Couples’ activities: co-ordination and enjoyment Centre for Time Use Research Oriel Sullivan Centre for Time Use Research Department of Sociology University of Oxford

Diary Code Activity Sequence; couples

Data: The Unilever couples time use diary 1987 The sample consisted of 380 heterosexual couples married or living together as married, who kept simultaneous 5-day time-use diaries in June or July of The sample was selected from a national random sample maintained by Taylor-Nelson, and was stratified in order to include information on couples in different stages of the life-course (Erlich, 1987). In the analyses only those couples where there were at least 96 (i.e. two full days worth) of all activity codes and enjoyment ratings for both husband and wife recorded have been selected for analysis. This brings the total number of cases down from 380 to 275 couples, each with at least 384 valid coded values.

In all 18 pieces of information per 1/2 hour for both women and men throughout the day were coded, but this analysis uses only 1)main activity sequences and 2)the enjoyment of those activities Enjoyment rating scale: 1 Enjoying a lot 2 Enjoying a little 3 Neutral 4 Not enjoying much 5 Not enjoying at all

Permitting analysis of: the proportion of men's and women's time spent in various activities the sequential pattern of activities through the day for women and men women and men's enjoyment of different activities women and men's overall average enjoyment the proportion of time spent doing the same activity as a spouse ('simultaneous' activities) the enjoyment of activities undertaken simultaneously and non-simultaneously spousal correlations of overall enjoyment

Table 1. Do couples co-ordinate their time? : simultaneity of time-use among real and 'pseudo' couples.

Table 2. Average Enjoyment Ratings for Activities: partners

Table 3. Average Enjoyment Ratings for Co-ordinated Activities: Partners )))) ))))

Table 4. Average enjoyment ratings by activity and whether activity is simultaneous or non-simultaneous; male partners * Difference is statistically significant at P<.05 or less

Table 5. Average enjoyment ratings by activity and whether activity is simultaneous or non-simultaneous; female partners

All differences statistically significant at P<.05 or less

All differences significant apart from those for 1.Cleaning 2.Clothes care (i.e. the most disliked of all activities )

(Figure 1) Enjoyment Averages by Activity for Female Partners with Different Levels of Overall Average Enjoyment ** Difference statistically significant at P<.01 * Difference statistically significant at P<.05

(Figure 2) Enjoyment Averages by Activity for Male Partners with Different Levels of Overall Average Enjoyment