This subproject proposes a methodological and analytical study of time use in a sample of middle-aged and older married couples who participate in the PSID. The overarching goals are:1) to assess the feasibility of including time diaries for adults on a larger scale in the PSID, and 2) to produce a rich and nationally-focused data archive to support innovative research on disability, time use, and well-being for married couples ages 50 and older. To achieve these goals, we will carry out five specific aims. First, developmental efforts will be undertaken at the Institute for Social Research to determine how best to build upon established time diary methods. Second, time diaries will be collected in computer-assisted telephone interviews from 400 married couples ages 50 and older drawn from the 2009 wave of the PSID, with oversampling of couples in which one or both have a disability. Same-day interviews will be obtained for husbands and wives for one random weekday and one random weekend day so that 1,600 diaries will be completed in all. Third, feasibility of a wide-scale PSID time diary collection will be evaluated based on both qualitative (e.g., debriefing of interviewers) and quantitative (e.g., response rates, length of scheduling time, synchronicity of interviews, missing data) evidence. Fourth, the PSID will make these data available online through its public use Data Center, thereby allowing the research community to investigate a range of questions related to disability, time use,and well-being. Fifth, the project team will answer targeted analytic and measurement questions related to: a) How does disability influence time use and related patterns of affect?;b) How do different approaches to accommodating functional decline influence time use and related affect?;and,c) How does disability influence synchronization of time use among couples? The proposed approach is unique in several respects. Time diaries have never been collected from a national sample of couples to purposefully study disability in mid and late life. Several innovations?the intention to interview spouses about the same day, the addition of affect, attention to how activities are carried out (with help and/or assistive technology), and measures of care giving as a secondary activity?will allow investigators to study a broad range of questions related to couples'accommodation of functional decline. The project also will lay groundwork for widespread time diary collection in the PSID. The leader and principal investigator of this project is Vicki A. Freedman.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 76 publications
