Time Used for Household Work: A Study of School-Age Children from Single-Parent, Two-Parent, One-Earner, and Two-Earner Families

The purpose of this study was to compare the time-use of school-age children in single-parent/one-earner, two-parent/one-earner, and two-parent/two-earner families to determine whether or not there were differences in actual and relative amounts of time used for household work. The sample consisted of 170 households with school-age children. Two instruments were used: a time use chart and a nine-page survey questionnaire. Findings were that employment of the homemaker did not appear to contribute to differences in children's actual time spent on individual household tasks, but it did seem to contribute to differences in the children's share of the total work load. When total time for all tasks was compared, children in two-parent families were found to spend less actual and relative amounts of time on all household work than children in single-parent families. It was concluded that while children from single-parent families spent only a little more actual time than children from two-parent families on individual tasks, the apparent effect was cumulative for time spent on all tasks.