Time-diary Studies Research Articles

Does home media use predict preschoolers’ skill gains? A time diary study.

Does home media use predict preschoolers’ skill gains? A time diary study.

Bias in estimated working hours in time diary research: The effect of cyclical work time patterns on postponing designated registration days

Due to the diversification and fragmentation of working time arrangements, the organisation of working weeks now differ substantially from each other. To account for week-to-week variability in working time estimates in time diary research, it is important that respondents keep their time diaries on designated registration days. At the same time, this week-to-week variability might lead respondents to postpone their participation to convenient registration days. Research shows that, due to diverse time cycles, postponing participation leads to substantial bias. However, these findings pre-date online time diary methodologies. In online time diary studies, algorithms assign registration days and, therefore, postponement is solely done at the convenience of the respondent and no longer relies on the availability of the interviewer. Analyses of online time diary data from Flemish (Belgian) teachers (ndiary days = 59,969; nteachers = 8567) reveal that postponement depends on (the day in) the time cycle. This postponement is partially selective and thus leads to biased working time estimates. Some oversampling strategies are suggested to account for this possible bias, but a designated, consecutive 7-day time diary approach with postponement remains the recommended standard for collecting reliable working time estimates.

Does Diary Mode Matter in Time-Use Research?

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in the use of new technologies for time-use data collection, driven by their potential to reduce survey administration costs and improve data quality. However, despite the steady growth of studies that employ web and app time diaries, there is little research on their comparability with traditional paper-administered diaries that have long been regarded as the “gold standard” for measurement in time-use research. This paper investigates diary mode effects on data quality and measurement, drawing on data from a mixed-mode large-scale time diary study of adolescents in the United Kingdom. After controlling for observable characteristics associated with diary mode selection and adolescent time-use, we find that web and app diaries yield higher quality data than paper diaries, which attests to the potential of new technologies in facilitating diary completion. At the same time, our analysis of broad time-use domains does not find substantial mode effects on measurement for most daily activity categories. We conclude by discussing avenues for future methodological research and implications for time-use data collection.

Associations Between Adolescent Depression and Self-Harm Behaviors and Screen Media Use in a Nationally Representative Time-Diary Study.

Screen media use is associated with mental health problems among adolescents. However, few studies have examined screen media use using contemporaneous time diaries (rather than retrospective reports), compared associations across specific screen media activities or by gender, or examined associations with self-harm behaviors. Participants were 13- to 15-year-old adolescents completing time diaries (n = 4,252) for one weekday and one weekend day in the 2015 administration of the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative birth cohort study of UK adolescents. Participants also completed a measure of depressive symptoms and reported whether they had engaged in self-harm in the last year. Girls who spent 2 + hrs/day, compared to < 2h/day, on digital media were more likely to self-harm (for social media use, adjusted relative risk [ARR] for self-harm = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.17, 1.82; for internet use, ARR = 1.80 [1.20, 2.70]). Girls spending more time on digital media were also more likely to be depressed (for social media, ARR = 1.29 [1.03, 1.63]; for internet use, ARR = 1.75 [1.19, 2.59]). Associations with gaming, texting/e-mailing, and TV/video watching among girls were mostly not significant. Associations for boys were mostly not significant. Girls who use digital media (especially social media and the internet) more hrs/day are more likely to have clinically significant levels of depressive symptoms and prior history of self-harm, though gaming, texting/e-mailing, and TV/video watching showed few associations. Screen media use was mostly not significantly associated with self-harm or depression among boys.

What do people learn from following the news? A diary study on the influence of media use on knowledge of current news stories

One of the main functions of news media in democracies is informing the citizenry on day-to-day affairs. However, the way in which citizens gather news has changed as nowadays people have more opportunities than ever before to adapt their media consumption based on their preferences. One of the major game changers was the introduction of social media. This raises the question to what extent traditional media still contribute to people’s knowledge of current affairs. Using a time-diary study in the Flemish media context, we investigate the influence of different forms of news consumption on current news knowledge. We conclude that traditional (print and audiovisual) media, including popular outlets, continue to be the major contributors to people’s knowledge about current affairs and that social media hardly contribute at all.

Estimates of Law Enforcement Costs by Crime Type for Benefit-Cost Analyses

Crime is an important outcome in many social policy evaluations. Benefits to society from preventing crime are based on avoiding victimization and freeing criminal justice system resources. For the latter, analysts need information about the marginal cost of policing for different types of crime across jurisdictions; however, this information is not readily available. This paper details key economic concepts relevant to law enforcement services, and then combines publicly available police expenditure data with insights from observational and time-diary studies to generate state-level, crime-specific, average variable cost estimates for crime-response services conducted by police by crime type. Since there is considerable uncertainty concerning various parameters underpinning these calculations, we use Monte Carlo simulation methods to incorporate the uncertainty into our estimates. This study finds that the U.S. population-weighted average variable cost of law enforcement response per police-reported Part 1 violent crime is $10,900, ranging from $6900 to $15,400 at the 10th and 90th percentiles, respectively. For a Part 1 property crime, the equivalent figure is $1300, with a range from $700 to $1700.

Quantifying patron time-use of a public library

Purpose – This paper summarizes a time-diary study of a Canadian public library that estimated the hours spent by patrons using library facilities and circulated collections during a month. The purpose of this paper is to convert conventional library statistics into a metric more understandable to external stakeholder groups: time. Design/methodology/approach – Paper-based time-diaries collected data on the patron use of circulated library materials throughout the loans cycle and exit surveys measured the duration of branch visits. This data along with gate and circulation statistics were used to estimate hours of patron residency in library branches and the time spent consuming borrowed materials. Findings – Patrons used the services, facilities and collections of Prince George Public Library’s Bob Harkins branch for an estimated 182,000 hours during August 2013. Over 90 per cent of use occurred offsite through the consumption of circulated materials by diarists and secondary use of borrowed items by their families and friends. Practical implications – Conventional statistics understate the utilization of public library resources as most of their use occurs outside the library branches, a different usage pattern than for other municipal services. This study suggests that all library use is potentially measurable using a single metric, hours of patron use. The value of a time metric, once methodologically sound, is its usefulness as a measure of library performance and its convertibility in dollars of direct value using contingent valuation methodology. Originality/value – Time-diary methodology collected patron time-use data on public library circulated materials. The paper demonstrates the potential of patron time-use as a metric of library performance. Hours of patron use appear convertible into dollars of benefit using contingent valuation research.

Interviewer and Respondent Interactions and Quality Assessments in a Time Diary Study.

Systematic investigations of the cognitive challenges in completing time diaries and measures of quality for such interviews have been lacking. To fill this gap, we analyze respondent and interviewer behaviors and interviewer-provided observations about diary quality for a computer-assisted telephone-administered time diary supplement to the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We find that 93%-96% of sequences result in a codable answer and interviewers rarely assist respondents with comprehension. Questions about what the respondent did next and for how long appear more challenging than follow-up descriptors. Long sequences do not necessarily signal comprehension problems, but often involve interviewer utterances designed to promote conversational flow. A 6-item diary quality scale appropriately reflects respondents' difficulties and interviewers' assistance with comprehension, but is not correlated with conversational flow. Discussion focuses on practical recommendations for time diary studies and future research.

Sad Dads: A Challenge for Pediatrics

A standout feature of the current generation of 67.8 million US fathers1 is their involvement with their children. Time-diary studies have revealed that US fathers increased time spent on child care duties from 2.5 hours/week in 1965 to 7 hours/week in 2000, an amount greater than fathers in Australia, Canada, France, Britain, and Holland.2 In 2006, 24% of 11.2 million preschool-aged children whose mothers work are cared for by their fathers during their mother's working hours.3 The notion of “family pediatrics,” as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics report on fathers and pediatrics, encourages clinicians' active support of fathers, especially in light of today's changing families and the positive outcomes associated with father involvement.4,5 However, operationalizing provider support for fathers is not always straightforward. In this issue of Pediatrics … Address correspondence to Craig F. Garfield, MD, MAPP, NorthShore University HealthSystem, 1001 University Place, Evanston, IL 60202. E-mail: c-garfield{at}northwestern.edu

Senioritis in repose

Media and other accounts of life after retirement suggest it to be “The Golden Years” of life, when the elderly have true leisure in the classic sense of freedom from responsibilities of work. However, like earlier time-diary studies, data from the 2003-07 Americans Time Use Project (ATUS) indicate that the great majority of seniors’ extra 20+ hours of free time is concentrated on three activities – TV, reading and rest. Only a few more hours are spent on sleep. Despite reports of increased work time among seniors, relatively few of those in Andy’s new age bracket remain in the labor force and they work fewer hours.

Of Time and Television

Analysis of early time-diary studies suggests that television has had more impact on daily time than any other household technology in the past century. In the United States, viewing time has steadily increased from roughly ten weekly hours in the 1960s to sixteen hours today, encompassing almost half of all “free time” reported in the diaries. A prominent recent TV casualty has been time spent reading the newspaper, providing further support for the functional equivalence argument. This article shows that, so far at least, viewing time seems little affected by the Internet and other recent new technologies. Studies of the public’s satisfaction with various activities suggest that viewers find TV to be more enjoyable in the doing rather than in general, even though it may not be particularly challenging or demanding of concentration. Viewing time is also shown to be significantly related to long-term personal unhappiness.

Psychological and Biological Foundations of Time Preference

This paper considers the relationship between the economic concept of time preference and relevant concepts from psychology and biology. Using novel data from a time diary study conducted in Ireland that combined detailed psychometric testing with medical testing and real-time bio-tracking, we examine the extent to which individual differences in financial discounting are related to underlying biological and psychological differences. The paper finds that financial discounting is related to a range of psychological variables including consideration of future consequences, self-control, conscientiousness, extraversion, and experiential avoidance, as well as being predicted by heart rate variability and blood pressure.

Time Spent in Home Production in the Twentieth-Century United States: New Estimates from Old Data

This article presents new estimates of time spent in home production in the United States during the twentieth century. Historical time-diary studies for various segments of the population are linked to estimates from recent time use surveys. The new estimates suggest that time spent in home production by prime-age women fell by around six hours from 1900 to 1965 and by another 12 hours from 1965 to 2005. Time spent by prime-age men rose by 13 hours from 1900 to 2005. Average across the entire population, per capita time spent in home production increased slightly over the century.

Comments on Krueger Presentation and Article

The Princeton team has generated a great body of diverse evidence on the meaning of daily life, putting it at the center of new measures of the quality of life (QOL) in a society. In their comparison of QOL in France and America, they have taken a bold and controversial step in cross-national research, one in which many scholars would argue that we still haven't been able to make sense of subjective indicators within a single country. However, they strengthen their research by using multiple measures, and cross-checking their results with earlier national surveys, to show that rather much the same findings hold in both countries (for women anyway). Unfortunately, they did not include men in these comparisons, but most QOL studies do not find large gender differences on these types of questions. Their historical integration of affective responses with time-diary activity for 1965 2005 in Fig. 2 is similarly impressive as a measure of how much the daily lives of men and women are improving (or not in this case). In this way, it reinforces most QOL analyses indicating little improvement over a 40-year period in which there has been significant gains in people's economic well-being (Robinson & Land 2008). However, there are two concerns about their research I would like to highlight. First, as Tom Juster's response above brought out, the research approach is not new and second and more importantly, it's not clear that dismissing the general measures in favor of diary ratings is justified, even in the face of their several studies comparing the two. The main evidence to the contrary comes from time-diary studies that cover the com plete spectrum of daily activity. Table 1 below reviews these earlier data from diary studies done 20-30 years ago, both national probability surveys that first examined how people rated their day's activities. It first needs to be noted that the two studies employed different methodologies for rating daily activity. The first 1975 University of Michigan study on the right, done by Juster and Stafford, asked respondents to rate how much they generally enjoyed the spe cific activities on the right side of Table 1 ("Work", Sleep", etc.). The second 1985 University of Maryland study took the Princeton team approach, as shown on the left side of Table 1. It used the same 0-10 enjoyment scale as in the Michigan study, but

What Do Happy People Do?

Little attention in the quality-of-life literature has been paid to data on the daily activity patterns of happy and less happy people. Using ratings-scale information from time-diary studies, this article examines the hypothesis that people who describe themselves as happier engage in certain activities more than those who describe themselves as less happy. Based on 34 years of data collected by the General Social Survey (GSS) on social activities and media usage, it is found that people who are happy report being more active in most social activities, in religion and in newspaper reading. On the other hand, happier people report less time watching television, a relation that holds after control for education, marital status and other predictors of happiness. The need to replicate these findings using panel data is highlighted.

Psychological and Biological Foundations of Time Preference: Evidence from a Day Reconstruction Study with Biological Tracking

This paper considers the relationship between the economic concept of time preference and relevant concepts from psychology and biology. Using novel data from a time diary study conducted in Ireland that combined detailed psychometric testing with medical testing and realtime bio-tracking, we examine the distribution of a number of psychometric measures linked to the economic concept of time preferences and test the extent to which these measures form coherent clusters and the degree to which these clusters are related to underlying biological substrates. The paper finds that financial discounting is related to a range of psychological variables including consideration of future consequences, self-control, conscientiousness, extraversion, and experiential avoidance as well as being predicted by heart rate variability and blood pressure.

Changing Rhythms of American Family Life ‐ by Suzanne M. Bianchi, John P. Robinson, &amp; Melissa A. Milkie

Changing Rhythms of American Family Life. Suzanne M. Bianchi, John P. Robinson, & Melissa A. Milkie. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2006. 249 pp. ISBN 0-87154-136-X. $37.50 (hardcover). As Suzanne M. Bianchi, John P. Robinson, and Melissa A. Milkie note in Changing Rhythms of American Family Life, concerns about the expansion of women's participation in the paid labor market are often tied to expectations that women's increased participation in the workforce has led to a decrease in parental involvement in children's lives. Additionally, sociological research on this issue suggests that women's participation in the labor market has led them to work an additional shift: one in the paid workforce and other in their home. Bianchi, Robinson, and Milkie set out to test these expectations using time-diary data and their results are often surprising. The authors rely on multiple national U.S. time-diary studies dating from 1965, which asked respondents to record a 24-hour period of time use. Additionally, the authors collected their own data, The National Survey of Parents, in 2000 and 2001, of 1,200 parents living with children younger than 18 years. On the basis of this research, the authors make three central claims. First, the authors convincingly argue that despite increased workforce participation, today's mothers are spending as much, and in some cases, more time with their children than in 1965. In 2000,78% of mothers worked in the paid labor market in comparison to 45% in 1965, but they are spending similar amounts of time with their children as their predecessors did. Having discovered that women's increased labor force participation has not significantly decreased their time with children, the authors ask from where the additional time comes. They find that some women manage the balance between work and family by cutting down on working hours when children are young or by working part time. Significantly, the authors find that the time is not taken from sleep or from leisure, two more obvious areas of trade-off. Instead, women have dramatically cut back on the numbers of hours that they spend doing housework. Additionally, Bianchi et al. find that women are spending an increasing amount of time multitasking, which they define as time spent doing at least two activities at once. The authors also find that there have been significant changes in fathers' lives over the past 40 years. Fathers do more work in the home than they did in the past, while continuing to spend considerable amounts of time in the paid labor market. In contrast to earlier findings, which suggest that fathers' participation in the home is limited to the fun aspects of child care, Bianchi et al. …

Sleep timing and quantity in ecological and family context: A nationally representative time-diary study.

Associations between demographic characteristics, school schedules, activity choices, family functioning, and sleep behaviors were estimated using nationally representative time-diary data from 2,454 children (ages 5.5 to 11.9 years) and adolescents (ages 12.0 to 19.1 years). For weekdays, African American adolescents, Asian children, and those with earlier school start times and longer travel times to school reported fewer sleep hours. More time spent watching television (for children), doing homework (for adolescents), and engaging in religious activities predicted fewer hours, whereas a longer time spent on meals predicted greater hours of weekday sleep. For younger children, greater parental warmth predicted more hours of weekday sleep, whereas for adolescents, stricter household rules were protective. On weekends, African American adolescents and Hispanic children slept less, and there were strong effects of activity choices including time spent on television, computer and videogames, sports, religious activities, socializing, and employment. In accounting for age-related decreases in sleep hours from childhood to adolescence, earlier school start times, greater hours of homework, greater paid employment, less time spent on meals, and fewer household rules were all significant mediators.

Web Use and Net Nerds: A Neofunctionalist Analysis of the Impact of Information Technology in the Home

This article investigates the impact of use of the Worldwide Web on patterns of sociability. Its sets out a neofunctionalist model of socio-technological innovation that is designed to explore prospectively the impact of innovations in areas such as information and communications technology, on the full range of sociable and nonsociable activities. It uses evidence from a unique data set (a nationally representative time diary panel study, collected in the U.K. for the period 1999-2001) to explore this model. It concludes that Internet use, contrary to time-displacement expectations, is not negatively associated with sociability.

The Overworked American or the Overestimated Workweek? Trend and Bias in Recent Estimates of Weekly Work Hours in the United States

Individuals' estimates of their paid working hours in response to the Current Population Survey (CPS) are biased upward. The bias is demonstrated here using two independent alternative sources of work-hour estimates: time-diary studies and the BLS Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, based on payroll records. Comparison of the CPS and CES suggests that the individual overestimation of hours increased substantially between 1965 and 1990, an increase that cannot be attributed to obvious differences between the CPS and CES in coverage or treatment of moonlighting. Examination of the distribution of reported hours in the CPS shows that the increase in bias is not a consequence of the heaping of individual hours responses on the 40-hour week. Crosssection analysis of 1985 time-diary data indicates that hours overestimation varies systematically by gender, education level, and presence of young children. The changing composition of the workforce by schooling can explain about half the increase in the overestimation of hours.