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Same-Sex Couples’ Shared Time in the United States

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Demography

Abstract

This study examines and compares shared time for same-sex and different-sex coresident couples using large, nationally representative data from the 2003–2016 American Time Use Survey (ATUS). We compare the total time that same-sex couples and different-sex couples spend together; for parents, the time they spend together with children; and for both parents and nonparents, the time they spend together with no one else present and the time they spend with others (excluding children). After we control for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the couples, women in same-sex couples spend more time together, both alone and in total, than individuals in different-sex arrangements and men in same-sex couples, regardless of parenthood status. Women in same-sex relationships also spend a larger percentage of their total available time together than other couples, and the difference in time is not limited to any specific activity.

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Notes

  1. We are not able to identify individuals in same- and different-sex relationships who live apart.

  2. Despite concerns about the misidentification in many federal surveys of same-sex couples resulting from data errors, the concerns are smaller in the ATUS because for most, respondents’ and household members’ sex has been asked three times by the time of the ATUS. Authors’ investigations of the imputation and allocation of sex in the ATUS show just one of 86,420 respondents was imputed because of missing information.

  3. The total percentage of same-sex couples is very similar to estimates from the Census Bureau from the American Community Survey (ACS), which range from 0.93% of couples in 2009 to 1.4% of couples in 2016 (U.S. Census Bureau 2016).

  4. Characteristics for the individual respondents and partners can be obtained from the authors.

  5. Based on separate time diaries from both members of couples in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Freedman et al. (2012a) showed 76% agreement between couples’ reports of activities with a partner. Similar work using the 2014–2014 United Kingdom Time Use Survey (Vagni 2019) showed about an 80% overlap in the time that couples reported being with a partner and doing the same activity.

  6. Tobit models, propensity score matching models, and two-step models produced results very similar in magnitude and significance. These results are available upon request.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the NICHD-funded Minnesota Population Center (P2C HD041023), the University of Colorado Population Center (P2C HD066613), and IPUMS Time Use (R01HD053654). In addition, Joan García-Román was supported by the Beatriu de Pinos Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2016 BP-00279) and is also supported by the I+D Project “Family strategies and demographic responses to the economic recession” (CRISFAM) (CSO2015-64713-R) and the CERCA Programme from the Generalitat de Catalunya.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado–Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Katie R. Genadek

  2. Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Sarah M. Flood

  3. Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Joan Garcia Roman

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  1. Katie R. Genadek
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Correspondence to Katie R. Genadek.

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Genadek, K.R., Flood, S.M. & Roman, J.G. Same-Sex Couples’ Shared Time in the United States. Demography 57, 475–500 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-020-00861-z

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