American Time Use Survey: Charts by Topic: Care of household children

American Time Use Survey

Findings from the 2010 survey:

On an average day, over the 2006-2010 time period, among adults living in households with children under 6, women spent 1.1 hours providing physical care (such as bathing or feeding a child) to household children; by contrast, men spent 26 minutes providing physical care.
Adults living in households with at least one child under 6 spent an average of 5.6 hours per day providing secondary childcare--that is, they had at least one child in their care while doing activities other than primary childcare. Secondary childcare provided by adults living in households with children under 6 was most commonly provided while doing leisure activities (2.2 hours) or household activities (1.3 hours).
Adults living in households with children under 6 spent more time providing primary childcare on an average weekday (2.1 hours) than on an average weekend day (1.8 hours). However, they spent less time providing secondary childcare on weekdays than on weekend days--4.6 hours compared with 7.7 hours.

Married women, ages 25 to 54, who were employed full-time and lived with a child under 6, spent 1.8 fewer hours per weekday caring for household children than women who were not employed and 48 minutes less than women who only worked part-time. (Data are from the 2010 survey.)

Previous:
Students

Last Modified Date: December 2, 2011