Patterns of everyday activities across social contexts.

Abstract

Social-scientific theory and research give rise to conflicting expectations regarding the extent to which individuals' everyday lives in modern society follow predictable patterns of behavior. Much previous research has addressed this issue implicitly by documenting widespread trends in patterns of "time use" or "time allocation," including trends in time devoted to paid work, unpaid work, and leisure. This study expands on this research by examining common patterns with respect to not how much time individuals spend on certain everyday activities (e.g., leisure), but rather how those activities are sequenced throughout the day. Using sequence methods and cluster analysis, we analyze a large collection of harmonized time diaries from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS), including diaries from 23 countries and dating back to 1961. Our analysis of these diaries reveals eight common everyday sequence patterns-including different paid work, unpaid work, and leisure clusters. This same set of patterns reappears in a generally similar distribution across the different countries and time periods that are included in the MTUS sequence data. This study has implications for how analysts study time diary data and raises important questions about the causes and consequences of individuals' experiences with particular behavioral sequences.