Family Time Use: An Eleven-state Urban/Rural Comparison, 1978

This collaborative research project, established in 1977, consisted of a team of scientists from 11 states representing each region of the United States. The project served three overall purposes: (1) to establish a data bank for urban and rural families on time use for household, paid and volunteer work, and nonwork activities, (2) to compare time use among urban and rural populations in various geographic areas in the United States, and (3) to determine changes in family time use over the past decade. Those interested in measurement and valuation of nonmarket work use time as a factor in their models. Allocations of time between obligations and leisure are reflected in the time use of family members, as are the effects of role-sharing in dual-career families. At the micro level, a better picture of the quality of life can be seen if time use of all family members is analyzed. This approach allows the study of distribution of workloads, interaction of household members, and trade-offs that can be made in a family household unit. A total of 2,100 families participated in this survey through the use of questionnaires and time use charts. Of these, half were classified as urban families and half were classified as rural families. Variables in this dataset include the activities of family members (i.e., food preparation, dishwashing, shopping, maintenance of home, paid work, social and recreational activities) and the amount of time they spent on each activity. The data also record the condition and type of appliances and household equipment, the activities of the family seven days before the study, and information about the employment of the adults and children in the household.