Trends in Spouse’s Shared Time in the United States, 1965-2012

Katie Genadek, University of Minnesota
Sarah Flood, University of Minnesota
Joan Garcia Roman, University of Minnesota

The last fifty years have been a time of great change for American marriages and families; individuals are marring later, having fewer children and are more likely to cohabit and divorce. Inequality in income and leisure time has also grown over this period. In light of these changes in family demography and inequality, it is likely that the time available for, and spent with, family members have been changing. In this paper, we consider three measures of time spent with spouses to investigate how time with a spouse has changed over the last 50 years. Preliminary findings show that while time spent alone with a spouse as decreased slightly, total time with a spouse has remained fairly constant. This has occurred because family time has increased over this period. We will also examine differences across various demographic and economics dimensions in spouses’ time spent together.