Temporal aspects of child and adolescent time allocation in diverse cultural settings have been difficult to model using conventional statistical techniques. A new statistical approach, Egocentric Relational Event Modelling (EREM), allows for the simultaneous modelling of activity frequency, duration, and sequencing. Here, EREM is applied to a focal follow dataset of Congolese BaYaka forager child and adolescent play and work activities. Results show that, as children age, they engage in less frequent and extended play bouts and more frequent and extended work bouts. Bout frequency and duration were a more sensitive measure for early sex differences than overall time allocation. Sequential patterns of work and play suggest that these activities have short-term energetic trade-offs. This article demonstrates that EREM can reveal stable and variable patterns in child development.

使用传统的统计技术很难对不同文化背景下儿童和青少年时间分配的时间方面进行建模。一种新的统计方法，以自我为中心的关系事件建模（EREM），允许同时对活动频率，持续时间和排序进行建模。在这里，EREM被应用到刚果BaYaka觅食的儿童和青少年游戏和工作活动的关注跟踪数据集中。结果表明，随着儿童年龄的增长，他们参加较不频繁和长时间玩耍的比赛以及较频繁和长时间玩耍的比赛。比起总的时间分配，回合频率和持续时间是早期性别差异更敏感的指标。工作和娱乐的顺序模式表明，这些活动需要短期的能量权衡。