This proposal requests five years of support for two biennial conferences on intersections of time use, family inequality, and well-being. The proposal builds on the 10 year history of successful time use conferences sponsored by the Maryland Population Research Center and co-organized by faculty from the Departments of Sociology and Economics and the School of Public Health.
The aims of the proposal are to 1) offer a forum for dialogue among senior and new time use, public health, and social and social and behavioral science scholars on innovative research on time use and child and family well-being across diverse families; 2) Identify emerging issues in how life course variation in time use patterns is linked with developmental and role transitions and adult and family well-being, emphasizing differences by gender, race-ethnicity, and education; 3) Foster interdisciplinary and international research teams who will develop pioneering projects on emerging issues identified in Aim 2; and 4) Facilitate translational research projects that apply knowledge about how time use variation across the life course and by gender, parenthood, race-ethnicity, and education influences well- being to identify ways to improve effectiveness and scope of related programs and policies. To address these aims, the proposed three biennial conferences are designed to provide a forum for dialogue about integrating time use data with cross-disciplinary perspectives and tools on life course research and provide opportunities for the formation of new interdisciplinary teams and increasing the number of scholars from underrepresented groups applying time use data to emerging time-use-related social issues.
Changes in family structure, living arrangements and population aging are altering life course work and family trajectories, time transfers up and down the generational ladder, and social integration. Time diary surveys provide reliable, detailed, and comparable data on how family and social change influence children and adult?s social integration, economic participation and health-related behaviors (e.g. eating, sleep, leisure). Time diary data can be used to examine how work and leisure activities are associated with stress and enjoyment, as well as the formation of cognitive, physical, economic, and social capital and, with GPS integration, daily exposure to environmental stressors like pollution, high-crime areas, and food deserts.
