, being over-scheduled, having too much homework, or concerns about cost and transportation.
For more detailed information on the measures included in the Use of After-school Time dimension of the MDI including a full list of questions that contribute to each measure, how each measure is scored, and how the results are visualized, please consult the MDI Companion Guide.
A field guide to well-being in the middle years
A powerful tool to understand and support children’s well-being and positive development in the middle years
Faculty of Medicine
School of Population & Public Health
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