Time-Use Measurement and Research Report of a Workshop (2000) / Chapter Skim
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5 Survey Design Issues
5 Survey Design Issues
Pages 36-50
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From page 36... ...
One session of the workshop was devoted to discussing the various methods used to collect data on time use and survey design issues surrounding these methods. This session focused on two methods of collecting time-use data, the time diary method and the experiential sampling method.
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From page 37... ...
The essence of the time diary method is that respondents are asked to make a complete record of their activities over a period of time, usually one day. Although it is not always the case, time diaries usually ask open-ended questions about the respondent's amount of time spent in activities.
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From page 38... ...
They are often used to supplement time diaries to gather information about activities that the regular diary may not capture (for example, another household member's time use or time spent being "on call" for child care not actively caring for the child, but simply being present in case of an emergency which may not be recorded as the primary activity for the time period and hence, may not be easily identified in diaries) ; that respondents are unwilling to report in a diary (sexual activity or drug use, for example)
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From page 39... ...
Like time diaries, ESM studies allow respondents to specify the activity in which they are participating. This is in contrast to stylized questions about time use, which must prompt respondents about a particular activity (i.e., ask them how much time they spent doing a named activity instead of allowing respondents to name
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From page 40... ...
40 TIME- USE MEASUREMENT AND RESEARCH Box 1 Typical Experiential Sampling Method Response Form Date: Time Beeped: AS YOU WERE BEEPED: What were you thinking about? am/pm Time Filled Out: Where were you?
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From page 42... ...
One advantage, relative to time diaries and stylized questions, is that since activities are recorded soon after the beeper signal is sent, recall error is not a concern. Responses may also be less susceptible to normative editing within the framework of the experiential sampling method because respondents are asked to immediately record what they were doing and have less time to construct an "acceptable" response.
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From page 43... ...
It was also suggested by workshop participants that experiential sampling studies could be used to cross-validate data produced from time diaries and stylized questions. A similar technique-the random-hour technique-has been used in the past to cross-validate data: time diary respondents are called randomly on the day they are filling out their diaries to cross-validate responses for the given hour (see Robinson, 19991.
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From page 44... ...
For example, Sandra Hofferth reported on comparisons of stylized measures of time spent reading to children to time diary reports of time spent reading to children; she concluded that parents exaggerate the amount of time they spend reading to their children through stylized measures relative to the amount of time reported in a time diary. John Robinson also described a study in which stylized reports of church-going were much higher than time spent at church as measured by diary data.
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From page 45... ...
John Robinson reported that he has recently trained students to "shadow" people they know throughout a day and record their activities, which are later validated against the trackee's own diary report of activities for the day. Use of electronic tracking devices might also be included in the category of observational studies.
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From page 46... ...
However, in some settings, observational studies can be very useful, both in their own right and as a way to validate data collected through other means. For example, given parental consent, observational studies of children in day care settings or even school settings may provide a good source of data for studying child development.
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From page 47... ...
Variation in time use across different days of the week could be captured using this method. Time diaries are typically not collected for every day of the week, although previous time diary surveys have collected data for a couple of days of the week for each respondent.
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From page 48... ...
From a conceptual standpoint, one argument for collecting time diaries from multiple persons in a household is to better understand labor force participation of household members, intrahousehold resource and time allocation, and who delivers family care (for children or other relatives)
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From page 49... ...
For example, to assess subjective wellbeing during activities, an experiential sampling study may need to collect data on a person's emotional state and surroundings. To understand household labor force participation decisions, it is important to have data on wages, past work experience, and income of household members.
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From page 50... ...
This exercise was devised to demonstrate that the "right approach" to estimating the mean time spent in each of the two activities depends crucially on the model assumed to govern the available data. In a particular example, Samaniego demonstrated that the maximum likelihood approach led to a markedly different prescription for estimating mean time use than the "shrink toward the constraint" strategy advocated in other studies.
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