Bibliographies
The following bibliography has been compiled from the Australian Family & Society Abstracts database and other resources held in the Institute's library. Where available a link to the document on the Web is provided. Most items can be borrowed from the Institute's library via the inter library loan system. Online publications in PDF format require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Time use studies
Bringing up Bobby and Betty: The inputs and outputs of
childcare time.
Ironmonger, Duncan
In: Folbre, N.
and Bittman, M. eds. Family time: the social organization of care.
London, UK: Routledge, 2004, p94-109, tables, figures
The
total time devoted by family members to the raising of children to
adulthood is rarely calculated. This chapter uses data from the
Australian Time Use Survey of 1997 to estimate the hours of childcare
provided by households. The chapter reviews the way in which child care
input time has been measured, and estimates the amount of unpaid care
received from household members by children of different ages. It also
reviews comparisons of the amount of care time received in paid
childcare, school and self care. It then compares estimates of the
relative size of labour inputs into house hold childcare with labour
inputs into other household and market activities.
Caring
differently: A time-use analysis of the type and social context of child
care performed by fathers and by mothers (PDF 140 KB).
Craig, L
Sydney, NSW: Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South
Wales, 2002, 31p, tables, figures (SPRC discussion paper no.116), and
Online
This paper analyses the 1992 Time Use
Survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in order to compare
contextual aspects of time spent with children by mothers and by fathers.
The research finds that when mothers are with children they are more
likely to be in sole charge, to perform onerous or routine tasks, and to
do other activities at the same time, than are fathers. The paper argues
that these findings imply that the experience of child care is
qualitatively different for men and women. (Author abstract)
Cross-national comparison of the impact of children
on adult time (PDF 256 KB).
Craig, Lyn
Sydney, NSW: Social Policy
Research Centre, University of New South Wales, 2005, 27p, tables, (SPRC
discussion paper no.137), Online
This paper uses a
framework of welfare state typology pioneered by Gosta Esping-Andersen
and developed by Walter Korpi, and data from the Multinational Time Use
World 5 Series, to compare the impact of children on adult time-use in
four countries (Australia, Italy, Norway and Germany) with different
approaches to economic, social and family organisation. It quantifies
three measures of the time effects of parenthood. These are 1) the gap
between couple parents and non-parents in total paid and unpaid work
undertaken (the workload penalty of parenthood), 2) the relative time
allocation to paid and unpaid work by couple parents and by non-parents
(work-family balance), and 3) the relative contribution to unpaid work by
couple parents and by non-parents (gender equity in domestic labour). Of
the sample, 'familialistic' Italy has the most inequitable division of
labour for childless men and women, and it is 'liberal' Australia in
which the changes in time commitment that come with parenthood are most
pronounced and most inequitable by sex. (Author abstract)
Do Australians share parenting? Time-diary evidence on fathers' and
mothers' time with children (PDF 53 KB).
Craig, L
In: 8th
Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference, Melbourne, 12-14
February 2003: proceedings. Melbourne, Vic: Australian Institute of
Family Studies, 2003, 10p. Online only
Despite the
growing social acceptance of the ideal of shared parenting, mothers spend
much more time with their children than fathers do. Women spend three
times as long as men on child care as a main activity. Do mothers and
fathers also spend their time caring for children differently? The
Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 1997, which sampled over
4000 randomly selected households, provides an opportunity to explore
these differences. Based on respondents keeping a record of their daily
activity in a time-diary, the survey provides accurate information about
the start and finish time of activities, simultaneous activities, the
location of activities and the company present. Analysis of the Time Use
Survey shows there are profound differences in the way time with children
is spent relatively by each sex. Fathers spend a high proportion of their
time with children in play activities. Compared to fathers, mothers are
disproportionately responsible for the physical care of children. When
Mum plays with her child, she is more likely than Dad to be doing
something else at the same time. Men are less likely than women to do the
routine childcare tasks that have to be done at a certain time. Women
are far more likely than men to be alone with their children. Fathers
sacrifice less of their leisure than mothers do, and they help out,
rather than take full responsibility for childcare. This paper argues
that gender differences in parenting go beyond mere inequality in the
duration of time spent with children. There are also differences in how
that time is spent. This has implications for gender equity, and women's
ability to balance work and family. (Author abstract)
The
effect of children on adults' time-use: An analysis of the incremental
time costs of children in Australia (PDF 301 KB).
Craig, Lyn;
Bittman, Michael
Sydney, NSW: Social Policy Research Centre,
University of New South Wales, 2005, 38p, tables, (SPRC discussion paper
no.143), Online
Raising children takes both time
and money. For almost 150 years, scholars have attempted to find
convincing ways to capture the costs of raising children. However, even
when these estimates include indirect costs, such as mothers' foregone
earnings, little research has been done on estimating the true time costs
of raising children. This paper shows how the presence of children
changes parents' use of time. It uses data from the most recent
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey to study how the
allocation of time differs in households with children compared with
those with no children. It also examines the intra-household division of
time-resources, showing how childcare (and related unpaid work) and
parental leisure are distributed between mothers and fathers. Since
humans are capable of engaging in more than one activity at a time, the
ABS time diaries allow people to report simultaneous activities. A high
proportion of time with children is recorded as a 'secondary', or
accompanying, activity. This paper shows the effect of including
secondary activity in the analysis of total parental time commitments,
and gives a more accurate picture of the time cost of children than has
previously been possible on the basis of analysing 'primary' activities
alone. (Author abstract)
A
time-diary analysis of how working mothers find time for the
kids (PDF 503 KB).
Craig, Lyn
Sydney, NSW: Social Policy
Research Centre, University of New South Wales, 2005, 18p, (SPRC
Discussion paper no.136), Online
Working parents are
obliged to use non-parental child care. However, parents who make use of
non-parental child care do not reduce their parental child care time on
an hour for hour basis. Since there are only 24 hours in the day, how do
parents continue to be engaged in direct care of their own children while
also committing significant time to labour market activities? Using data
from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 1997 (over 4000
randomly selected households), to compare the time allocation of employed
fathers, employed mothers and mothers who are not in the labour force,
this paper shows how parents maintain their time commitments to both work
and childcare. The strategies available are (1) reducing the time devoted
to other activities (principally sleep, leisure, bathing, dressing,
grooming, eating), and (2) rescheduling activities (from weekends to
weekday or changing the time of day at which particular activities are
undertaken). (Author abstract)