Title: Changing patterns in parental time use and their implications for parental wellbeing
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: Evolving social norms and preferences in recent years have placed competing pressures on how UK parents spend their time. A cultural shift towards time-intensive, child-centred parenting has increased expectations for how much time parents should spend with their children (Hays 1996; O'Brien et al 2015). This has coincided with increases in mothers' labour market hours and dual earning families (Connolly et al. 2016; ONS 2014) and substantial shifts towards more gender egalitarian views in how paid work and unpaid domestic work should be divided within the household (e.g. Scott and Clery 2013; Working Families 2017). The policy landscape affecting parents' work-family reconciliation in the UK has changed dramatically over the past 20 years or so, with increasing levels of support for the dual earner/dual carer model. The UK has seen a large-scale expansion of early childhood education and care services, providing parents with more "time to work", at the same time as more generous parental leave and flexible working policies have enabled them to have more "time to care" (Lewis, 2012). Take-up of flexible working arrangements in particular has been substantial. In 2011 roughly a third of all employed workers in the UK had some flexibility over their working hours, and about one fifth worked from home on occasion (BIS 2013). Little is known, however, about how use of flexible working is related to patterns of parental time use. Our research seeks to explore how patterns of time use have changed among UK mothers and fathers alongside these cultural and policy changes and increased time pressures, how trends have differed over time across household types and by socio-demographic, household and partner characteristics and what the implications have been for mothers' and fathers' wellbeing. Using time diary data from the UK Time Use Survey (2000/01 and 2014/15), National Statistics Omnibus Survey (1995, 1999 and 2005) and Understanding Society's innovation panel (2014/15) the proposed study aims to: 1) Analyse how patterns of mothers' and fathers' time use have changed over the past 20 years in terms of the amount and share of time parents spend on different activities as well as the incidence of multitasking and time fragmentation; 2) Analyse inequalities in patterns of parental time use and the role of different factors at the individual and household level. We will explore how trends in parental time use vary for different types of parents, such as single and coupled parents, and by socio-demographic characteristics such as gender; 3) Explore the relationship between time-use patterns and measures of parental wellbeing including enjoyment of activities, feeling rushed, life satisfaction, and feeling that life is worthwhile; 4) Analyse the links between flexible working and patterns of time use and wellbeing. We will explore how take-up of flexible working is associated with parents' time use and whether the use of flexible working can facilitate decreased feelings of stress and increased enjoyment of domestic activities among parents. The study will be of benefit to both academic and non-academic audiences; early discussions with key stakeholders have shown that the study would be valuable in satisfying existing information gaps on parental time use and informing policy development and practice. To facilitate the impact of this study we propose a range of written outputs and dissemination events including: publications in academic journals; a website that will house the main research findings tailored around the needs of the diverse stakeholders; a launch event for the study's findings; targeted briefings aimed at specific types of stakeholders; and presentations at UK and international academic conferences.


Research activity codes: 1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE