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By what measure? Family time devoted to children in the United States

Nancy Folbre1, Jayoung Yoon, Kade Finnoff

  • 1Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Thompson Hall, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. folbre@econs.umass.edu

Demography
|July 1, 2005
PubMed

Insights

Child care time research overlooks passive care and non-parental caregivers. This study introduces new measures for active and passive child care time, considering multiple providers and recipients.

Area of Science:

  • Sociology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Family Studies

Background:

  • Previous research on child care time primarily focuses on explicit parental activities.
  • Existing studies often neglect
  • passive
  • child care and the contributions of extended family members.
  • Current measurement methods for active child care time may not account for overlapping caregiving responsibilities.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To address limitations in the conceptualization and measurement of child care time.
  • To highlight the importance of including passive care and non-parental caregivers in analyses.
  • To propose and analyze new measures of passive and active child care time.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of the Child Development Supplement (CDS) of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).
  • Development of novel metrics for quantifying passive and active child care time.
  • Examination of care time considering multiple caregivers and children.

Main Results:

  • Identified significant gaps in prior research regarding the definition and scope of child care time.
  • Demonstrated the prevalence and significance of passive child care responsibilities.
  • Highlighted the underestimation of contributions from relatives like grandmothers and siblings.
  • Revealed issues with measuring active care time due to provider and recipient overlaps.

Conclusions:

  • A more comprehensive conceptualization of child care time is necessary.
  • Future research should incorporate passive care and a broader range of caregivers.
  • New measurement approaches are crucial for accurately assessing total child care time and its distribution.

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