By what measure? Family time devoted to children in the United States.
We argue that previous research on time devoted to child care has paid insufficient attention to the conceptualization of care time. Three separate problems are evident. First, the conventional focus on explicit activities with children distracts attention from the larger responsibilities of "passive" care, which ranges from time when children are sleeping to time when they are in the same general area but are not engaged in an activity with parents. Second, the empirical analysis of activity time focuses almost exclusively on parents, overlooking the role of relatives such as grandmothers and siblings. Third, the measurement of active care time often ignores the impact of overlaps among both care providers and recipients. Our analysis of the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics sheds light on these three problems and presents new measures of passive and active care time.
Folbre
Nancy
N
Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Thompson Hall, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. folbre@econs.umass.edu
Yoon
Jayoung
J
Finnoff
Kade
K
Fuligni
Allison Sidle
AS
D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D014481:United States