Appliance ownership and household work time

Data from 2, 100 two‐parent, two‐child households were analyzed to determine the relationships of demographic variables, ownership of 11 appliances, and time spent in four categories of household tasks. Over 60 percent of the households owned at least seven of the eleven appliances studied. A theoretical model of the Household Task Performance System was developed for the analysis. Appliances were grouped according to whether they operate independently or require a con tinuous input of time from an operator. Little evidence was found that appliance ownership is related to less time being spent in household tasks. There was, in fact, a positive relationship between the number of appliances owned that re quire continuous attention and time spent in the related tasks. Controlling for quantity or quality of outputs resulting from inputs to the household task perfor mance system was not possible due to limitations of the data base.