The Quantity and Quality of Leisure:

1. The Quantity and Quality of Leisure: How Occupational Status Shapes the Free Time Experience of Dual Working Parents Melissa Buckmiller- University of Maryland, College Park, MD • The Trends • Dual working fathers experience more leisure than dual working mothers • The most leisure is spent in entertainment pursuits • TV (or passive leisure) occupies the greatest amount of working parent’s time. • **** I expect based on preliminary regression analysis that total leisure is not influenced by occupation alone but by Short Description Dual-working spouses are often caught in a web trying to balance parenthood with marital demands, employment, housework, childcare, time with friends and leisure activities. In a high-paced economy it is becoming increasingly difficult for many individuals to balance all the demands placed upon their time. But is this the experience of all workers? Different occupations demand different time commitments from their workers and some individuals struggle to find sufficient work. Some researchers hypothesize that the “time bind” is disproportionately experienced by professionals and managers who work long hours at the office (Jacobs & Gerson 2004); but the same demanding conditions can be found in the blue-collar worker who works multiple jobs and has excessive overtime. This paper seeks to understand if and how occupational status influences both the time available and the type of leisure activities in which dual-working mothers and fathers engage. Other Tips \ • The American Time Use Survey • The ATUS is the first federally administered time diary collection in the United States that was designed to collect nationally representative data on how people living in the United States allocate time to paid work, unpaid work, self care and leisure (Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau 2006). The ATUS began collecting data in 2003 from respondents in the outgoing rotation of the Current Population Survey (CPS). The ATUS collects information regarding a respondent’s income, sex, age, educational attainment, labor force status as well as whether or not they reported on a weekday or weekend day. Respondents are non-institutionalized Americans over the age of 15 who are not actively serving in the military. Independent Variables The major explanatory variables are occupational status: 1. Managerial/Professional occupations (Business and financial) 2. Sales and Service occupations (ex. office administration) 3. Manual Labor (ex. Farming, construction, installation) Control variables include: sex, education, income, age of respondent, number and age of children, diary day and diary season. Results I expect to find based on my hypothesis that some occupations limit the amount of free time in which their employees can and do engage. Conclusion • The Dependent Variables ATUS respondents report the length and activity of their leisure and whether or not they were in the presence of another individual or child. • Total Free Time: Continuous variable • Quality of Free Time Fragmentation: Number of episodes of Leisure over the course of a diary day. Also measured are the length of each episode. Contamination: The presence or absence of another adult or child Activity Type: Passive Leisure: Watching television and movies, listening to the radio, relaxing and thinking. Active Leisure: Participating in sports or recreation activities, going for walks, playing games, engaging in hobbies or musicals and dramas. Social Leisure: Social leisure will consist of eating and drinking with friends, social communication, gambling, attending museums or parties and visiting family and friends. References Reconsidering Race Differences in Abortion Attitudes” by John Lynxwiler and David Gay published in Social Science Quarterly OTHER NOTES: Only official Health Science Center seals should be used. There are a variety for you to choose from in the “HSC Style Guidelines and Seal Downloads” link on the HSC website under the “News and Public Info” page.