DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH VOLUME 37, ARTICLE 49, PAGES 1611-1624 PUBLISHED 28 NOVEMBER 2017 http://www.demographic-research.org/Volumes/Vol37/49/ DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2017.37.49 Descriptive Finding Siblings and children’s time use in the United States Rachel Dunifon Paula Fomby Kelly Musick © 2017 Rachel Dunifon, Paula Fomby & Kelly Musick. This open-access work is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Germany (CC BY 3.0 DE), which permits use, reproduction, and distribution in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are given credit. See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/legalcode Contents 1 Introduction 1612 2 Data 1613 3 Measures and method 1614 4 Results 1616 5 Conclusion 1621 References 1622 Demographic Research: Volume 37, Article 49 Descriptive Finding Siblings and children’s time use in the United States Rachel Dunifon1 Paula Fomby2 Kelly Musick3 Abstract BACKGROUND Eighty-two percent of children under age 18 live with at least one sibling, and the sibling relationship is typically the longest-lasting family relationship in an individual’s life. Nevertheless, siblings remain understudied in the family demography literature. OBJECTIVE We ask how having a sibling structures children’s time spent with others and in specific activities, and how children’s time and activities with siblings vary by social class, gender, and age. METHODS We use time diary data from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics’ Child Development Supplement (PSID-CDS), comparing the time use of children with and without siblings and presenting regression-adjusted descriptive statistics on patterns among those with siblings. RESULTS Children with siblings spend about half of their discretionary time engaged with siblings. They spend less time alone with parents and more time in unstructured play than those without siblings. Brothers and more closely spaced siblings spend more time together and more time in unstructured play. For example, boys with at least one brother spend five more hours per week with their siblings and over three more hours per week in unstructured play than boys with no brothers. CONCLUSION The presence and characteristics of siblings shape children’s time use in ways that may have implications for child development. 1 Cornell University, USA. E-Mail: [email protected]. 2 University of Michigan, USA. 3 Cornell University, USA. http://www.demographic-research.org 1611 Dunifon, Fomby & Musick: Siblings and children’s time use in the United States CONTRIBUTION This is the first study to use children’s time diary data to examine how the presence and characteristics of siblings structure ways in which children spend their time. This contributes to our broader understanding of sibling relationships and family dynamics. 1. Introduction This paper examines how the presence of siblings and sibling age and gender composition structure children’s time use. Eighty-two percent of children under age 18 live with at least one sibling – a number that is greater than the number of children living with a father figure (McHale, Updegraff, and Whiteman 2012) – and the sibling relationship is typically the longest-lasting family relationship in an individual’s life. Nevertheless, siblings remain understudied in the family demography literature (McHale, Updegraff, and Whiteman 2012). Research on siblings tends to focus on structural factors, such as birth order and spacing, or reciprocal relationships between parents and siblings within a family. How the presence and characteristics of siblings structure children’s time use is unknown. Such information is key to our understanding of sibling relationships, as time together represents an important mechanism through which siblings may influence each other and by which the presence or absence of a sibling may spill over to influence parent-child relationships. The current study is the first to use nationally representative US time diary data to examine children’s time with siblings as well as the ways in which the presence of a sibling is linked to time with others. In doing so, we respond to recent calls for a greater examination of the processes via which siblings may influence children and family systems (e.g., Cox 2010; McHale, Updegraff, and Whiteman 2012). Previous research in economics and demography examines the ways in which structural factors such as birth order, sibling spacing, and sibship size influence parental investments in children and predict a range of later outcomes, including health, education, and financial well-being (Buckles and Munnich 2012; Conley 2000; Emery 2013; Hanushek 1992; Keister 2003; Pavan 2016; Price 2008). This research has tended to find that being first born, longer intervals between siblings, and fewer siblings are associated with better child outcomes, potentially due to higher quality parent-child time. A few recent studies suggest that the association between sibship size and human capital may not be causal (Ferrari and Dallazuanna 2010) and that short birth intervals and bigger families may have few adverse consequences in contemporary high-income welfare states (Baranowska-Rataj, Barclay, and Kolk 2017; Barclay and Kolk 2017). With the exception of Price (2008), this body of research has not examined time use. 1612 http://www.demographic-research.org Demographic Research: Volume 37, Article 49 Additionally, Price focused on parental time with siblings but did not examine siblings’ time with each other, thereby missing a key mechanism through which the presence and characteristics of siblings may influence children. In the family studies and psychology literature, most research on siblings examines how siblings influence individual development and relationship dynamics within families as well as the nature of the emotional relationship between siblings (reviewed in Whiteman, McHale, and Soli 2011). Many studies in this area use smaller, nonrepresentative samples and self-reported information on family relationships. This research suggests that siblings can influence each other directly and also influence the larger family system, including the availability of parental resources and parent-child relationships (Cox 2010; Hetherington 1994). Other studies, based on interviews with parents, demonstrate that parents commonly treat siblings differentially and that such patterns can complicate family dynamics into adulthood (e.g., Suitor and Pillemer 2007). Theoretical perspectives on sibling relationships suggest that factors such as family socioeconomic status (SES) and the gender and age mix of siblings may play key roles in sibling relationships. However, research to date on these dimensions is limited and inconsistent (Whiteman, McHale, and Soli 2011). The current study contributes to the literature by examining the ways in which family SES and siblings’ gender and age composition correspond to children’s time use in a large, nationally representative US sample. Understanding how siblings shape children’s day-to-day activities can shed light on the findings noted above and provide insight into sibling relationships across the life course. We address the following research questions, which are descriptive in nature: 1) How does having a sibling structure children’s time with others? 2) How does having a sibling structure children’s activities? 3) Among those with siblings, how do children’s time and activities with siblings vary by social class and by the gender and age mix of the siblings? We focus on middle childhood (ages 6–12 years) and compare children with and without coresident siblings. 2. Data We address these questions using time diary data from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics’ Child Development Supplement (PSID-CDS), the world’s longest-running household panel study. The embedded CDS collects information about children’s family, school, and neighborhood contexts that are expected to be predictive of status attainment in adulthood. The CDS began in 1997 (CDS-I) with a cohort of children residing in families participating in the PSID main interview in that year, and it includes interviews with the primary caregivers (PCGs) of those children, most often http://www.demographic-research.org 1613 Dunifon, Fomby & Musick: Siblings and children’s time use in the United States mothers. Up to two children between 0 and 12 years old per family were randomly selected for inclusion (N = 3,563 children, 88% response rate). Children under 18 and their caregivers were reinterviewed in 2002 (CDS-II) and 2007 (CDS-III). We use household roster information collected during the round of PSID data collection that immediately preceded each wave of CDS to determine the age and gender composition of coresident siblings. Time diaries were collected from all children at each wave (~80% response rate overall). For children aged 6–12, 85% of diaries were completed by the child’s primary caregiver or the caregiver and child together. Diaries chronicled children’s primary and secondary activities over 24 hours during one randomly selected weekday and one weekend day. Each activity occupies a record in the time diary data file, and each record contains information on the nature of the primary and any secondary activity, its start and end time, where the activity took place, who else was present, and whether those present were also engaged in the activity. Individual activity records are aggregated to capture the total time in a day that children spent with particular people or engaged in particular activities. A detailed