Overview
Understanding individuals' time use patterns can provide insight into economic behaviors associated with food acquisition and eating as well as the diet and health status of individuals. Knowing more about eating patterns, grocery shopping, and meal preparation, as well as understanding whether or not the time constraints that food assistance participants face resemble those faced by other households can inform food assistance and nutrition policies and programs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey (ATUS) collects information on how Americans spend their time. The Survey reports on time spent on work, household chores, child care, recreation, and numerous other activities. The ATUS is a continuous, monthly survey, which started in January 2003. From October 2005 to December 2006, the Survey includes the ERS-developed Food & Eating Module, consisting of questions designed to examine relationships between time use; purchasing, preparing, and consuming food; and obesity. The Module contains questions on eating while engaged in other activities, such as driving or watching TV; height and weight; participation in the Food Stamp Program; purchase of meals and snacks for children at day care, school, or summer programs; grocery shopping and meal preparation; and household income.
The Food & Eating Module data are planned for release in Fall 2007. Over the next few months, more information will be posted on the data and on ERS time use research.
ATUS Events
American Time Use Survey Early Results Conference—Research using the 2003 American Time Use Survey data were presented December 8-9, 2005, at a conference held in Bethesda, MD. The conference was sponsored by University of Maryland, ERS, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services. Topics included time spent in eating, sleeping, household production, childcare, recreation, and travel.
Food and Eating Consequences of Time-Use Decisions: A Research and Policy Conference—In 2004, ERS and the Farm Foundation sponsored a conference on the American Time Use Survey data and the Food & Eating Module. The conference enhanced understanding on how economic theory and applications can be used to generate policy-relevant insights from the ATUS data. Abstracts and presentations are available.
History of Time Use Studies
 USDA was one of the pioneers in time use data collection and research. In the 1920s and 1930s, USDA Bureau of Home Economics sponsored studies of farm and town homemakers' uses of time. These studies were conducted by home economists at cooperating State experiment stations and at USDA through mail surveys of women's college alumnae. This research was influenced by the Country Life movement's desire to apply industrial and home economics research and objectives to agriculture and rural life, as well as a desire to apply industrial efficiency models to home production.
Findings included the following: About 50 percent of homemaking time was spent in providing food; running water and electricity made the greatest difference in reducing time spent on housework; and the number of young children, not the size of household, most affected number of hours spent in homemaking activities.
For more information, see the presentation, USDA's Historical Studies of the Use of Time by Homemakers, and a sample of the "time clock" format used in early studies to collect time-budget information.
Recent Research Developments
Researchers at ERS have begun using the ATUS data to provide understanding in the areas of food assistance, food consumption, obesity, and nutrition. Examples of work in progress include:
- Time Use Research Literature Review: Towards a Better Understanding of the Relationship Between Time Constraints, Income, Poverty, and Household Structure—The literature on time use in the United States has been limited and has rarely focused on how household structure (particularly differences between married and single parents), time use, and income are related. On average, single parents have both less money and time than do married parents. They also have been drawn increasingly into paid employment, particularly since passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Act (PRWORA) of 1996. The choices they make on time use are of interest. Time constraints may be addressed using various options, such as work place flexibility, "buying time," time deepening, time pooling, and doing without. This research explores the existing empirical literature on time use patterns in general, as well as the implications of various coping strategies used by time-constrained parents.
- Time To Eat: Household Production Under Increasing Income Inequality—This research examines how income affects the time and goods inputs into meal production. Generating meals requires decisions about money expenditures on appliances and cookware and on the food itself, as well as decisions about the time spent in obtaining, preparing, and consuming food and cleaning up after the meal. Time diary and food expenditure data for 1985 and 2003 is used to see if the changes in income inequality over this period affected household production.
- Access To Grocery Stores: Understanding Travel Time and Geography in the American Time Use Survey Data—This research looks at the methodological issues in using the ATUS data to estimate travel time to grocery shopping. Grocery store access may be relatively more difficult for some population groups, such as low-income or single-parent households, rural households, and central city households. This research will develop techniques for measuring access to grocery shopping using the ATUS data.
Contact Karen Hamrick for more information on work in progress.
Related Information
- NIH-National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Applied Research Program—A funding partner with ERS of the Food & Eating Module. A major aspect in NCI's mission in cancer prevention and control is monitoring and research concerning the influence of individual and societal risk factors and health behaviors that mediate cancer incidence, morbidity, mortality, and survival. To fulfill this mission, the Applied Research Program supports surveys designed to assess the prevalence of energy-balance-related variables involving diet, weight, and physical activity.
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