Time Alone or Together? Trends and Trade‐offs Among Dual‐Earner Couples, Sweden 1990–2010

• Date: 01 February 2018
• Author: Jeffrey Neilson,Maria Stanfors
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12414
• Published date: 01 February 2018

J N  M S Lund University

Time Alone or Together? Trends and Trade-offs

Among Dual-Earner Couples, Sweden 1990–2010

In recent decades, the dual-earner couple has

become increasingly normative, potentially

reducing the time couples and families spend

together. The authors investigated how coupled

individuals allocated time together, alone, with

children, and as a family, exploring changes

between 1990 and 2010 in Sweden using three

waves of the Swedish Time Use Survey (N=

9,544). Ordinary least squares and decom-

position analyses nd a trend toward time

together over time alone, with childless couples

spending similar time together and parents

increasing family time. The shift toward family

time evolved differently for men and women,

indicating gender convergence in private and

public spheres, but at higher costs of time alone

for women. Change is behavioral and general,

applying quite equally across gender and educa-

tional groups. There are educational gradients

concerning time with children and certain qual-

itative aspects of time together, indicating that

dual-earner society may be family friendly, but

not equally for all.

In recent decades, mothers’ increased employ-

ment, the rise of dual-earner couples, and a

growing sense of overwork have raised valid

concerns about how time is spent within the

family (Jacobs & Gerson, 2004). Increased

Centre for Economic Demography, Lund University, P. O.

Box 7083, Lund, Sweden, 220 07

(maria.stanfors@ekh.lu.se).

KeyWords:gender, interaction, parenthood,time diary meth-

ods, time use.

work hours have been associated with greater

perceived partner and family time pressures for

working men and women (Roxburgh, 2006),

and dual-earner, full-time working couples

spend less time together than other couple types

(Flood & Genadek, 2016). Although some

evidence suggests that the time couples spend

exclusively together has come under duress

(Amato, Johnson, Booth, & Rogers, 2003,

2007; Dew, 2009), time as a family (Genadek,

Flood, & Garcia-Román, 2016), and with chil-

dren, has seemingly been preserved, at the

cost of mothers’ free time (Sayer, 2005). The

aforementioned developments coincide with a

rise of intensive parenting norms, where both

qualitative and quantitative research report that

parents have been spending more time with

their children while cutting back on partner

time (Bianchi, Robinson, & Milkie, 2006;

Daly, 2001; Dew, 2009; Hays, 1996). The time

couples and families spend together has not

undergone examination in Sweden (or any other

Nordic country for that matter), despite being

an interesting case given its strong dual-earner

normative.

The changing time allocation of couples is

an important issue for several reasons. Partner

interaction seems vital to both marital quality

and stability (Amato et al., 2007). Men and

women have reported greater happiness and

meaning, and less stress, during time shared

with their partner, regardless of the activity per-

formed (Flood & Genadek, 2016). Reductions

in partner time can have negative implications

on marital quality (Claxton & Perry-Jenkins,

2008) and stability, especially for those with

80 Journal of Marriage and Family 80 (February 2018): 80–98

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12414

Time Alone or Together? 81

children, the majority of whom report spending

too little time with their partner (Bianchi et al.,

2006; Roxburgh, 2006). Family time has been

repeatedly assigned the label of scarcity, putting

parents who claim to never have enough of it

in an endless pursuit to gain more and fueling

cultural concerns of overwork and work–life

strategies (Daly, 2001; Mattingly & Sayer,

2006). Lacking family time can be particularly

acute among dual-earner couples (Bianchi et al.,

2006; Jacobs & Gerson, 2004; Roxburgh, 2006).

Time with children is equally important because

evidence suggests that early parental time invest-

ments have lasting impacts on children’s human

capital development (Currie, 2001; Harvey,

1999). Moreover, mothers and fathers experi-

enced more positive well-being during time that

was spent with their children, although not in a

gender-neutral way (Musick, Meier, & Flood,

2016). In addition, lack of time alone may be

symptomatic of increased work–family conict

(Nomaguchi, 2009), leaving less time available

for leisurely pursuits, recovery, investments

in human capital, physical health, and social

relationships or time free of dependent children.

Each of these dimensions of togetherness is

uniquely important, yet is subject to trade-off

under the constraint of a 24-hour day.

In this study, we investigated time alloca-

tions of partnered men and women across the

following four dimensions using time diary

data from three waves of the Swedish Time Use

Survey (SWETUS): time spent alone, with one’s

partner, with children only,and as a family. This

multidimensional approach better illustrates

the trends and trade-offs of with whom men

and women in partnerships spend their time.

In a secondary analysis, we examined ve

types of activities performed in the presence

of one’s partner to determine how shared time

has changed qualitatively. Our central research

question is whether an advanced dual-earner

society increasingly substitutes paid work for

time spent with family members, which we

investigated by means of understanding how

and why time allocation along different dimen-

sions has changed in the past decades. We add

to the literature by establishing how multiple

dimensions of time allocations changed between

1990 and 2010 in Sweden for a nationally rep-

resentative sample of coupled (i.e., cohabiting

or married) men and women, complementing

research on spousal interaction from the United

States, with most studies looking at partner time

in isolation among married couples only. We

also investigated the total time individuals spend

with their children across all activities, which

better captures parenting’s true impact than

previous studies that have tended to focus on

child-care activities specically (for exceptions,

see Bianchi et al., 2006; Musick et al., 2016;

Offer, 2014).

Despite its obvious relevance for individu-

als and families, with whom partnered men

and women spend their time is not well under-

stood in the Nordic context. Sweden is the

Nordic welfare model archetype, where, for

decades, a comprehensive social policy package

has aimed to release individuals’ dependence

on the family and the market while promoting

gender equality and reducing income differen-

tials. Swedish work–family policies have tar-

geted both men and women, especially since the

1970s; thus individuals have greater exibility

and decision-making autonomy over time allo-

cation, irrespective of gender, family status, and

education, than elsewhere. The Nordics, with

Sweden as a forerunner, are considered prime

examples of the Second Demographic Transi-

tion (Lesthaeghe, 1991, 2014). Although Second

Demographic Transition developments, includ-

ing increased levels of cohabitation, divorce,and

single-parent households, occurred in Sweden

prior to our study period, since 1990 women

have become increasingly work oriented, men

work somewhat less (Stanfors, 2014), and men’s

and women’s child-care and housework roles

have continued to converge (Stanfors & Gold-

scheider, 2017). How couples allocate time with

each other and family members is, however,both

changing and unknown.

B

Time allocation is a constrained choice. Each

day has 24 hours, which not only sets limits

on time spent in different activities (Becker,

1965; Gronau, 1977) but also for energy (Becker,

1985; Bird & Rieker, 2008) and devotion to

these activities (Blair-Loy, 2003). Competing

demands from employers and family members

impose trade-offs on individuals, especially for

dual-earner couples with (young) children, mak-

ing them prioritize when something has to give.

Trade-offs relate not only to the activities that

individuals spend their time on but also to the

extent that activities can be coordinated with

others.