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Parents' socioeconomic class position and children's time use patterns

Ayse Yetis Bayraktar, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the role of early time use socialization on social class reproduction and status attainment. I investigate the relationship between parents' class position and children's early (ages 6-12) time use patterns based on Lareau's (2003) discussion of different parenting styles across social classes. Contrary to Lareau's findings about the aversion middle class parents have to television, I find that children of more educated parents spend more time watching television than children of less educated parents, except on Fridays. Similar to Lareau's findings about increased homework time with parental education, I find that more educated parents' children spend more time doing homework than children of less educated parents, except on Fridays. This significant decline in both television and homework time on Fridays suggests that more educated parents' children trade these two activities for other activities. I also find that the traditional way of calculating the weekly time spent on a given activity ((weekday time*5)+(weekend time*2)) assumes that each day is identical (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2004), and overlooks the differences in within weekdays and weekends days, respectively. In addition, I find that controlling for type of diary reporter (adult vs. child) introduces a possible reporter bias related to the un/desirability of certain activities.

Subject Area

Individual & family studies

Recommended Citation

Yetis Bayraktar, Ayse, "Parents' socioeconomic class position and children's time use patterns" (2013). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI3556301.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3556301

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