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American Time Use Survey User's Guide

1. A respondent spent time with someone who was not on the Roster file and thus that person does not have a TULINENO corresponding to records with TULINENO 1 and TUWHO_CODE gt 0 A respondent reported sleeping grooming or other private activities for which the WHO information is not collected corresponding to records with TULINENO 1 and TUWHO_CODE 1 19 The Roster file contains information about members of each respondent s household and the respondent s own nonhousehold children under age 18 page 87 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Identify times when the respondent was in the room with one of the respondent s own household children under age 18 Own household children under 18 can be identified by restricting the data set by TEAGE TEAGE lt 18 and TUWHO CODE TUWHO_ CODE 22 TUWHO_CODE 22 refers to own household children Sample SAS code data ownkids set who_rost if tuwho_code 22 and teage lt 18 Each record on the resulting file named ownkids identifies an activity where at least one household child under age 18 was present The file contains multiple records for activities in which more than one of the respondent s own household children was present this is apparent when the data are sorted by TUCASEID and then TUACTIVITY_N as shown here File name ownkids P _weaseip _ TUACTMIY_N TUUNENO TUWHO CODE Tease 55 20060101060108 56
2. Note that the variable H MIS which indicates the record s month in sample is not always accurate on the ASEC file Records that are given the ASEC because they are part of a CPS oversample may have incorrect values of H MIS Linking the 2003 and or 2004 Basic March CPS to the ASEC March supplement of the same year 1 Link the Basic March CPS to the ASEC of the same year using e HRHHID e PULINENO e HUHHNUM page 105 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 2 Screen for duplicates and mismatches These occur because the linking variables available on the ASEC file do not uniquely identify households Use the following variables to eliminate mismatches and duplicates e Age o PEAGE on the Basic March CPS file o A AGE on the ASEC file e Sex o PESEX on the Basic March CPS file o A SEX on the ASEC file e Race o PRDTRACE on Basic March CPS file and ASEC file Linking the 2005 or later Basic March CPS to the ASEC March supplement of the same year Link the Basic March to the ASEC of the same year using e HRHHID PULINENO e HRHHID2 II C Linking two ASEC March supplement files The ASEC file is the most difficult of the CPS supplements to link This is due to a number of factors e The linking variables of HRSERSUF and HRSAMPLE are not on the ASEC prior to 2005 from 2005 onward the presence of the variable HRHHID2 which incorporates the information that was formerly in HRSERSUF and HRSAMPLE ma
3. 20060101060108 20060101060108 58 20060101060108 59 20060101060108 60 20060101060108 6 amp 1 2060101060108 62 20060101060108 me 20060101060108 200601 01060108 _ omomn oon ou On Of WH OS WM Restrict the file ownkids such that there is only one record per activity for those activities where an own child under 18 was present Also create an indicator variable child with a value of 1 indicating the presence of an own household child under age 18 Sample SAS code data ownkids2 keep tucaseid tuactivity_n child set ownkids by tucaseid tuactivity_n child 1 if last tuactivity_n then output The file ownkids2 contains one record for each activity for each respondent where at least one own household child was present The file contains 47 989 records page 88 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 File name ownkids2 TUCASEID TUACTIVITY_N 2006010106001 4 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 200601 01060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060049 Now that the information needed from the Who and Roster file is summarized to an activity level merge this combined file named ownkids2 with the Activity file This requires using two identifiers TUCASEID and
4. Also CATI allows complex skip patterns to be programmed into the questionnaire to ensure consistent data quality and minimize human error CATI also uses pop up text boxes to instruct the interviewer to probe for more information when necessary Overall CATI reduces interviewer burden and clerical errors ensures consistency and better data quality and makes the interview experience more pleasant for respondents When the interview is complete the tasks of processing editing coding and analyzing the data are expedited because all of the collected information is already stored in the computer CATI greatly reduces the amount of data entry that is necessary as well as the errors associated with it CALL STRATEGY The ATUS sample is randomized by day with 50 percent of the sample reporting about weekdays Monday through Friday and 50 percent reporting about Saturday and Sunday Designated persons must report about their activities on their designated day without any substitution of days A designated person age 15 or older is selected randomly from each household to participate in the interview No substitutes or proxy responses are allowed All responses must be obtained directly from this designated respondent All ATUS interviews are conducted from the U S Census Bureau s telephone center at the National Processing Center in J effersonville IN The interviewers attempt calls in six call blocks throughout the day and are required t
5. Data from completed cases are loaded into the ATUS coding application which has multiple windows that let coders simultaneously view the activity being coded the coding categories and the respondent s time diary In the time diary window the following information is included for each activity start time duration person s in the room with or accompanying the respondent location and whether or not the respondent identified the activity done as part of one s job another income generating activity or volunteering through an organization Tabs across the top of the screen can be accessed for further information on the respondent s industry and occupation the ages and relationships of household members and any notes about the case that the interviewer added for assistance with coding The coding software also includes a search feature that helps coders find the correct code for ambiguous activities and increases coding speed Some activities are coded automatically before the coders see them During data collection interviewers have the option of using one of 12 precodes for commonly reported activities such as sleeping or grooming rather than typing the activity verbatim into the activity line of the time diary Activities entered in this way are automatically assigned the correct corresponding six digit lexicon activity codes before the diary data are loaded into the coding instrument Although the autocoded activities show up in prope
6. TUCASEID GEREG TUDIARYDATE TUDIARYDAY TUFINLWGT Ee 20060101080630 4 20060129 1 2746366 6102 35 20060101060633 4 20060122 1 3622769 7785 36 20060101060641 4 20060130 2 9892431 0033 20060101060653 4 38 20060101060656 4 20060128 7 7931083 0873 Variables that were collected during the ATUS interview have missing values or blanks for persons who did not participate in the ATUS interview Use one of these variables to eliminate the records of persons who did not participate in ATUS For example eliminate cases with no diary date which corresponds to instances where TUDIARYDATE is blank Sample SAS code data cps_resp keep tucaseid tufinlwgt gereg merge cps atusresp_2006 by tucaseid if tudiarydate ne The resulting file now has 12 943 records and variables from the Respondent and ATUS CPS files that are needed to solve the problem File name cps _resp __TUCASEID GEREG TUFINLWGT 20060101060001 3384574 8596 2006010106001 4 3479067 9057 20060101060025 825165 4274 20060101 060033 5174447 2742 20060101 060038 6353748 5253 20060101060049 8193457 4764 Now merge the combined ATUS CPS Respondent file file name cps_resp with the file that summarizes how much time each respondent spent doing housework on the diary day file name housewk Merge the data files using the common identifying variable TUCASEID File name cps _resp_act TUCASEID TUFINLWGT housework 2006010106002
7. and documentation FTP download Page http thedataweb rm census gov ftp cps ftp html DataFerrett http dataferrett census gov CPS Technical Documentation Page http www census gov cps methodology techdocs html CD Purchases Basic CPS data and CPS supplement data can be purchased on CD by calling the Census Bureau Customer Services Center at 301 763 INFO 4636 or through the Census Bureau online catalog http www census gov mp www cat people _and_households current_population survey html page 109 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE APPENDIX L Basic CPS Rotation December 2014 This appendix is intended as an aid for researchers who wish to link ATUS and CPS data The CPS sample rotation scheme is complicated and is not fully described in this appendix More detailed information about the CPS rotation and sample can be found in CPS Technical Paper 66 http www census gov prod 2006pubs tp 66 pdf The CPS rotation scheme follows a 4 8 4 pattern A given household is in the sample for four consecutive months not in the sample for the next eight consecutive months and in the sample again for the next four consecutive months The following table illustrates the CPS rotation scheme Each group represented by a letter or a letter number combination is interviewed for a total of eight months For example a household first interviewed in May month in sample 1 or MIS 1 wou
8. 1 0 No imputation Where codes lt 0 1 lt 1 0 Who codes lt 1 0 No imputation Where and who are not collected for selected activities 1 Beginning in early 2010 an edited family income variable HEFAMINC in which item nonresponse was imputed or allocated replaced the unedited family income variable HUFAMINC that previously had been available ADDITIONAL DATA EDITS In addition to certain consistency edits performed by computer software during the interview and the various imputation procedures mentioned above other edits are performed on the data These other edits are data suppression edits for confidentiality any data elements identifying the respondent are suppressed Once the data have been through data processing editing and imputation the edited SAS data sets see exhibit 6 2 are then created and given to BLS for analysis further processing and eventual publication After a careful review of the data some additional manual edits are made to selected elements page 32 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Exhibit 6 2 ATUS DATA FILES Respondent file This file contains one record per household and includes information about the ATUS respondent The data which were collected in the ATUS interview include the respondent s employment status layoff looking status industry occupation and earnings Only complete and sufficient partial cases at least five diary activities cover
9. ASEC to e 5 lt H MIS lt 8 AND e A FNLWGT gt 0 The first restriction will limit the ASEC file to the more recent of the two interviews each household receives the ASEC questions twice Since the linking variables available on the ASEC file do not uniquely identify households it also reduces the likelihood of false matches The second restriction ensures that the Hispanic oversample is removed page 102 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 2 Restrict the ATUS CPS file to e HRYEAR4 year of ATUS CPS data file AND e HRMONTH 3 4 5 or 6 Since the linking variables available on the ASEC file do not uniquely identify households this step reduces the likelihood of false matches 3 Link the ATUS CPS file and the ASEC using e Household identification number part 1 o HRHHID on the ATUS CPS file o H IDNUMI1 on the ASEC file e Household identification number part 2 o HRHHID2 on the ATUS CPS file o H IDNUM2 on the ASEC file e Person line number o PULINENO on the ATUS CP S file o A LINENO on the ASEC file page 103 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 ll Linking CPS files to other CPS files or supplements Some ATUS data users also have questions about how to link CPS data files to other CPS data files The following instructions are included for those who are trying to link only CPS data files and not ATUS files These instructions cover three different scenarios e How to link B
10. Six important operational decisions were made as a result of these three field tests 1 Households with no telephone number would be mailed a 40 debit card to increase their likelihood of calling in to complete the survey This debit card would not only give designated persons in these households an incentive to participate but also reimburse them for the telephone call No debit cards would be mailed to households with telephone numbers 2 Cases that had not been completed after the 8 week calling period would not be recycled to the field that is these households would not receive field visits from Census Bureau interviewers 3 Designated persons would be eligible to report on only one specific day of the week no other day of the week would be substituted for this day 4 Designated persons would be called only on their designated interview day and would not be called prior to this day to set an appointment 5 Priority Mail would be used to send out the advance materials ATUS letter and brochure to designated ATUS persons 6 All ATUS interviewing would be done using computer assisted telephone interviewing CATI there would be no in person interviews These decisions were made by examining the response rate gains if any and the costs of multiple operational approaches and then choosing options that were viable within the ATUS annual budget COGNITIVE TESTING BLS engaged in a series of cognitive pretesting efforts d
11. Stata and SPSS programs that can be used to read the data file into the respective software package Overview of examples Example 1 Calculate the average hours per day in 2006 that Americans provided childcare as a primary activity to children living in their household Uses the Respondent and Activity files Example 2 Calculate the average hours per day that women age 18 and over living in a household with at least one child under age 6 spent providing primary childcare to household children in 2006 Uses the Roster file and a data file created in example 1 Example 3 Calculate the average hours per day in 2006 that Americans who provided childcare as a primary activity to children living in their household spent providing this care Uses a data file created in example 1 Example 4 Calculate the number of persons residing in the South who did housework on an average day in 2006 Uses the Respondent Activity and ATUS CPS files Example 5 Calculate the percent of persons residing in the South who did housework on an average day in 2006 Uses a data file created in example 4 Example 6 Calculate the average hours per day in 2006 that Americans watched TV while they were with at least one own household child under age 18 Uses the Respondent Roster Activity and Who files page 66 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Example 1 Step 1 Objective Calculate the average hours per day in 20
12. TUACTIVITY_N WB Respondent replicate weights TUCASEID file WB Activity replicate weights file TUCASEID TUACTIVITY_N Leave Module data files LV Respondent file TUCASEID TULINENO always equal to 1 on the LV Respondent file LV Replicate weights file TUCASEID 7 4 ATUS files can also be linked to CPS files using information on the ATUS CPS file See Appendices K M for more information about linking ATUS and CPS files PRODUCING ESTIMATES WITH ATUS FILES While numerous types of estimates and analyses can be produced using ATUS files the four formulas below satisfy the needs of many users Average hours per day Ti the average number of hours per day spent by a given population engaging in activity j is given by S fwat 7 ee 1i gt fwot i where Tij is the amount of time spent in activity j by respondent i and fwgtiis the final weight for respondent i Examples of this type of estimate are the average number of hours per day that people spent watching TV the average number of hours per day that men spent working or the average number of hours per day that children under 18 spent doing homework page 37 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Daily participation rates P the percentage of the population engaging in activity j on an average day is computed using fwat i Yeahs be es i gt twat i where lij is an indicator that equals 1 if respondent i engaged in activity j d
13. Title 13 United States Code requires us to keep all information about you and your household strictly confidential We will use this information only for statistical purposes Your voluntary cooperation is needed to make the results of this survey comprehensive and accurate We estimate that it will take an average of 15 20 minutes to complete this survey If you have any comments about the time estimate or any other aspect of this survey including suggestions for reducing the burden please send them to the Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey 1220 0175 2 Massachusetts Avenue NE Room 4675 Washington DC 20212 page 49 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX B Advance letter to households without telephone numbers Dear Jane Doe Recently you or a member of your household participated in the Current Population Survey Please accept our thanks for your household s participation Now we would like to request your help with a brief one time interview for the American Time Use Survey ATUS This survey is the only reliable source of information about the unpaid work people do when they care for their children or the elderly or when they engage in volunteer work housework lawn care or other types of unpaid activities This work is a vital part of the economy and your participation in the ATUS is essential to provide an accurate picture of how Americans spend their time Please read the enclosed br
14. Travel related to using professional and personal care services services 1809 1809 1709 Travel related to using household services 181001 181001 Travel related to using government services 171001 Travel related to using police fire services 171002 Travel related to using social services 171003 Travel related to obtaining licenses and paying fines fees 181099 181099 171099 Travel related to government services and civic obligations not elsewhere classified Caring for and helping 03 03 03 Caring for and helping household members household members 1803 1803 1703 Travel related to caring for and helping household members Caring for and helping 0301 0301 0301 Caring for and helping household children household children 0302 0302 0302 Activities related to household children s education 0303 0303 0303 Activities related to household children s health Caring for and 0301 0301 0301 Caring for and helping household children helping household children except activities related to education and health Activities related to 0302 0302 0302 Activities related to household children s education household children s education Activities related to 0303 0303 0303 Activities related to household children s health household children s health Caring for and helping 0304 0304 0304 Caring for household adults household adults 0305 0305 0305 Helping household adults Travel related to 1803 1803 1703 Travel related to caring for and helping h
15. Usual weekly hours total 0 0 1 0 2 0 Multiple jobholding statues 0 0 1 0 2 0 Employment of spouse Employment status 0 0 lt 1 0 Usual weekly work hours 0 0 lt 1 0 Edits that differ between the CPS and ATUS AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 6 6 School enrollment Enrollment status lt 0 1 lt 1 0 School level 0 0 1 0 2 0 Full or part time status 0 0 1 0 2 0 ATUS demographic data Age lt 0 1 1 0 2 0 Relationship to respondent lt 0 1 lt 1 0 Sex 0 0 lt 0 1 CPS data that is not updated in the ATUS CPS demographic data Race 0 0 2 0 4 0 Marital status 0 0 2 0 3 0 Hispanic origin 0 0 lt 1 0 Educational attainment 0 0 lt 1 0 Family Income 2003 early 2010 13 0 No imputation Family Income early 2010 and later 0 0 Up to 20 0 Unique AT US variables Secondary childcare Total time spent providing 0 0 1 0 2 0 secondary childcare to household and own non household children lt 13 Total time spent providing 0 0 lt 1 0 secondary childcare for non own non household children lt 13 Eldercare respondent data Provider 1 0 2 0 No imputation Frequency lt 1 0 No imputation Number of recipients lt 1 0 No imputation Provided care yesterday lt 1 0 No imputation Eldercare recipient data Relationship 0 0 lt 1 0 Age 0 0 3 0 4 0 Duration 0 0 1 0 2 0 Uncodeable activities lt
16. Welcome Drive Gladwood MN 22222 Dear Ms Respondent One of our interviewers contacted you recently regarding the American Time Use Survey ATUS but was unable to complete an interview Because your participation is important I am writing to ask for your much needed assistance in this survey INSERT ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS BASED ON REASON FOR RESPONDENT S REFUSAL Confidentiality We are conducting this survey under the authority of Title 13 United States Code Section 8 Section 9 of this law requires us to keep all information about you and your household strictly confidential We use this information only for statistical purposes No information that could identify you or your family is ever released In addition you do not need to answer a question or report an activity that you feel is too personal Why me Ask someone else You are one of several people in your area and one of many people in the country who were selected to participate in the American Time Use Survey The answers you provide represent those of many others and are invaluable in helping lawmakers employers and researchers develop programs and policies that will help you and others in your community Consequently your participation in the survey is extremely important Because you were randomly selected and represent others we cannot substitute any other person for you Tired of surveys We appreciate your previous cooperation with th
17. a reported reading activity was done for work class volunteering personal interest or something else and record activities so they can be assigned an activity code after the interview If they fail to do this the activity is assigned a data error code of insufficient detail in verbatim or missing travel or destination These errors directly affect ATUS data quality because the activity information will be missing Census staff track the number of activities assigned these data codes on a quarterly basis Interviewers with unacceptable rates of interviewer error codes receive additional guidance and training Those with high error rates are taken off of ATUS interviewing until they pass a re qualification test Average number of activity episodes per diary The average number of ATUS activities per diary has historically been 19 5 activities An interview with a lot fewer activity episodes can be a sign of an interviewer failing to probe for additional activities memory problems or some other reason BLS tracks this metric on a quarterly basis which allows BLS to address any noticeable trends in a timely manner Average minutes per diary assigned data codes An interview with a high number of minutes assigned data codes or uncodeable activities can be a sign of interviewer error e g an interviewer s failure to probe or record activities correctly respondents memory problems or something else BLS tracks the average minu
18. appearing in BLS publications or as BLS working papers www bls gov tus papersandpubs htm 8 1 2 NON BLS PUBLICATIONS Analyses of ATUS data or survey methods have appeared in the J ournal of Economic Perspectives Survey Methodology and other publications A list of some of these analyses appears on the ATUS Web site at www bls gov tus research htm 8 1 3 UNPUBLISHED TABLES In addition to the tables published with ATUS news releases and other tables appearing on the ATUS Web site ATUS data are compiled in numerous tables showing time use by various groups of individuals These include tables of time use by various combinations of an individual s demographic characteristics marital status employment status educational attainment geographic location and the presence and age of household children These unpublished tables are available in PDF format on request DATA FILES Files containing ATUS microdata are released at least once each year These files contain records of respondents answers to the survey questions as well as other information about the respondent and his or her household These data are intended for users who wish to do their own tabulations and analyses Both single and multi year ATUS data files are available The single year files contain data for interviews conducted in a one year period the multi year files contain data for many years with some adjustments made to account for changes th
19. durations for each episode of Housework codes beginning with 0201 Sample SAS code data housewk keep tucaseid housework set atusact_2006 code tutierlcode tutier2code tutier3code by tucaseid if first tucaseid then housework 0 if substr code 1 4 0201 then houseworkttuactdur24 if last tucaseid then output The output includes the variable housework that is equivalent to the total minutes each respondent spent doing housework on the diary day The output file contains 12 943 records one for each respondent in 2006 Keep only those variables that make sense at the respondent level File name housewk TUCASEID 200601 01060001 2006010106001 4 20060101060025 200601 01060033 200601 01060038 20060101060049 20060101060057 20060101060067 DMNACNININCNAN F F page 79 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Next summarize the ATUS CPS file to the respondent level The ATUS CPS file contains one line for each person in each household selected to participate in ATUS whether or not the person did participate Here is an excerpt of the ATUS CPS file TUCASEID TULINENO 200601 01060001 2006010106001 4 2006010106001 4 2006010106001 4 200601 01060025 200601 01060033 200601 01060033 Because this problem requires information about the respondent only first restrict the ATUS CPS file to persons selected to participate in ATUS TULINENO 1 This eliminates all the extra recor
20. file identifies the activities done as eldercare and TRTEC_LN Activity data file provides the amount of time spent providing eldercare for each eligible activity Personal care and personal care services 01XXXX and 0805XX are not eligible activities TRTEC Respondent data file sums the duration of eldercare activities from TRTEC_LN to provide the total amount of time the respondent spent providing eldercare on the diary day The ATUS Eldercare Roster file contains information about persons who received eldercare This includes information such as the relationship between the care provider and care recipient TEELWHO the age of the care recipient TEAGE EC how long the respondent had provided care to the recipient TEELDUR and TEELYRS and whether or not the eldercare recipient lives in the same household as the survey respondent TRELHH For more information about the eldercare variables please see the ATUS questionnaire www bls gov tus questionnaires htm and the ATUS Interview Data Dictionary www bls gov tus dictionaries htm Information about working with the ATUS data files is also available on the ATUS Web site at www bls gov tus howto htm 15 The time frame varies slightly by respondent because the question asks about care provided between the first day of a given reference month and the interview day page 45 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAPTER 10 10 1 DATA QUALITY MEAS
21. for more information on ATUS item nonresponse and imputation procedures Module nonresponse Module response rates are tracked separately from response rates to the main ATUS interview Census Bureau and BLS staff track module response rates on a monthly basis allowing staff to identify and address any declining response to modules and implement timely strategies to help improve response 10 1 2 NONRESPONSE ERROR As with any survey with response of less than 100 percent it is important to understand nonresponse and possible nonresponse bias in the ATUS For example are persons who respond different than those who do not BLS and outside researchers periodically assess nonresponse bias in the ATUS ATUS staff maintain a listing of these studies which is available upon request 10 1 3 INTERVIEW QUALITY Interview Monitoring ATUS interviewers are regularly monitored by Census staff This allows supervisors to evaluate an interviewer s ability to apply survey concepts and procedures during the actual interview assess a new interviewer s j ob performance identify interviewers who need additional training or guidance and identify survey concepts and procedures on which interviewers need additional training page 46 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Insufficient Detail or Missing Travel information Interviewers must probe for additional detail for certain activities for example the interviewer must find out if
22. higher than the first because it is an average only for persons who spent at least some time doing laundry on the diary day The calculation for Average hours per day for participants is almost identical to those in examples 1 and 2 The difference is that both the numerator and denominator are now restricted only to persons who did a specific activity In the formula this restriction is represented by an indicator term that now appears in the numerator and denominator Average hours per day of participants T the average number of hours spent per day engaged in activity j by people who participated in that activity on that day is given by Di Sgt LT yP re Swgt li where Tij is the amount of time spent in activity j by respondent i fwgti is the final weight for respondent i and lj is an indicator that equals 1 if respondent i participated in activity j during the reference day and 0 otherwise Example 3 Step 1 Objective Calculate the average hours per day in 2006 that Americans who provided childcare as a primary activity to children living in their household spent providing this care Re visit example 1 but restrict it to participants only Step 2 Variables and activity codes that are needed This step is identical to that shown in example 1 Step 3 Summarize the data to a respondent level page 76 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 This step is the same as in example 1 Take an
23. household child Watching TV is identified by two codes 120303 and 120304 The presence of an own household child during the activity is indicated by child 1 Sample SAS code data tv_child keep tucaseid tvchild set ownkids2_act by tucaseid if first tucaseid then tvchild 0 if code in 120303 120304 and child 1 then tvchildttuactdur24 if last tucaseid then output The resulting file named tv_child has 12 943 records one for each respondent in 2006 The variable tvchild contains the number of minutes that each respondent spent watching TV while sharing the room with an own household child under age 18 page 90 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 File name tv_child TUCASEID 200601 01060714 200601 01060716 200601 01060740 200601 01060749 200601 01060753 20060101060768 20060101060785 20060101 060803 20060101060818 20060101 060823 Next merge the file tv_child with the Respondent file to obtain the statistical weights Merge the files using the common identifier TUCASEID Sample SAS code data together keep tucaseid tufinlwgt tvchild merge tv_child atusresp_2006 by tucaseid The file together contains 12 943 records one for each respondent in 2006 It also contains all the data necessary to solve the problem summarized to the respondent level File name together TUCASEID TUFINLWGT 200601 01060001 3384574 8596 2006010106001 4
24. method involves obtaining variables from the Activity and the Respondent files Both methods yield the same result Because the Activity file includes a wealth of information about respondents diary days such as detail about when and where many activities took place the second method offers researchers more flexibility than the first method For example by using the variable TEWHERE from the Activity file the second method can be modified to generate an estimate of the amount of time Americans spent watching TV at home in 2007 Step 1 Determine the total time each respondent spent watching TV Method 1 Activity summary file Following are the variables needed and their file locations Variable File location Variable description t120303 Activity summary Time respondent spent watching television and file movies not religious t120304 Activity summary Time respondent spent watching television file religious TUFINLWGT Activity summary ATUS final weight file The total amount of time that each respondent spent watching TV must be computed this is done by summing t120303 and t120304 Method 2 Activity file and Respondent file Following are the variables needed and their file locations Variable File location Variable description TUTIERICODE Activity file First two digits of activity code TUTIER2CODE Activity file Third and fourth digits of activity code TUTIER3CODE Activity file Fifth an
25. of 10 Government services are neh Religious and spiritual activities mA i E a ang Volunteer activities g Civic obligations and participation f Socializing relaxing and leisure Leisure and sports Sports exercise and recreation Telephone calls 020903 Household and personal mail 020904 Household and personal e mail Telephone calls mail and e mail 5 2 CODING RULES AND DESK AIDS Because of the complexity of coding everyday activities reported in many different ways into fairly narrowly defined lexicon categories coders use a comprehensive set of rules to guide their decisions Rules applicable to each major lexicon category are available in a rules manual as are miscellaneous rules such as how to code passive waiting or watching activitiesthat apply to many categories The miscellaneous rules also address conceptual issues in some detail such as how to know when an activity is a helping one as opposed to the actual activity itself e g how to determine if feeding my neighbor s dog is a helping activity or pet care Numerous activities can conceivably be coded in more than one place in the lexicon depending on several factors For example computer or Internet use may be coded as work education volunteering or relaxing depending on how the respondent identified the activity during data collection For ambiguous activities coders use flow charts that walk them through the logic required to make the correct activ
26. of respondent on the Roster file TULINENO Line number of household members and the respondent s own nonhousehold children on the Roster file and the Who file TUWHO_CODE Information about who was in the room with the respondent on the Who file TUACTIVITY_N Line number of the activity on the Activity file and the Who file TUACTDUR24 Activity duration in minutes truncated to a 24 hour day on the Activity file TUTIERICODE TUTIER2CODE amp TUTIER3CODE Identify activities on the Activity file Activity codes 120303 and 120304 Step 3 Summarize the data to a respondent level This problem involves working with the trickiest of the ATUS files the Who file Take a look at the structure of the Who file atuswho_ 2006 Note that an activity number is repeated when multiple persons were present during the activity TULINENO indicates the person number for household members and the respondent s nonhousehold children under age 18 if a positive value appears more information can be learned about the person by linking the Who and Roster files File name atuswho_ 2006 TUCASEID TUACTIVITY_N TRWHONA TULINENO TUWHO_CODE 200601 01060033 20060101060033 200601 01060033 200601 01060033 200601 01060033 200601 01060033 The Who file contains at least one record for each activity each respondent reported the variable TUACTIVITY_N is the activity number It also contains one record for each WHO code reported fo
27. part of this survey What happens during the interview What will you ask me This one time survey takes 15 20 minutes to complete from the moment you pick up the phone We interview just one person from each household After confirming some information about your household the interviewer will ask you to recall how you spent the past 24 hours and then follow up with a few questions related to your time use I just participated in the Current Population Survey Why are you contacting me again When we interview you for the ATUS we save time and money because we don t have to ask many of the background questions that were already asked in the Current Population Survey CPS This shortens the time required to complete the ATUS and allows us to conduct interviews with more people Unlike the CPS the ATUS is a one time only survey When will I be interviewed To capture a full picture of time use on all days of the week we assigned you a specific day of the week as your interview day If you are unavailable at the time of the interview we would be happy to call you on the same day the following week You can always call to schedule a time for the interview that is more convenient for you Your time is very important we know because we study it I don t have time to complete the survey Can someone else in my household participate instead You were carefully selected to represent thousands of other people in households similar to yours
28. sample consists of households that did not provide a telephone number in their final CPS interview or the phone number on record has an improbable string of numbers such as all Os In order to be a nationally representative survey ATUS includes these households in its sample These households also receive an advance mailer but instead of providing a date when the designated person will be called the letter asks the designated person to call the telephone center on a specified day to complete the interview In addition to the letter and the brochure the advance mailer for households that lack a telephone number includes an incentive in the form of an inactivated debit card for 40 The debit card can be activated only with a PIN number provided to the respondent by the interviewer at the completion of the interview Since mid 2008 incentives are also sent to a limited number of households with telephone numbers that do not work specifically those with telephone numbers assigned call outcome codes of could not be completed as dialed and number changed no new number given In mid 2011 the ATUS expanded incentive eligible households to include additional households with telephone numbers that do not work specifically those with telephone numbers that are not in service or temporarily not in service An incentive letter and a debit card are sent to each household assigned these call outcome codes after the household s fi
29. the Replicate Weight file That is calculate A once A using FINLWGTO001 for each record then calculate Y using FINLWGT002 for each record and so on and finally calculate ae using FINLWGT160 for each record Sum the 160 squared deviations of the replicate estimates from the original estimate and multiply by 4 160 to get the variance The standard error of the statistic is the square root of the variance LIMITATIONS OF THE DATA While attempts have been made to collect the most accurate data possible the ATUS data do have limitations With the exception of childcare information on secondary activities activities that are done at the same time as the primary activity is not collected This could lead to underestimates of the amount of time people spend doing activities that are frequently done in combination with other activities For example ATUS estimates likely underestimate the amount of time people spend listening to music since so many people listen to music while doing other things 2 In 2003 the replicate weights corresponding to TUFINLWGT use a different naming convention For more information about the naming convention see the read me notes that accompany each replicates weights file 13 The factor of 4 in the variance estimator is the result of using replicate factors of 1 7 1 0 and 0 3 The denominator indicates the number of replicate weights 160 For more information about the replication method pl
30. the calculation alternatively one could use the variable TRYHHCHILD on the Respondent file to identify households with children under age 6 The results are the same Step 3 Summarize the data to a respondent level page 71 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 In example 1 information about the time each respondent spent providing primary childcare to household children was summarized to a respondent level and then merged with the Respondent file The combined Activity Respondent file named act2_resp from example 1 includes information needed for example 2 Below is the combined Activity Respondent file generated in example 1 Recall that the variable childcare is equivalent to the total minutes each respondent spent providing primary childcare to household children File name act2_resp TUCASEID TUFINLWGT 200601 01060001 3384574 8596 2006010106001 4 3479067 9057 20060101060025 825165 4274 200601 01060033 51744472742 200601 01060038 6353748 5253 20060101060049 8193457 4764 20060101060057 15175438 457 Example 2 also requires information from the Roster file First summarize information on the Roster file to a respondent level and then merge it with the combined Activity Respondent file from example l This excerpt of the Roster file shows the variables needed to identify adult women living in households with children under age 6 Take a look at the file structure Each line number
31. the use of statistical weights that account for the complex sampling designs of the surveys Researchers who link the ATUS data to a CPS supplement will be able to identify a subset of ATUS respondents who lived in households that participated in the supplement however no statistical weights have been developed for this subset of respondents This section of the User s Guide summarizes BLS findings about whether the ATUS final weights can be used to analyze a subset of ATUS respondents for which data are available in a CPS supplement Specifically it provides information about whether the ATUS weighting variable TUFINLWGT can be used to analyze the subset of 2007 ATUS respondents for which information is available on the December 2006 Food Security Supplement FSS Data from the 2007 ATUS were linked to the 2006 FSS using the method detailed in Appendix K of the ATUS User s Guide www bls gov tus atususersguide pdf About one third of the ATUS respondents lived in households that had participated in the FSS there were 3 837 matched cases in which ATUS respondents had additional data available on the FSS and 8 411 unmatched cases in which there was no additional data available from the FSS The following table shows how many matched and unmatched cases there were for each month of the 2007 ATUS data Table 1 The number of matched and unmatched cases for the ATUS and FSS by month of the 2007 ATUS Matched cases 1
32. this step reduces the likelihood of false matches Define HUHHNUM for HRMONTH 25 e f HRMONTH gt 5 THEN HUHHNUM last digit of HRHHID2 The variable HUHHNUM is missing 1 on the ATUS CPS file for records with HRYEAR4 2004 and HRMONTH 2 5 and must be recreated in order to link properly Link the 2004 ATUS CPS file and the 2004 ASEC using e Household identification number o HRHHID on the ATUS CPS file o H IDNUM on the ASEC file e Person line number o PULINENO on the ATUS CPS file o A LINENO on the ASEC file e Household number o HUHHNUM on the ATUS CPS file o H HHNUM on the ASEC file After the linking there will be a small number of duplicates and mismatches This is because the linking variables available on the ASEC file do not uniquely identify households Use the following variables to eliminate mismatches and duplicates e Age o PRTAGE on the ATUS CPS file o A AGE on the ASEC file Caution the maximum value for age changed in May 2004 and so some age mismatches may not really be mismatches Some of those over age 85 are coded as 80 on one file and 85 on the other Also remember that the information on the ATUS CPS file may have been collected at a later date than the ASEC file and so age may be greater e Sex o PESEX on the ATUS CPS file o A SEX on the ASEC file e Race o PTDTRACE on the ATUS CPS file o PRDTRACE on ASEC file Linking ATUS CPS to CPS ASEC March supplement for years 2005 and later I Restrict the
33. time diary There is one record for each person with whom the respondent reported being in the room or by whom the respondent was accompanied during each activity Eldercare roster file 2011 and later This file contains information about eldercare recipients such as their age relationship to the respondent and whether or not they live in the same household as the respondent Case history file This file contains one record per case and provides refusal information ATUS interviewer and coder identifiers scrambled for privacy and interview quality indicators Call history file This file contains one record per call attempt and provides information about the outcome of each call Trips file 2005 2010 This file contains information about trips away from home that lasted at least 2 consecutive nights during a specific reference month the file includes the number duration and purpose of overnight trips There is one record for every trip taken This file should be used with caution because it does not contain weights and neither the ATUS final weights nor the ATUS base weights can be used to generate nationally representative estimates with these data The trips questions were replaced by the eldercare questions in 2011 Replicate weights file The replicate weights file contains base weights 160 replicate base weights and 160 replicate final weights for each ATUS final weight There is one record for each case selected to be intervi
34. to the ATUS CPS file using the following variables Or OO 0 HRHHID PULINENO HUHHNUM HRSERSUF NumHRSAMPLE Note that HRSERSUF has different default values in the ATUS CPS file and the CPS files available for download on the CPS FTP website Failure to account for this will result in many mismatches page 96 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 2 When the CPS month is from May 2004 or later link the Basic CPS file and the ATUS CPS file using the following variables e HRHHID e PULINENO e HRHHID2 Example Linking the 2004 ATUS CPS file to the 2004 Basic April CPS not just MIS 8 1 Since April 2004 is prior to May 2004 first identify all possible MIS 8 months for households receiving the 2004 Basic April CPS Refer to Appendix L and take Year 1 to be 2004 Those households interviewed for April 2004 were D C B A PP OO NN and MM Those in MM had an MIS 8 month of April 2004 but all of the other groups had other MIS 8 months Those in NN OO and PP had MIS 8 months of May 2004 J une 2004 and J uly 2004 respectively The other four groups D C B and A had MIS 8 months of J uly 2005 J une 2005 May 2005 and April 2005 respectively The 2004 ATUS CPS file can only be linked to the households that had MIS 8 months in 2004 Therefore possible MIS 8 months are April 2004 May 2004 J une 2004 and J uly 2004 Since May 2004 J une 2004 and J uly 2004 are all from May 2004 or later sev
35. up to the number of person days for selected subpopulations as well as for the general population The 2004 and 2005 weighting methods differed slightly from one another In 2004 ATUS weights variable TUFINLWGT add up to the number of person days in the month for the selected subpopulations and for the population as a whole Weighted totals also correspond to the number of weekdays Saturdays and Sundays in each month In 2005 ATUS weights add up to the number of person days in the quarter rather than in the month for these groups and weighted totals for the quarter correspond to the number of weekdays and weekend days rather than the number of Saturdays and Sundays separately Even though ATUS weights were generated using different methods on the 2004 and 2005 data files the methods are comparable and do not result in substantially different estimates The method used to generate TUFINLWGT for the 2006 data and later was different from the method used with the 2005 data On the 2005 files values of TUFINLWGT for weekdays add up to the number of person days on weekdays for the population as a whole and correspondingly for weekend days On the 2006 and later files values of TUFINLWGT for weekdays and weekend days add up to the number of person days on weekdays and weekend days for selected subpopulations as well as for the general population Users who combine multiple years of ATUS data from the single year data files must use weights that
36. variable TULINENO represents either a person in the respondent s household or one of the respondent s nonhousehold children under age 18 TULINENO 1 identifies the respondent File name atusrost 2006 selected variables 20060101060001 20060101060014 20060101060014 20060101060014 20060101060025 20060101060025 20060101060033 20060101060033 20060101060033 PNNARNIMNRNNII a UN NY WN f NINININ NON TERRP 40 identifies the respondent s nonhousehold children under 18 these are the only nonhousehold members who appear on the Roster file It is important to exclude nonhousehold children under 6 from the calculation TEAGE the age of each person Here TEAGE will be used to identify children under age 6 and respondents age 18 and over TESEX information about each person s sex Here TESEX will be used to identify respondents who are women TESEX 2 page 72 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Now there is enough information to begin the calculation First identify households with a child under age 6 To do this create an indicator variable child_05 where a value of 1 indicates the presence of a household child under 6 at least one person on the Roster has 0 lt TEAGE lt 5 and TERRP 40 and a value of 0 indicates there were no household children under 6 present Sample SAS code data childpres keep tucaseid child_05 set atusrost_2006 by tu
37. verification and adjudication system All cases are 100 percent verified meaning that two different coders code each case First a coder assigns six digit activity codes to all time use data from a completed case although not a case that he or she completed as an interviewer Second a different coder the verifier recodes the same case without seeing the original coder s assigned codes If the original coder and the verifier agree on all activity codes the case is closed and the data are ready for processing If any activities have mismatching activity codes the entire case is transferred to an adjudicator who is a supervisor or coach with ATUS coding experience The adjudicator assigns a correct code for any disputed activities then closes the case The adjudicator also assigns an error code to the coder or verifier or both who assigned the incorrect code Through coding error reports and informal discussions supervisors or coaches give coders and verifiers feedback on why any activities were recoded 5 6 INDUSTRY AND OCCUPATION CODING Activity coding is of primary importance to the survey But ATUS also collects or updates demographic and labor force data that were first collected when the respondent s household participated in the CPS some of which must also be coded page 24 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Information on the respondent s industry and occupation must be coded to the Census Bureau s
38. were generated using comparable methods Coinciding with the release of the 2006 ATUS data the variable TUO6FWGT was added to the 2003 to 2005 Respondent and Activity Summary files TUO6FWGT is a weighting variable that was generated using the 2006 weighting method Users who combine multiple years of ATUS data should use the variable TUO6FWGT to weight the 2003 to 2005 data and the variable TUFINLWGT to weight the 2006 and later data The variables TUO4FWGT on the 2003 files and TUFINLWGT on the 2004 and 2005 files also were generated using comparable weighting methods Researchers who combine the 2003 to 2005 data files can use this combination of weighting variables or the page 35 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 variable TUO6FWGT for all years Note that while the method used to generate TUFINLWGT changed from 2004 to 2005 the difference in methods is slight and has little impact on estimates Valid weights for various combinations of years Combining ATUS single year data files e 2003 through 2005 use TUO6FWGT e 2006 and later years use TUFINLWGT Combining 2003 through 2005 single year data files e 2003 through 2005 use TUO6FWGT OR e 2003 use TUO4FWGT e 2004 and 2005 use TUFINLWGT Researchers working with the multi year data files created by BLS can use the statistical weighting variable TUFNWGTP This variable was created using the 2006 weighting method and is available for all years See t
39. would drive to the mall She might be going shopping going out to eat going for a job interview going to see a movie or doing any number of activities We cannot assign a code for this travel activity Driving to the mall without first identifying a purpose therefore we look to the first activity done at the mall Eating dinner and assign a code of Travel related to eating and drinking Example 2 Respondent reports the following series of activities Work main job 4 hours gt Driving home 1 hour gt Watching TV at home 2 hours page 23 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 The correct code for the activity Driving home is Travel related to working because with few exceptions all homebound trips are coded according to the activity that precedes the trip rather than the one that follows Example 3 Respondent reports the following series of activities Driving to work 5 minutes Stopped to buy gas gt Driving to work 45 minutes gt Stopped at drive thru to buy breakfast gt Driving to work 10 minutes gt Work main job Example 4 Respondent reports the following series of activities Driving 5 minutes gt Stopped to buy gas gt Driving 45 minutes gt Stopped at drive thru to buy breakfast gt Driving 10 minutes gt Work main job Examples 3 and 4 are both examples of trips with multiple destinations which is sometimes called trip chaining These examples show two respondents w
40. 05 10 The ATUS Trips file contains information about the number length and purpose of all trips taken in a particular month No imputation is done of these variables RATES OF MISSING AND IMPUTED DATA IN THE ATUS In order to assess the quality of certain variables collected in the ATUS the rates of missing and imputed data for these variables were calculated The missing and imputation rates for ATUS variables were calculated using the following formula Total number of imputed missing responses i x100 Total number of required responses Imputation missing rate Item nonresponse was found to be quite low in the ATUS with most variables having an item nonresponse of well under 2 percent see table 6 3 The data are given in ranges because the percents vary slightly year to year The two variables describing weekly and hourly earnings had a higher imputation rate because these variables are more sensitive than others Table 6 3 Rates of missing and imputed variables in ATUS Missing and imputed ATUS Data Percent Missing Percent Imputed Edits that are similar between the CPS and AT US Earnings Weekly earnings 0 0 6 0 8 0 Hourly earnings 0 0 8 0 10 0 Industry and occupation Industry 0 0 1 0 2 0 Occupation 0 0 1 0 2 0 Class of worker 0 0 1 0 3 0 Labor force status Usual weekly hours main job 0 0 lt 1 0 Usual weekly hours other job 0 0 1 0 2 0
41. 06 that Americans provided childcare as a primary activity to children living in their household Step 2 Variables and activity codes that are needed TUCASEID Case identifier used to link files appears on all files TUFINLWGT Statistical weight on the Respondent file TUACTDUR24 Activity duration in minutes truncated to a 24 hour day on the Activity file TUTIERICODE TUTIER2CODE amp TUTIER3CODE Identify activities on the Activity file Care of household children when provided as one s primary activity corresponds to activity codes that begin with these 4 digits 0301 0302 and 0303 Specific codes are shown in the following excerpt from the 2006 coding lexicon 1 03 Caring For amp Helping Household Members 01 Caring For amp Helping HH Children 01 Physical care for hh children 02 Reading to with hh children 03 Playing with hh children not sports 04 Arts and crafts with hh children 05 Playing sports with hh children 06 Talking with listening to hh children Organization amp planning for hh children Looking after hh children as a primary activity Attending hh children s events Waiting for with hh children Picking up dropping off hh children Caring for amp helping hh children n e c 02 Activities Related to HH Children s Education 01 Homework hh children 02 Meetings and school conferences hh children 03 Home schooling of hh children 04 Waiting associated with hh children s education 99 Activities relat
42. 14 6 4 EDITS AND IMPUTATION OF UNIQUE ATUS VARIABLES Many of the variables collected in the ATUS are unique to the survey and have their own edits and imputation procedures All interviews with fewer than five activities reported in the 24 hour time diary and all interviews with activities other than don t know and refuse covering fewer than 21 hours incomplete records are excluded from the ATUS data files Remaining records undergo several edits in which imputation is performed on ATUS specific data elements The ATUS specific data elements and their edits are described below Activity codes While ATUS coders attempt to code all activities there are some activities that are impossible to code This occurs for various reasons Sometimes respondents refused to identify what they were doing or could not remember Sometimes the interviewer did not record the respondent s activity in sufficient detail for it to be coded Uncodeable activities are given a data code with a first tier activity code of 50 The incidence of don t know or can t remember activities tends to increase with respondent age Who code edits ATUS collects information who codes on the person s in the room with or accompanying the respondent during his or her activities yet several activities are ineligible for a who code assignment Therefore one of the who code edits strips a who code from activities
43. 291 12186882 357 20060101061297 1903575 4397 20060101061443 11120161 624 20060101061456 2378633 3536 Sum the statistical weights TUFINLWGT for all 4 705 respondents this sum appears as the value for the variable denominator below Sample SAS code proc means data subpop_denom sum var tufinlwgt output out summarydatal sum tufinlwgt denominator EE 0 4705 30484747591 What percent of persons who reside in the South did housework on an average day in 2006 P 10 773 706 011 j 30484747591 7 0 Multiply the participation rate by 100 to learn that 35 percent of Southerners did housework on an average day in 2006 Step 5 Verify your results if possible This estimate matches one that can be calculated using the results appearing on an ATUS unpublished table on Summary table 2 Unpublished tables are available from ATUS staff by filling out a request form online at http data bls gov cgi bin forms tus tus home htm or by calling 202 691 6339 page 85 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Example 6 Step 1 Objective Calculate the average hours per day in 2006 that Americans watched TV while they were with at least one own household child under age 18 Step 2 Variables and activity codes that are needed TUCASEID Case identifier used to link files appears on all files TUFINLWGT Statistical weight on the Respondent file TEAGE Age of household children and Age
44. 3 ADVANCE MAILER An advance mailer is sent to all ATUS designated persons to notify them that they have been selected for the ATUS sample The advance mailer contains a letter and a brochure both of which are printed in English and Spanish The letter explains the nature of the survey notifies the designated person of the date on which he she will be contacted for the interview and provides ATUS telephone and Internet contact information see appendices A and B The brochure contains a list of frequently asked questions designed to help designated persons better understand the survey see appendix D Between 2003 and mid 2011 advance mailers to minor designated persons those under the age of 18 also included an explanatory letter to the parent or guardian see appendix C All advance mailers are sent by Priority Mail as described in chapter 2 MODE OF DATA COLLECTION All ATUS data are collected using computer assisted telephone interviewing CATI The computerized interviewing instrument offers several benefits over a paper questionnaire First CATI automatically inserts any answer that a respondent gives in the beginning of a survey such as a child s name in corresponding later questions Next CATI verifies that all questions have been answered and that a respondent s answers are consistent throughout the questionnaire CATI alerts the interviewer if there is a problem so that it can be resolved during the course of the interview
45. 3479067 9057 20060101060025 5825165 4274 200601 01060033 51744472742 20060101 060038 6353748 5253 20060101060049 8193457 4764 page 91 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Step 4 Apply the appropriate formula The final part of the calculation is identical to example 1 Use this formula Average hours per day Ia the average number of hours per day spent by a given population engaging in activity j is given by gt fwgtiT i i gt fwat i where Tij is the amount of time spent in activity j by respondent i and fwgti is the final weight for respondent i Follow the same steps as in example 1 The results are shown below The variables numerator and denominator refer to the numerator and denominator for the formula shown above The variable tot_tvchild is the final result the numerator divided by the denominator TYPE_ _FREQ_ denominator _numerator_ _tot_tvchild 12943 85089676117 1 5293158E12 17 972988482 Americans spent 18 minutes per day on average watching TV while their own household children under age 18 were present in the room If this estimate seems low recall that it includes all persons in the U S civilian population age 15 and over whether or not they lived in households with children Step 5 Verify your results if possible This estimate is not available in an ATUS table although it has been independently programmed and verified page 92 AME
46. 4574 8596 2006010106001 4 3479067 9057 20060101060025 5825165 4274 200601 01060033 51744472742 200601 01060038 6353748 5253 200601 01060049 8193457 4764 200601 01060057 15175438 457 Step 4 Apply the appropriate formula formulas are found in Chapter 7 of this Guide Average hours per day T the average number of hours per day spent by a given population engaging in activity j is given by gt fwat 7 7 i i where Tij is the amount of time spent in activity j by respondent i and fwgti is the final weight for respondent i page 69 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 To calculate the average hours per day Americans spent providing primary childcare to household children first multiply the statistical weight and the total time each respondent spent providing childcare Here that is TUFINLWGT CHILDCARE fwet T TUFINLWGT CHILDCARE wtd childcare This is what the data file looks like after WTD_CHILDCARE has been created File name formulal TUCASEID TUFINLWGT childcare wtd_childcare 20060101060001 33845748596 2006010106001 4 3479067 9057 20060101060025 825165 4274 0 20060101 060033 51744472742 390 2018034436 9 200601 01060038 6353748 5253 0 0 20060101060049 8193457 4764 120 983214897 17 Now looking again at the formula notice that the numerator is the sum of WTD_ CHILDCARE for all 12 943 records the denominator is the sum of TUFINLWGT for all 12 943 records gt fw
47. 5 5825165 4274 20060101060033 5174447 2742 20060101060038 6353748 5253 20060101060049 8193457 4764 20060101060057 151 75438 457 20060101 060067 10618544227 page 81 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Step 4 Apply the appropriate formula To calculate the number of persons who reside in the South who did housework on an average day in 2006 apply this formula Number of participants Numj the number of persons engaging in activity j during an average day is given by fwot jij Num D where fw oti is the final weight for respondent i lj is an indicator that equals 1 if respondent i participated in activity j during the reference day and 0 otherwise and Dis the number of days in the estimation period for example 365 for annual averages for years other than leap years The numerator is the sum of the statistical weights for persons in the subpopulation persons residing in the South who did housework The denominator is 365 the number of days in 2006 Note When working with multiple years of ATUS data the denominator is the sum of all days in the i multi year period For example when working with the 2003 06 data combined the denominator i would be 1 461 365 366 365 365 days fwet I TUFINLWGT for persons in the subpopulation First restrict the data set to persons who did housework on the diary day housework gt 0 and who live in the South GEREG 3 Sample SAS code da
48. 57 4764 120 983214897 17 20060101060057 15175438 457 245 3717982422 20060101060092 16012956 51 20 320259130 19 page 77 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 The remainder of the calculation is identical to examples 1 and 2 Numerator sum of wtd_childcare across all 3 680 respondents Denominator sum of TUFINLWGT across all 3 680 respondents EES Fred denen rman totcare 3680 18366037446 2 0951963E12 114 07993111 Dividing the numerator by the denominator yields the solution to this problem here the variable totcare is the solution On days they provided childcare to household children individuals spent on average 114 minutes 1 9 hours providing care Step 5 Verify your results if possible This estimate is not published in the ATUS 2007 news release but it does match an estimate that appears in an unpublished table Summary table 4 Unpublished tables are available from ATUS staff by filling out a request form online at http data bls gov cgi bin forms tus tus home htm or by calling 202 691 6339 Example 4 Step 1 Objective Calculate the number of persons residing in the South who did housework on an average day in 2006 Step 2 Variables and activity codes that are needed TUCASEID Case identifier used to link files appears on all files TUFINLWGT Statistical weight on the Respondent file TULINENO Line number of household members and the respondent s own nonhous
49. AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 American Time Use Survey User s Guide Understanding AT US 2003 to 2013 The American Time Use Survey ATUS is sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and conducted by the U S Census Bureau AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAP LER SURVEY OBJ EGTIVES wis usiatttnsstiataiithaidtreraae anaes sadtadnataiane ena 3 CHAPTER 2 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY 0 cceeeee es 5 CHAPTER 3 SURVEY DESIGN iinet asnicius shar ahr os aie ash annarrar rnanan 11 CHAPTER 4 DATA COEIGEC THO Nive caatvaudanevncctaaaticiienta Sieatiadnaganchan tase dadoondets 15 CHAPTER 5 CODING THE DATA pria aa a a aA yaaa uae an 21 Exhibit 5 1 Travel Codes CHAPTER 6 DATA EDITING IMPUTATION AND ITEM NONRESPONSE 26 Exhibit 6 1 Imputation Methods Exhibit 6 2 ATUS Data Files CHAPTER 7 WEIGHTS LINKING AND ESTIMATION ccce 34 CHAPTER 8 PUBLICATIONS AND DATA FILES eerren 43 CHAP TER 9 SPECIAL TOPICS cise cunacsrsacvanind iae EA AA i 45 CHAPTER 10 DATA QUALITY sriirinrisinrare aani aa aara e a a ta i AO CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS sasssssssssssarrrrrrrrrrrnnrrnnrrerrrrnrnrrrrrrrrrrrrrene 48 APPENDIX A Advance letter to households with telephone numbers APPENDIX B Advance letter to households without telephone numbers APPENDIX C Advance letter to parents or guardians of minor respondents APPENDIX D Frequently asked questions sent with a
50. ER S GUIDE December 2014 Published tables 2008 2005 2003 Coding lexicon categories major categories 2013 2007 2004 Purchasing goods and 07 07 07 Consumer purchases services 08 08 08 Professional and personal care services 09 09 09 Household services 1001 1001 1001 Using government services 100304 Waiting associated with using government services 100301 100301 Waiting associated with using police fire services 100302 100302 Waiting associated with obtaining licenses 100399 100399 100399 Waiting associated with using government services or civic obligations not elsewhere classified 1004 1004 1004 Security procedures related to government services civic obligations 1099 1099 1099 Government services not elsewhere classified 1807 1807 1707 Travel related to consumer purchases 1808 1808 1708 Travel related to using professional and personal care services 1809 1809 1709 Travel related to using household services 181001 181001 Travel related to using government services 171001 Travel related to using police fire services 171002 Travel related to using social services 171003 Travel related to obtaining licenses and paying fines fees 181099 181099 171099 Travel related to government services and civic obligations not elsewhere classified Consumer goods 07 07 07 Consumer purchases purchases Grocery shopping 070101 070101 070101 Grocery shopping Professional
51. In order to reduce respondent burden in the ATUS certain CPS variables are not updated in the ATUS but are still important when analyzing time use data Many of these are demographic variables and include race marital status Hispanic origin and educational attainment Another CPS variable that is not updated in the ATUS is family income Prior to 2010 there was no imputation procedure for this in the CPS Because it is a sensitive question it is missing in many interviews It is more likely to be missing in situations where the CPS respondent is younger presumably household children are less likely to know family income than household adults Beginning in J anuary 2010 CPS began imputing missing values for family income However ATUS cases drawn from CPS households that completed their final interview in 2009 will have missing values for the edited family income variable 6 3 5 MISSING CPS DATA FOR OTHER HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS About 2 7 percent of household members are new between the ATUS interview and the CPS interview If a new member enters the household between the time of the CPS and the ATUS interviews there will be no CPS information about that individual Thus variables such as educational attainment and earnings information will not be available for these individuals However new household members are usually young such as children born between the CPS and the ATUS page 29 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 20
52. M HRSAMPLE HRSERSUF Many 2003 ASEC records will not link to 2004 ASEC records Delete all records that do not have matches This method will also work for linking the 2002 ASEC to the 2003 ASEC Linking the 2004 ASEC to the 2005 ASEC I 2 Link the 2004 Basic March to the 2004 ASEC using the instructions in II B On the merged 2004 Basic ASEC file define e NumHRSAMPLE Numeric part of HRSAMPLE positions 2 and 3 e NumHRSERSUF convert alpha character into a numeric A 1 B 2 etc On the 2005 ASEC define e NumHRSAMPLE Digits 1 and 2 of HRHHID2 e NumHRSERSUF Digits 3 and 4 of HRHHID2 4 Link the merged 2004 Basic ASEC file and the 2005 ASEC using the following variables e HRHHID e PULINENO e HUHHNUM e NumHRSAMPLE e NumHRSERSUF Many 2004 ASEC records will not link to 2005 ASEC records Delete all records that do not have matches Linking two ASEC files from 2005 or later 1 Link the two ASEC files using the following variables e HRHHID e HRHHID2 e PULINENO Many ASEC records from one year will not link to ASEC records from the other Delete all records that do not have matches page 107 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 lll Common problems Linking can be a frustrating and lengthy process Researchers who are having trouble linking should examine four things in particular 1 Variable type and length Sometimes files obtained from different places will have differ
53. RICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX K Linking ATUS files to CPS files One of the strengths of the ATUS is that the data files can be linked to data files from the Current Population Survey CPS a large monthly household survey sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and conducted by the Census Bureau Households selected to participate in the CPS are contacted for an interview each month for four months They are then contacted eight months later for another four monthly interviews For example a household first contacted for an interview in April 2002 would be contacted for an interview in April 2002 May 2002 J une 2002 and J uly 2002 and then again in April 2003 May 2003 J une 2003 and J uly 2003 These monthly interviews are known as the Basic CPS The month of the final interview is known as the MIS 8 month or the Month in sample 8 month The CPS rotation scheme is shown in Appendix L Additionally CPS supplement surveys on specific topics are conducted periodically These are generally added to the Basic CPS survey for a given month Some supplements are conducted on a regular basis For example the Volunteer supplement is conducted every September Other supplements are conducted on a less regular basis ATUS data files can be linked to the Basic CPS files as well as to CPS supplement files The ATUS files can be linked to the CPS files using information on the ATUS CPS file There is no one variable t
54. S advance letter also advises designated persons that this is a voluntary survey All Census Bureau security safeguards regarding the protection of data files containing confidential information against unauthorized use including data collected through CATI apply to ATUS data collection The BLS processing system design requires that ATUS data be securely transferred from the Census Bureau server to the BLS server page 20 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAPTER 5 5 1 THE CODING LEXICON The ATUS coding lexicon or activity classification system was originally based on the one used for the Australian Bureau of Statistics 1997 time use survey During a lengthy developmental phase which included several coding and usability tests before the start of official ATUS data collection the ATUS lexicon underwent many revisions The result is a 3 tiered system with 17 major or first tier categories each having 2 additional levels of detail see appendix G Each third tier activity category also contains a list of examples of activities that fall into that category Codes are periodically evaluated and updated prior to the start of each year s data collection A document showing how the ATUS coding lexicons changed each year can be found at www bls gov tus lexicons htm Coders at the telephone center assign a 6 digit classification code to each diary activity The first two digits represent the major activi
55. Statistics Canada held a conference on the value and measurement of unpaid work This conference exposed BLS to a gap in the United States Federal Statistical System there was no measure of time use to enable an estimate of the value of unpaid work e 1995 United Nations conference in Beijing China The U N International Conference on the Status of Women again raised the issue of measuring and valuing unremunerated work as a topic of international interest The conference s Platform for Action item 206 stated that national regional and international statistical agencies should measure in quantitative terms unremunerated work that is outside national accounts and reflect its value in satellite or other official accounts that are separate from but consistent with core national accounts 1 Developmental phase 2 Feasibility 1997 In 1997 BLS recognized a growing interest in time use data Consequently the agency began exploring how researchers had used data from prior studies and how BLS might conduct a time use survey e 1997 BLS Pilot Survey and BLS MacArthur Conference BLS conducted this trial survey to examine the viability of conducting a time use survey by telephone in the United States This is discussed further in section 2 2 1 To present the findings from the pilot study and to become acquainted with time use data and researchers BLS cosponsored a conference with the MacArthur Foundation entitled Time Use Nonma
56. TUACTIVITY_N Keep only the variables needed for the calculation As in example 1 the variable code is created it is equivalent to the 6 digit activity code The file that results named ownkids2_act has 263 286 records one for each activity reported by each respondent in 2006 Sample SAS code data ownkids2_act keep tucaseid tuactivity_n child code tuactdur24 merge ownkids2 atusact_2006 by tucaseid tuactivity_n code tutierlcode tutier2code tutier3code page 89 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 File name ownkids2_act TUCASEID TUACTIVITY_N 20060101 060033 1 180 010101 20060101 060033 20 030101 200601 01060033 120 030103 200601 01060033 60 030101 20060101060033 10 180701 20060101 060033 60 070101 20060101060033 10 180701 20060101 060033 60 070101 20060101 060033 10 180701 200601 01060033 20 030101 200601 01060033 45 030101 20060101 060033 10 020104 20060101060033 60 020201 20060101 060033 60 110101 i i i i M M i Note that the variable child has missing values for times when an own household child under 18 was not present during the activity Now sum the activity level file named ownkids2_act to a respondent level Similar to the technique used in earlier examples it is helpful to create a respondent level variable that for each respondent will be equivalent to the total time the respondent spent watching TV while in the room with an own
57. Time spent purchasing or renting consumer goods regardless of mode or place of purchase or rental in person via telephone over the Internet at home or in a store is classified in this category Subcategories in this section include those for time spent purchasing gasoline groceries other food items and for time spent in all other shopping activities Eating and drinking All time spent eating or drinking except those done as part of a work or volunteer activity whether alone with others at home at a place of purchase or somewhere else is classified here Time spent purchasing or talking related to purchasing meals snacks and beverages is not counted as part of this category time spent doing these activities are counted in Consumer Purchases Educational activities Time spent taking classes for a degree or for personal interest including Internet or other distance learning courses doing research and homework and taking care of administrative tasks such as registering for classes or obtaining a school ID is included in this category For high school students before and after school extracurricular activities except sports also are classified as educational activities Educational activities do not include time spent for classes or training received as part of ajob Time spent helping others with their education related activities is classified in the Caring for and helping categories Government services and civic obligation
58. URES Survey estimates are subject to nonsampling errors that may arise from many different sources Census Bureau and BLS staff perform a number of quality assessment activities to minimize nonsampling data entry and coding errors in the ATUS data and to help produce higher quality estimates 10 1 1 NONRESPONSE Unit person level nonresponse Census Bureau and BLS staff track response rates on a weekly monthly and annual basis The average response rate to the ATUS from 2003 2013 was 55 percent See chapter 3 6 for overall response rates by year By tracking response rates staff are able to identify and implement strategies to improve response rates and track the success of those strategies Item nonresponse BLS staff track item nonresponse on an annual basis Item nonresponse refers to a missing variable in an otherwise completed questionnaire Item nonresponse is unlikely to occur at random Ignoring missing data and restricting analysis to records with reported values relies on the implicit and possibly inaccurate assumption that all respondents are equally likely or unlikely to respond to the item and that estimates are approximately unbiased Tracking the rates of missing and imputed data for these variables allows one to assess the quality of certain variables collected in the ATUS Item nonresponse has been found to be quite low in the ATUS with most variables having an item nonresponse rate of well under 2 percent See chapter 6
59. URVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Step 4 Apply the appropriate formula This step is identical to that shown in example 1 Of course the result will be different because the input file has been restricted to a subpopulation Again use the same formula that was used in example 1 Average hours per day T the average number of hours per day spent by a given population engaging in activity j is given by gt fwot 7 i gt fwot i where Tj is the amount of time spent in activity j by respondent i and fwgti is the final weight for respondent i Create the variable wtd_childcare by multiplying the statistical weight and the total time each respondent spent providing primary childcare fwet T TUFINLWGT CHILDCARE wtd_childcarei TUCASEID TUFINLWGT childcare H wtd_childcare 200601 01060033 5174447 2742 2018034436 20060101060049 8193457 4764 983214897 1 20060101060108 5942840 3145 267427814 1 20060101060545 2334152 2939 186732183 5 20060101060633 3622769 7785 To generate the numerator add the values of the variable WTD_CHILDCARE for all 1 571 respondents in the subpopulation to generate the denominator add the values of the statistical weights variable TUFINLWGT for the 1 571 respondents The variable totcare isthe numerator divided by the denominator It equals the average minutes per day that the subpopulation spent providing childcare as a primary activity L aE FRED _ _deneminat
60. US MODULES The ATUS was designed so that government agencies can sponsor a module or series of questions on a special topic usually related to time use at the end of the survey An ATUS module lasts no longer than five minutes and is designed to supplement data from the core ATUS 4 5 1 4 5 2 4 5 3 EATING AND HEALTH MODULE The Eating and Health EH Module was added to the ATUS in J anuary 2006 and was fielded through December 2008 The U S Department of Agriculture s Economic Research Service and the National Institutes of Health s National Cancer Institute sponsored the module This module consisted of questions designed to examine relationships between time use purchasing preparing and consuming food and obesity It contained questions on secondary eating eating while doing other activities secondary drinking drinking beverages other than water while doing other activities grocery shopping and meal preparation participation in food and nutrition assistance programs height and weight and household income More information about the EH Module is available online at www bls gov tus ehdatafiles htm Well Being Module A Well Being WB Module sponsored by the National Institute on Aging NIA was added to the ATUS and fielded for three full years in 2010 2012 and 2013 This module used the ATUS diary to capture how people felt during selected activities specifically how happy tired sad stressed and in p
61. Unfortunately we cannot interview other members of your household but we can work with you to set up a convenient interview time Are my answers confidential Yes You are protected by United States Code Title 13 Section 9 which requires all information about you and your household to be kept strictly confidential and used only for statistical purposes In compliance with this law the Census Bureau cannot release any information that could identify you or your household to anyone including market research firms political campaigns or other government agencies page 52 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Who is conducting the survey The U S Census Bureau collects and processes the data The Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS analyzes and publishes the information The Census Bureau removes all confidential information from the data files such as name and address before the BLS reviews the data I m still in high school Why was I selected We interview people of all ages including teenagers How teenagers balance school work and time with family and friends is an important topic for educators health professionals and others If you are under 18 and selected to represent your household in this survey a parent or guardian is welcome to be on the line with you during the interview page 53 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX E Refusal conversion letter Ms Respondent 123
62. Unmatched cases 2 Month Frequency Percent Frequency Percent 01 0 0 00 1358 16 15 02 95 2 48 805 9 57 03 939 24 47 119 1 41 04 1071 27 91 39 0 46 05 794 20 69 46 0 55 06 791 20 62 190 2 26 07 138 3 60 956 11 37 08 9 0 23 885 10 52 09 0 0 00 1030 12 25 10 0 0 00 1083 12 88 11 0 0 00 884 10 51 12 0 0 00 1016 12 08 1 A matched case is an ATUS case in which additional data were available on the FSS 2 An unmatched case is an ATUS case in which no data were available on the FSS Most of the matched cases were for ATUS respondents interviewed in the months of March to J une 2007 The ATUS final weighting variable TUFINLWGT was used to generate time use estimates for page 111 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 matched cases When these estimates were compared to estimates for all ATUS respondents for calendar year 2007 there were some slight differences likely due to seasonality in the ATUS data Because of this seasonality estimates generated from matched data using the final weighting variable TUFINLWGT should be interpreted as applying only for months when the bulk of the matches occur Thus in the FSS example it is approximately correct to use TUFINLWGT for matched cases as long as analyses are restricted to March to J une 2007 page 112 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX N Reliability Criteria for ATUS Published and Unpublished Tables ATUS data must m
63. age hours per day of participants T the average number of hours spent per day engaged in activity j by people who participated in that activity on that day is given by gt fwgt 1 7 eA N Di fost ly where Tj is the amount of time spent in activity j by respondent i fwgtiis the final weight for respondent i and lj is an indicator that equals 1 if respondent i participated in activity j during the reference day and 0 otherwise page 38 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Examples of this type of estimate are the average number of hours per day that people who watched TV during a day spent watching the average number of hours that men who worked during a day spent working or the average number of hours per day that children under 18 who did homework during a day spent doing it Example Estimating the average amount of time Americans spent watching TV in 2007 using the 2007 single year data files To estimate the amount of time Americans spent watching TV per day in 2007 based on answers to the survey the user must follow two steps In the first step the total time spent watching TV is determined for each respondent In the second step ATUS weights are used to generate an estimate of average TV time for the population There are two methods for determining the total time each respondent spent watching television The easier method involves using variables on the Activity summary file the other
64. ain respondents felt The module also captured how meaningful the activity was and whether the respondent was interacting with anyone during the activity These questions were not asked for sleeping grooming and personal activities Respondents also were asked a few questions about their general health The 2012 and 2013 WB Modules included all of the questions from the 2010 WB Module as well as two additional questions that collected data about individuals life satisfaction and their emotional experience yesterday Such information can be used to better understand the quality of life in the United States and to develop a measure of society s well being More information about the WB Module is available online at www bls gov tus wbdatafiles htm Leave Module The Leave Module sponsored by the Department of Labor Women s Bureau was added to the ATUS and fielded from J anuary through December 2011 This module asked wage and salary workers about their use and access to paid and unpaid leave and the flexibility of their work schedules The data provide a richer description of work including information about the types of leave available to workers the reasons for which workers are able to take leave leave activity and information about whether workers can adjust their schedules to balance personal and work obligations instead of taking leave More information about the Leave Module including data files and the Leave Module questionnaire
65. and 08 08 08 Professional and personal care services personal care services Financial services 0802 0802 0802 Financial services and banking and banking Medical and care 0804 0804 0804 Medical and care services services Personal care 0805 0805 0805 Personal care services services Household services 09 09 09 Household services Home maintenance 0902 0902 0902 Home maintenance repair decoration and repair decoration construction not done by self and construction not done by self Vehicle 0905 0905 0905 Vehicle maintenance and repair services not done by maintenance and self repair services not done by self Government services 1001 1001 1001 Using government services 100304 Waiting associated with using government services 100301 100301 Waiting associated with using police fire services 100302 100302 Waiting associated with obtaining licenses 100399 100399 100399 Waiting associated with using government services or civic obligations not elsewhere classified 1004 1004 1004 Security procedures related to government services civic obligations 1099 1099 1099 Government services not elsewhere classified page 59 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Published tables 2008 2005 2003 Coding lexicon categories major categories 2013 2007 2004 Travel related to 1807 1807 1707 Travel related to consumer purchases purchasing goods and 1808 1808 1708
66. ariables that are necessary to complete the problem are retained In the SAS code below the input data set act1 is simply the activity file plus the variable code as defined above Sample SAS code data act2 keep tucaseid childcare set actl by tucaseid if first tucaseid then childcare 0 if substr code 1 4 in 0301 0302 0303 then childcarettuactdur24 if last tucaseid then output The output shows the identifier TUCASEID and the variable childcare which is the total minutes each respondent spent providing primary childcare to household children on the diary day File name act2 TUCASEID childcare 20060101060001 2006010106001 4 20060101060025 200601 01060033 200601 01060038 200601 01060049 200601 01060057 page 68 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Now that the activity data are summarized to the respondent level link these data to the Respondent file using the identifier TUCASEID Both files have one record per respondent 12 943 in 2006 It is necessary to link the files to obtain the statistical weight variable TUFINLWGT which appears on the Respondent file Sample SAS code data act2_resp keep tucaseid childcare tufinlwgt merge atusresp_2006 act2 by tucaseid The resulting file has 12 943 records one for each respondent and the 3 variables needed for the calculation File name act2_resp TUCASEID TUFINLWGT 200601 01060001 338
67. asic CPS files to other Basic CPS files or Basic CPS files to CPS supplement files e How to link Basic March CPS files to the ASEC March supplement files e How to link two ASEC files II A Linking Basic CPS files to other Basic CPS files or to CPS supplements other than ASEC March supplement 1 When both CPS files or both the CPS file and the CPS supplement occurred prior to May 2004 then use the following variables to link HRHHID PULINENO HRSERSUF HUHHNUM HRSAMPLE 2 If one file is prior to May 2004 and the other is May 2004 or later then several variables must be defined e onthe later CPS file May 2004 or later o HUHHNUM last digit of HRHHID2 o HRSERSUF digits 3 and 4 of HRHHID2 converted to alpha characters 00 1 or default value 01 A 02 B etc o NumHRSAMPLE digits 1 and 2 of HRHHID2 e onthe earlier CPS file prior to May 2004 o NumHRSAMPLE numeric part of HRSAMPLE characters 2 and 3 e Use the following variables to link HRHHID PULINENO HUHHNUM HRSERSUF NumHRSAMPLE o0000 3 If both files are May 2004 or later use the following variables to link e HRHHID e HRHHID2 e PULINENO page 104 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Example Linking the 2004 Basic April CPS file to the 2005 Basic April CPS 1 Since April 2004 is prior to May 2004 and April 2005 is after May 2004 several variables must be defined before linking can occur 2 Define three
68. asiest way for them to report earnings hourly weekly biweekly twice monthly monthly annually other and how much they usually earn in the reported time period Earnings reported on a basis other than weekly are converted to a weekly equivalent The term usual is as perceived by the respondent If the respondent asks for a definition of usual interviewers are instructed to define the term as more than half the weeks worked during the past 4 or 5 months Eldercare Eldercare is providing unpaid care or assistance to an individual who needed help because of a condition related to aging This care can be provided by a family member or non family member Care can be provided in the recipient s home the provider s home or a care facility such asin a nursing home Eldercare provider Someone who provided eldercare more than one time in the 3 to 4 months prior to the interview day page 48 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Employment status Employed All persons who usually worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in a family operated enterprise and all persons who at any time during the 7 days prior to the interview meet the following criteria 1 Did any work at all as paid employees or worked in their own business profession or on their own farm or 2 Were not working but had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent due to illness bad weather vacation childcare problems a labor dispu
69. at a specified time Secondary activities A secondary or simultaneous activity is an activity done at the same time asa primary activity With the exception of the care of children under age 13 information on secondary activities is not collected in ATUS Secondary childcare Secondary childcare is care for children under age 13 that is done while doing something else as a primary activity such as cooking dinner Secondary childcare estimates are derived by summing the durations of activities during which respondents had at least one child under age 13 in their care while doing other things The time individuals spend providing secondary childcare to household children is further restricted to the time between when the first household child under age 13 woke up and the last household child under 13 went to bed It is also restricted to times the respondent was awake If respondents report providing both primary and secondary care at the same time the time is attributed to primary care only Where categories A where code is provided for each activity except sleeping grooming and personal private activities and except when respondents did not remember what they did or refused to answer Where codes include place codes e g home workplace or grocery store and in transit codes e g car bus or airplane Who categories For most activities reported respondents are asked Who was in the room with you or Who accompanie
70. at occurred over the years Details about respondents characteristics and their time use are included in the following files Household data from the final month MIS 8 of CPS interviews appear on the ATUS CPS file data about ATUS respondents appear on the Respondent file ATUS data on respondents household composition appear on the Roster file the ATUS time diary data appear on the Activity file data summarizing the ATUS time diary appear on the Activity summary file data about who was with respondents during selected activities appear on the Who file and data about persons for whom ATUS 14 For information about reliability criteria for ATUS published and unpublished tables please see Appendix N page 43 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 8 3 respondents provide eldercare appear on the Eldercare roster file 2011 and later Additional files containing case and call history data trips information for 2005 10 and special weights also have been released these additional files are available as single year data files For descriptions of the ATUS files see exhibit 6 2 The files are released in comma delimited formats downloadable from the ATUS Web site at www bls gov tus data htm SAS Stata and SPSS programs to read the data into these statistical software packages are provided In accordance with BLS and U S Census Bureau policies that protect respondents privacy identifying fields were remov
71. atching 2003 and 2004 ATUS files to ASEC files Because of the complexity of the linking there are directions on how to link to each year Note in particular that the value of H SEQ is different in 2003 and 2004 Linking 2003 ATUS CPS to 2003 CPS ASEC March supplement 1 Restrict the 2003 ASEC to e 5 lt H MIS lt 8 AND H SEQ lt 78864 AND e A FNLWGT gt 0 The first restriction will limit the ASEC file to the more recent of the two interviews most households receive the ASEC interview twice Since the linking variables available on the ASEC file do not uniquely identify households it also reduces the likelihood of false matches The last two restrictions ensure that the SCHIPS and Hispanic oversamples are removed without this step there will be duplicate household identification and person line numbers page 100 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 2 4 Restrict the 2003 ATUS CPS file to e HRYEAR4 2003 AND e HRMONTH 3 4 5 or 6 Since the linking variables available on the ASEC file do not uniquely identify households this step reduces the likelihood of false matches Link the 2003 ATUS CPS file and the 2003 ASEC using e Household identification number o HRHHID on the ATUS CPS file o H IDNUM on the ASEC file e Person line number o PULINENO on the ATUS CP S file o A LINENO on the ASEC file e Household number o HUHHNUM on the ATUS CPS file o H HHNUM on the ASEC file After the linking t
72. ational interviewing to collect data This also marked the first time that data from real interviews would be coded using the new ATUS classification system It also was the first CATI interview designed using Blaise software integrated into the Census Bureau s case management system and conducted at the J effersonville telephone center A large scale field test was necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of ATUS training modules to adequately prepare interviewers and coders to determine respondents reactions to a CATI time use survey and to determine whether case management data collection coding and processing systems functioned as planned The intent was to mirror full production conditions as closely as possible to work out any operational problems that still remained An interviewer debriefing after the dress rehearsal established that there were several areas of the training that needed improvement In addition various operational problems were fixed operations management reports were developed and the need to add a question clarifying volunteer activities was addressed during dress rehearsal PREFIELDING From September to December 2002 BLS and the Census Bureau continued full scale operations to refine the data collection procedures the CATI instrument the calling strategy and the coding lexicon Refinements based on the results of the dress rehearsal and debriefing sessions were implemented and evaluated as the survey approach
73. caseid if first tucaseid then child_05 if terrp ne 40 and teage in 0 1 2 3 4 5 then child_05 retain child_05 if last tucaseid then output This is what the output file looks like There are 12 943 records one for each respondent The variable child_05 identifies households with at least one child under age 6 File name childpres TUCASEID 200601 01060001 2006010106001 4 200601 01060025 200601 01060033 200601 01060038 20060101060049 Now create a file that includes the respondent s age and sex and contains one record for each respondent This information appears on the Roster file and corresponds to all records with TULINENO 1 So restrict the Roster file to cases with TULINENO 1 Sample SAS code data rost2 keep tucaseid tulineno teage tesex set atusrost_2006 if tulineno 1 This is an excerpt of the output There are 12 943 records one for each respondent File name rost2 20060101060001 20060101060014 20060101060025 20060101060033 page 73 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Now there are three files that include the information needed to solve this example and all are now summarized to the respondent level The Activity Respondent file act2_resp from example 1 contains the statistical weights TUFINLWGT and the total time each respondent spent providing primary childcare to household children CHILDCARE The file rost2 includes info
74. childcare For example watching television with my child is coded as a leisure activity not childcare Caring for and helping household members also includes a range of activities done to benefit adult members of households such as providing physical and medical care or obtaining medical services Doing something as a favor for or helping another household adult does not automatically result in classification as a helping activity For example a report of helping my spouse cook dinner is considered a household activity food preparation not a helping activity because cooking dinner benefits the household as a whole By contrast doing paperwork for another person usually benefits the individual so a report of filling out an insurance application for my spouse is considered a helping activity Caring for and helping nonhousehold members This category includes time spent in activities done to care for or help others both children under age 18 and adults who do not live in the household When done for or through an organization time spent helping nonhousehold members is classified as volunteering rather than as helping nonhousehold members Care of nonhousehold children even when page 50 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 done as a favor or helping activity for another adult is always classified as caring for and helping nonhousehold children not as helping another adult Consumer purchases
75. d MIS 8 months of November 2003 December 2003 and J anuary 2004 respectively The other four groups J lI H and G had MIS 8 months of J anuary 2005 December 2004 November 2004 and October 2004 respectively Therefore possible MIS 8 months are November 2003 December 2003 J anuary 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 and J anuary 2005 Since October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 and J anuary 2005 are all later than May 2004 several variables must be defined before linking can occur 2 Define three new linking variables on the 2003 2005 ATUS CPS files e If HRHHID2 1 or missing then HUHHNUM last digit of HRHHID2 e If HRHHID2 1 or missing then HRSERSUF digits 3 and 4 of HRHHID2 converted to alpha characters 01 A 02 B etc e If HRHHID2 1 or missing then NUMHRSAMPLE digits 1 and 2 of HRHHID2 If HRHHID2 1 or missing then NUmMHRSAMPLE numeric part of HRSAMPLE digits 2 and 3 3 Define one new linking variable on the October 2003 Internet and Computer Use supplement e NumHRSAMPLE numeric part of HRSAMPLE digits 2 and 3 page 99 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 4 Link the October 2003 Internet and Computer Use supplement and the 2003 2005 ATUS CPS file using HRHHID PULINENO HUHHNUM HRSERSUF NumHRSAMPLE Many ATUS CPS records will not have a match to the October 2003 Internet and Computer Use supplement Many October 2003 Internet and Computer Use sup
76. d objective is helpful in determining which data files variables formulas and strategies are needed to meet it 2 Identify the variables and activity codes needed and the files where they are located There are several key pieces of documentation to use when working with the data files The Data Dictionaries include variable definitions and information about how the files are structured www bls gov tus dictionaries htm The Frequently Used Variables document includes information about useful variables and where to find them www bls gov tus freqvariables pdf The Activity Coding Lexicons provide information about the activity codes www bls gov tus lexicons htm 3 Summarize the data to a respondent level The Activity Roster Who and ATUS CPS files all have multiple records per household It is important to summarize the data to a respondent level to avoid mistakes such as double counting respondents 4 Apply the appropriate formula Chapter 7 of this guide provides the formulas needed to generate estimates and standard errors with the ATUS data files 5 Verify your results if possible It is always helpful to verify at least one estimate with an official ATUS estimate ATUS estimates are published annually in an ATUS news release available from the ATUS home page www bls gov tus A number of unpublished tables are available from ATUS staff by filling out a request form online at http data bls gov cgi bin form
77. d personal mail and messages personal messages 020904 020904 020904 Household and personal e mail and messages Household and 020903 020903 020903 Household and personal mail and messages personal mail and messages Household and 020904 020904 020904 Household and personal e mail and messages personal e mail and messages page 62 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Published tables 2008 2005 2003 Coding lexicon categories major categories 2013 2007 2004 Travel related to 1816 1816 1816 Travel related to telephone calls telephone calls Other activities not 1818 1818 1717 Security procedures related to traveling elsewhere classified 1899 1899 1799 Traveling not elsewhere classified 50 50 50 Data codes page 63 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE APPENDIX I Link to the coding rules manual The 2003 Coding Rules Manual is available at The 2004 Coding Rules Manual is available at The 2005 Coding Rules Manual is available at The 2006 Coding Rules Manual is available at The 2007 Coding Rules Manual is available at The 2008 Coding Rules Manual is available at The 2009 Coding Rules Manual is available at The 2010 Coding Rules Manual is available at The 2011 Coding Rules Manual is available at The 2012 Coding Rules Manual is available at The 2013 Coding Rules Manual is available at www bls gov tus tu2003coderules pdf www bl
78. d persons to account for eligible sample persons who were not interviewed in the ATUS This adjustment is computed separately for each reference day page 34 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 ATUS records are weighted to reduce bias in the estimates due to differences in sampling and response rates across subpopulations and days of the week Specifically the data are weighted to ensure the following e In 2005 and later weekdays represent about 5 7 and weekend days represent about 2 7 of the weighted data for the population as a whole The actual proportions depend on the number of weekdays and weekend days in a given quarter e In 2003 and 2004 weekdays represent about 5 7 and Saturday and Sunday each represent about 1 7 of the weighted data for the population as a whole The actual proportions depend on the number of weekdays Saturdays and Sundays in a given month e The sum of the weights is equal to the number of person days in the quarter in 2005 and later or in the month in 2003 and 2004 for the population as a whole and in 2004 and later for selected subpopulations The method used to generate statistical weights the variable TUFINLWGT on the ATUS files changed each year from 2003 to 2006 In 2003 the ATUS weights add up to the number of person days in the month or the number of days in the month times the total population only for the population as a whole In 2004 and later the ATUS weights add
79. d sixth digits of activity code TUACTDUR24 Activity file Total length of time spent doing activity TUFINLWGT Respondent file ATUS final weight TUCASEID is needed to link the Activity and the Respondent files The total amount of time that each respondent spent watching TV must be computed There are two activity codes that capture TV watching 120303 Television and movies not religious and 120304 Television religious The total amount of time each respondent spent watching TV can be calculated by looking at each case and adding up the activity durations using TUACTDUR24 for all activities that have TUTIERICODE 12 and TUTIER2CODE 03 and TUTIER3CODE page 39 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 03 and all activities that have TUTIERICODE 12 and TUTIER2ZCODE 03 and TUTIER3CODE 04 Note that the variable TRCODE which carries the value of each 6 digit activity code was added to the Activity file in 2007 TRCODE can be used instead of TUTIERICODE TUTIER2CODE and TUTIER3CODE Step 2 Estimate TV watching time for the population For each case the total amount of time spent watching TV is multiplied by the corresponding weight TUFINLWGT x Total time watching TV as shown in the following table excerpt Then TUFINLWGT and the calculated TUFINLWGT x Total time watching TV are summed for all cases not all cases are shown in the table excerpt Finally these totals are used in the average hours per day formu
80. d you Each household member and nonhousehold child is assigned a separate who code Generic categories also exist for nonhousehold family members and for others e g neighbors friends Prior to J anuary 2010 who information was not collected for times during which respondents reported sleeping grooming personal private activities or working nor when respondents did not remember what they did or refused to answer In January 2010 the ATUS began collecting who information for times during which the respondent reported working 2 Activity Definitions Caring for and helping household members Time spent doing activities to care for or help any child under age 18 or adult in the household regardless of the relationship to the survey respondent or the physical or mental health status of the person being helped is classified here Caring and helping activities for household children and adults are coded separately in subcategories Primary childcare activities include time spent providing physical care playing with children reading with children assistance with homework attending children s events taking care of children s health care needs and dropping off picking up and waiting for children Passive childcare done as a primary activity such as keeping an eye on my son while he swam in the pool also is included A child s presence during the activity is not enough in itself to classify the activity as
81. dent level This example begins with the combined ATUS CPS Respondent Activity file named cps resp act from example 4 File name cps _resp_act TUCASEID TUFINLWGT housework 20060101060025 5825165 4274 20060101060033 51744472742 200601 01060038 6353748 5253 20060101060049 8193457 4764 20060101060057 15175438 457 20060101060067 10618544 227 page 83 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Recall that this combined data file contains 12 943 records one for each respondent to the 2006 ATUS There are four variables TUCASEID the case identifier GEREG which contains information about each respondent s geographic region TUFINLWGT the statistical weight assigned to each respondent and HOUSEWORK the total minutes each respondent spent doing housework on the diary day Step 4 Apply the appropriate formula Daily participation rates P the percentage of the population engaging in activity j on an average day is computed using fwat i i i where lij is an indicator that equals 1 if respondent i engaged in activity j during the reference day and 0 otherwise and fwgt is the final weight for respondent i Note that the numerator is identical to the numerator in example 4 It isthe sum of the statistical weights for persons in the subpopulation persons residing in the South who did housework on their diary day The denominator is the sum of the statistical weights for all persons residin
82. ds that refer to other household members and nonhousehold children Sample SAS code data cps keep tucaseid tulineno gereg set atuscps_2006 if tulineno 1 The resulting file has 25 304 records one for each person selected to participate in ATUS It includes the case identifier and information about the region in which that person lives as recorded in the final CPS interview File name cps TUCASEID TULINENO 200601 01060001 2006010106001 4 20060101060025 200601 01060033 200601 01060038 Note that this file contains more records than needed because it includes records for persons who were selected for the ATUS sample but who did not participate in the survey The 2006 ATUS CPS file includes the variable TRATUSR that can be used to identify persons who participated in ATUS When working with the 2003 to 2005 files or all of the years combined the ATUS CPS file alone does not include the information necessary to identify ATUS respondents The Respondent file which has one unique record for each person who responded to the survey can be used to identify survey respondents in 2003 to 2005 Here the Respondent file is used to restrict the file cps shown above to ATUS respondents only page 80 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Merging the Respondent file and the file that was just created cps yields a data set with 25 304 records This is an excerpt of what it looks like
83. dvance letters APPENDIX E Refusal conversion letter APPENDIX F Refusal conversion letter sent to parents or guardians of minor Respondents APPENDIX G Link to the activity coding lexicon APPENDIX H Bridge between published tables major categories and ATUS coding lexicon major categories APPENDIX l Link to the coding rules manual APPENDIX J Generating ATUS estimates Examples APPENDIX K Linking ATUS files to CPS files APPENDIX L Basic CPS rotation APPENDIX M Statistical weights for merged data from the ATUS and a CPS suppl APPENDIX N Reliability Criteria for ATUS Published and Unpublished Tables ement page 2 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAPTER 1 1 1 1 2 WHAT DO THE AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY DATA MEASURE The American Time Use Survey ATUS is the Nation s first federally administered continuous survey on time use in the United States The goal of the survey is to measure how people divide their time among life s activities In ATUS individuals are randomly selected from a subset of households that have completed their eighth and final month of interviews for the Current Population Survey CPS ATUS respondents are interviewed only one time about how they spent their time on the previous day where they were and whom they were with The survey is sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is conducted by the U S Census Bureau The major purpose of ATUS is to develop natio
84. e 202 691 6339 The ATUS staff maintains a list of individuals interested in ATUS updates The purpose of this list is to announce upcoming news releases and the availability of new data files If you would like to be included on this list e mail ATUSinfo bls gov Be sure to indicate whether you would like to receive announcements about news releases data files or both Please also indicate if you are a member of the media page 44 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAPTER 9 9 1 ELDERCARE DATA In 2011 questions about eldercare were added to the ATUS These questions identify eldercare providers collect basic information about the persons for whom ATUS survey respondents provide eldercare and collect information about times the respondents provided eldercare on the diary day Information about eldercare appears on the ATUS Respondent file the ATUS Activity file and the ATUS Eldercare Roster file Eldercare providers are identified using the variables TUELDER and TUELFREQ Respondent data file If the respondent indicates she had provided eldercare more than once during the past 3 to 4 months TUELFREQ is not equal to 6 basic information about each eldercare recipient is collected as well as information about the activities done as eldercare on the diary day The variable TUECYTD on the Respondent data file identifies respondents who provided eldercare on their diary day The variable TUEC24 Activity data
85. e Current Population Survey CPS Unlike the CPS the American Time Use Survey is a one time only telephone survey that will take only 15 to 20 minutes to complete Because you have already completed the CPS we will not have to ask you many of the same questions again which saves time The information you provide is invaluable in helping lawmakers employers and researchers develop policy recommendations and identify services that assist workers and their families children and the elderly Your help is needed to make sure the survey results are as reliable and meaningful as possible page 54 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 I m too busy Why is it so important We realize that you are a busy person and that your time is valuable The survey will only take about 15 to 20 minutes to complete and is a one time only survey The information that you provide is invaluable in helping lawmakers employers and researchers develop recommendations such as how to assist workers and families as well as identify services needed for children and the elderly Your particular help is needed because you will represent not only yourself but also others like you who live in your community If you would like to discuss any concerns you have about the survey please contact us by phone or e mail Additional information about the ATUS including some recent findings and answers to frequently asked questions is also available on our r
86. e activities except medical Indoor and 1503 1503 1503 Indoor and outdoor maintenance building and cleanup outdoor activities maintenance building and cleanup activities Participating in 1504 1504 1504 Participating in performance and cultural activities performance and cultural activities Attending 1505 1505 1505 Attending meetings conferences and training meetings conferences and training Civic obligations and 1002 1002 1002 Civic obligations and participation participation page 61 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Published tables 2008 2005 2003 Coding lexicon categories major categories 2013 2007 2004 Travel related to 1814 1814 1714 Travel related to religious and spiritual activities organizational civic 1815 1815 1715 Travel related to volunteer activities and religious activities 181002 181002 171004 Travel related to civic obligations and participation Leisure and sports 12 12 12 Socializing relaxing and leisure 13 13 13 Sports exercise and recreation 1812 1812 1712 Travel related to socializing relaxing and leisure 1813 1813 1713 Travel related to sports exercise and recreation Socializing relaxing 12 12 12 Socializing relaxing and leisure and leisure Socializing and 1201 1201 1201 Socializing and communicating communicating 1202 1202 1202 Attending or hosting social eve
87. e cases However if coders were not able to accurately assign I amp O codes after the last CPS interview or if respondents have changed jobs since the final CPS interview meaning their industry of employment or occupation has changed the I amp O codes must be recoded at the National Processing Center NPC according to the updated information NPC coding specialists use a computer assisted coding system specially designed for I amp O coding Computer terminals display the industry and occupation descriptions recorded by the interviewers from the respondents at the time of the ATUS interview Both an industry code and an occupation code are assigned for each record each code is determined at a four digit level of detail I amp O coding also involves 100 percent verification with two coders coding each record If the first and second coders do not agree on a specific code the second coder reconciles the discrepancy and assigns the final code A supervisor provides feedback on production and quality to the coding staff page 25 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAPTER 6 6 1 6 2 DATA PROCESSING AND EDITING The goal of ATUS data processing is to transform a raw data file as collected by the interviewers into microdata files that can be used to produce estimates of time spent in daily activities Data processing is done at the Census Bureau in Suitland MD Several SAS data sets are created from the main input
88. e estimation and analyses is likely to be larger population groups e g men and women employed and unemployed led BLS to choose this strategy The approximate number of households sampled annually from each stratum after the sample reduction occurred is shown in table 3 2 Table 3 2 Estimated annual sample size by ATUS sampling strata 2004 and later Race ethnicity of household reference person in CPS Household type f Non Hispanic Non Hispanic Total Prspanig black nonblack With at least one 1 200 600 3 400 5 200 child under 6 With at least one 1 200 900 4 900 7 000 child between 6 and 17 Single adult no 700 1 600 4 300 6 600 children under 18 Two or more 1 200 1 400 5 000 7 600 adults no children under 18 Total 4 300 4 500 17 600 26 400 3 5 SAMPLE ALLOCATION The monthly sample is divided into four randomly selected panels one for each week of the month To ensure good measures of time spent on weekdays and weekend days the sample also is split evenly between weekdays and weekend days During the assignment of sample codes 10 percent of the sample is allocated to each weekday and 25 percent of the sample is allocated to each weekend day The designated persons are then randomly assigned a day of the week about which to report and an page 12 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 initial interview week code the week of the interviewing period when the case is
89. e same sex as their child You are welcome to contact us to make this arrangement or to discuss any other concerns Additional information about the survey including some recent findings and answers to frequently asked questions is also available on our ATUS respondents Web site Phone E mail Web address I hope this letter addresses your concerns and that you will grant your child permission to participate in the ATUS when we contact your household again page 56 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX G Link to the activity coding lexicon All activity coding lexicons and information about differences between to the 2003 to 2013 coding lexicons are available online at www bls gov tus lexicons htm page 57 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX H Bridge between published tables activity categories and ATUS coding lexicon activity categories household activities Published tables 2008 2005 2003 Coding lexicon categories major categories 2013 2007 2004 Personal care 01 01 01 Personal care activities 1801 1801 1701 Travel related to personal care Sleeping 0101 0101 0101 Sleeping Grooming 0102 0102 0102 Grooming Health related self 0103 0103 0103 Health related self care care Personal activities 0104 0104 0104 Personal activities Travel related to 1801 1801 1701 Travel related to
90. ease see CPS Technical Paper 66 available at http www census gov prod 2006pubs tp 66 pdf page 41 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Survey estimates are subject to nonsampling errors that may arise from many different sources such as an inability to obtain information from all individuals in the sample data entry errors coding errors and misinterpretation of definitions Errors also could occur if nonresponse is correlated with time use Nonsampling errors were not measured However the Census Bureau uses quality assurance procedures to minimize nonsampling data entry and coding errors in the survey estimates For more information on data quality assessment measures in the ATUS see chapter 10 page 42 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAPTER 8 8 1 PUBLICATIONS 8 2 8 1 1 BLS PUBLICATIONS Each year from 2004 to 2014 BLS has published news releases of time use estimates In addition BLS published news releases about married parents use of time in May 2008 workers access to and use of leave estimates from the 2011 Leave Module in August 2012 and upaid eldercare in the United States in September 2013 All of these news releases are available on the ATUS Web site at www bls gov tus The releases include descriptive highlights and several tables of time use estimates 14 The ATUS Web site also contains several charts tables and a list of ATUS related papers
91. ed from the data and some responses were edited to protect the confidentiality of ATUS respondents Information about the variables contained in these data files can be obtained from the ATUS data dictionaries ATUS Data dictionaries for the 2003 2013 microdata are available at www bls gov tus dictionaries htm Additionally files containing ATUS module microdata occasionally are released As with the ATUS data files the module data files are released in comma delimited formats downloadable from the ATUS Web site SAS Stata and SPSS programs to read the data into these statistical software packages are provided In accordance with BLS and U S Census Bureau policies that protect respondents privacy identifying fields were removed from the data and some responses were edited to protect the confidentiality of module respondents These files have their own statistical and replicate weights Section 7 3 contains a list of the ATUS module data files that currently are available along with guidance on linking ATUS data to ATUS module data INFORMATION AND UPDATES The ATUS Web site is a resource for up to date information about the American Time Use Survey It includes background information about the survey as well as links to time use news releases publications and the microdata files The ATUS homepage is available at www bls gov tus Information about ATUS also is available by e mail ATUSinfo bls gov or by telephon
92. ed full production in J anuary 2003 2 3 Survey Changes 2 3 1 Eldercare Questions Prior to 2011 the ATUS did not collect data on time spent providing eldercare Recognizing the need for quality eldercare data BLS had made many efforts over the years to develop questions to collect this information In 2005 BLS hosted a subject matter expert panel to refine the concept of eldercare to determine the most appropriate method for collecting the data within the ATUS design and to obtain feedback on the kinds of measures that would best inform the eldercare research and policy communities The development process over the years also included a review of existing eldercare measures focus groups with caregivers reviews of draft questionnaires by subject matter experts and survey methods experts internal testing and refinement of the questions and cognitive testing of the questions Questions on eldercare were introduced to the ATUS in J anuary 2011 The ATUS eldercare questions were designed specifically to identify eldercare 5 Blaise software was developed by Statistics Netherlands and is the standard for both survey and coding applications at the Census Bureau page 9 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 providers and to measure the time they spent providing eldercare Additional information such as the relationship between the care provider and care recipient the age of the care recipient and the types of care activ
93. ed to hh child s education n e c 03 Activities Related to HH Children s Health 01 Providing medical care to hh children 02 Obtaining medical care for hh children 03 Waiting associated with hh children s health 99 Activities related to hh child s health n e c 17 In the lexicon the abbreviation n e c is short for not elsewhere classified page 67 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Step 3 Summarize the data to a respondent level It can be helpful to summarize the three activity code variables TUTIERICODE TUTIER2CODE amp TUTIER3CODE into one This can be done by concatenating the three variables that represent the first second and third tiers of the 6 digit code Here the concatenated variable is named code In SAS code tutierlcode tutier2code tutier3code TUCASEID TUACTIVITY_N TUACTDUR24 TUTIERICODE TUTIER2CODE TUTIER3CODE code 01 01 20060101060033 1 180 01 010101 20060101060033 20 03 01 01 030101 200601 01060033 120 03 01 03 030103 200601 01060033 60 03 01 01 030101 200601 01060033 10 18 07 01 180701 200601 01060033 60 07 01 01 070101 Create a variable childcare that is equal to the total time each respondent spent providing primary childcare to household children To do this sum the times each respondent spent doing activities with codes that begin 0301 0302 and 0303 Keep only variables that will be relevant at a respondent level here only v
94. eet reliability standards before being presented to the public for both published and unpublished but available tables In 2010 a new standard was developed that takes into account the coefficient of variation standard error and number of observations available before reporting an estimate Prior to 2010 a standard was in place that only included the sample size or population base for the estimate Beginning with the 2010 data ATUS estimates of average hours per day and participation rates are not published unless there are a minimum number of respondents representing the given population Additional publication criteria are applied that include the number of respondents who reported doing a specified activity and the standard error or coefficient of variation for the estimate Estimates that are considered close to zero or that round to zero e g 0 00 for estimates of hours are published as approximately zero or 0 For a detailed description of the statistical reliability criteria necessary for publication please contact ATUS Staff page 113
95. ehold children on the ATUS CPS file GEREG Region of the United States on the ATUS CPS file TUACTDUR24 Activity duration in minutes truncated to a 24 hour day on the Activity file TUTIERICODE TUTIER2CODE amp TUTIER3CODE Identify activities on the Activity file Activity codes for Housework are shown in the following excerpt from the 2006 lexicon 02 Household Activities 01 Housework 01 Interior cleaning 02 Laundry 03 Sewing repairing amp maintaining textiles 04 Storing interior hh items inc food 99 Housework n e c 02 Food amp Drink Prep Presentation amp Clean up page 78 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Step 3 Summarize the data to a respondent level Two data sets must be summarized to the respondent level the Activity file and the ATUS CPS file Start by working with the Activity file As in example 1 create the variable code which is equal to the full 6 digit activity code In SAS code tutierlcode tutier2code tutier3code TUCASEID TUACTIVITY_N TUACTDUR24 TUTIERICODE TUTIER2CODE TUTIER3CODE 200601 01060057 020102 200601 01060057 030201 20060101060057 020202 20060101060057 020102 20060101060057 030101 Note that this respondent has at least two episodes of housework Activities 15 and 18 TUACTIVITY_N indicates the activity number are both coded as activity 020102 which refers to laundry For each respondent sum the activity
96. ent types and or lengths for linking variables For example one file may have HRHHID as a numeric field and another may have it as a character field Some software packages will not allow you to merge variables of the same name that have different characteristics or lengths Leading zeros Some sources of the data have leading zeros on certain fields and some do not For example some versions of the CPS files have leading zeros on HRHHID and others do not Variable defaults Some sources of the data have different default values for missing variables For example the default value of HRSERSUF appears in some datasets as 1 and in others as a blank Variable names Some sources of the data have different variable names for the same variable Variable names in this document are based on the data dictionaries on the CPS FTP site http thedataweb rm census gov ftp cps ftp html page 108 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 IV Obtaining CPS data and documentation Basic CPS Basic CPS data files and documentation FTP Download Page http thedataweb rm census gov ftp cps ftp html DataFerrett http dataferrett census gov CPS Design and Methodology Technical Paper 66 www census gov prod 2006pubs tp 66 pdf CPS supplements A list of CPS supplements is available at http www census gov cps methodology techdocs html All CPS supplement data files including CPS ASEC March supplement
97. er activities This category captures time spent volunteering for or through an organization Working and work related activities This category includes time spent working doing activities as part of one s job engaging in income generating activities not as part of one s job and job search activities Working includes hours spent doing the specific tasks required of one s main or other job regardless of location or time of day Work related activities include activities that are not obviously work but are done as part of one s job such as having a business lunch or playing golf with clients Other income generating activities are those done on the side or under informal arrangement and are not part of a regular job Such activities might include selling homemade crafts babysitting maintaining a rental property or having a yard sale These activities are those that persons are paid for or will be paid for page 52 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX A Advance letter to households with telephone numbers Dear Jane Doe Recently you or a member of your household participated in the Current Population Survey Please accept our thanks for your household s participation Now we would like to request your help with a brief one time interview for the American Time Use Survey ATUS This survey is the only reliable source of information about the unpaid work people do when
98. er verifies the designated person s address and informs the designated person that the call may be monitored If the designated person refuses the interview or someone else in the household refuses for the designated person the interviewer records who refused and the reason for refusal S2 Household Roster In this section the interviewer reviews the respondent s household composition which includes the name sex birth date and age of each household member as well as each member s relationship to the respondent The interviewer verifies and updates the roster to reflect any changes in the household such as births or deaths since the last CPS interview Roster modifications also include any changes of residence for household members and any errors in the original CPS household roster S3 Employment This section is used to determine whether the respondent worked in the last 7 days was looking for a job or was not in the labor force The interviewer also asks if anyone in the household owns a business or a farm S4 Time use diary This part of the interview is used to collect a detailed account of the respondent s activities starting at 4 a m the previous day and ending at 4 a m on the interview day For each activity reported the interviewer asks how long the activity lasted For most activities the interviewer also asks who was in the room or accompanied the respondent during the activity and where the activity t
99. eral variables must be defined before linking can occur 2 Define three new linking variables on the ATUS CPS file e If HRHHID2 1 then HUHHNUM last digit of HRHHID2 e If HRHHID2 1 then HRSERSUF digits 3 and 4 of HRHHID2 converted to alpha characters 01 A 02 B etc e If HRHHID2 1 then NUmMHRSAMPLE digits 1 and 2 of HRHHID2 If HRHHID2 1 then NumHRSAMPLE numeric part of HRSAMPLE digits 2 and 3 3 Define one new linking variable on the Basic April CPS file e NumHRSAMPLE numeric part of HRSAMPLE digits 2 and 3 4 Link the Basic April CPS and the ATUS CPS file using HRHHID PULINENO HUHHNUM HRSERSUF NumHRSAMPLE Many ATUS CPS records will not have a CPS match Many CPS records will not have an ATUS CPS match Delete all records that do not have a match The remaining records comprise all members of households that were interviewed for the April 2004 Basic CPS and who were selected to be contacted for an ATUS interview The remaining file will have fewer than the total number of records on the ATUS CPS file with HRYEAR4 2004 and HRMONTH 4 5 6 or 7 All records in the ATUS CPS file with HRYEAR4 2004 and HRMONTH 4 in other words those records with an MIS 8 month of April should match to the April 2004 Basic CPS While every ATUS CPS record matches to page 97 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 an MIS 8 record this is not true of other MIS months A household co
100. esigned to ensure that respondents understand survey questions in a manner that is consistent with 3 ATUS randomly selects one person from each household in the sample to respond to the survey See section 3 3 on sample design and selection procedures This document refers to this household member as the designated person when discussing operations that take place before interview contact is made Designated persons who respond to the survey are referred to as respondents page 7 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 2 2 4 2 2 5 the survey developers intent BLS requires that all survey questions undergo such testing and if necessary be revised until they solicit information consistent with research concepts Cognitive research was used to develop and improve ATUS summary questions on work and income generating activities secondary childcare eldercare and overnight trips of 2 or more days for a specific reference month These followup summary questions asked after the respondent has completed the time diary focus on getting additional information on important activities For the childcare and eldercare questions focus groups were used to develop a definition of secondary childcare and eldercare as well as wording for first draft questions For other questions wording was drafted by ATUS staff and then tested After drafting questions were tested following a similar methodology 20 to 30 people were recru
101. espondents Web site Phone E mail Web address I hope this letter addresses your concerns and that you will strongly consider participating in the survey when we contact you again page 55 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX F Refusal conversion letter sent to parents or guardians of minor respondents Dear Parent or Guardian of One of our interviewers recently attempted to contact your child regarding the American Time Use Survey ATUS but was unable to complete an interview Because of the importance of your child s participation in this telephone survey I am writing to ask for your assistance We are trying to better understand how Americans age 15 years and over use their time Since teens use their time differently than older age groups it is very important that they be adequately represented in the survey The answers your child provides will represent those of many other teens We understand that parents or guardians might have some concerns regarding their child s participation Responses are confidential and will be used only for statistical purposes Data released from this survey are not linked with your child s name or any other identifying information The interviewers are trained professionals sworn to protect the confidentiality of the data and many have children of their own Some parents of teenagers participating in the survey are more comfortable if the interviewer is th
102. ewed for ATUS In 2003 to 2005 there is more than one ATUS final weight and thus more than one set of replicate weights see chapter 7 page 33 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAPTER 7 7 1 7 2 WHY WEIGHTS ARE NECESSARY Users need to apply weights when computing estimates with the ATUS data because simple tabulations of unweighted ATUS data produce misleading results These weights have already been calculated and are found on the Respondent file Users may simply apply them when generating estimates The ATUS weights compensate for three important aspects of the sampling and data collection process e ATUS is based on a stratified random sample whereby some demographic groups are oversampled to ensure adequate sample size for detailed estimates The weights ensure that each group is correctly represented in the population e The ATUS sample is not uniformly distributed across the days of the week About 25 percent of the sample is assigned to report on each of the 2 weekend days and 10 percent of the sample is assigned to each of the 5 weekdays Hence unweighted tabulations overestimate time spent in activities more often done on weekends and underestimate time spent in activities more often done on weekdays The weights variable TUFINLWGT were constructed so that each day of the week is correctly represented for the sample month in 2003 and 2004 or the sample quarter in 2005 and later e Res
103. file during data processing Once these files are created a verification reformat program determines initial data quality before any editing or other processing takes place A report is generated for each case based on the item being checked and the associated variables Even though some editing takes place in the instrument at the time of the interview such as corrections to the household roster and checks for missing diary activities further editing is required once all the data are received DATA IMPUTATION PROCEDURES AND ITEM NONRESPONSE Many of the edits performed on ATUS data deal with item nonresponse Item nonresponse refers to a missing variable in an otherwise completed questionnaire Generally this occurs when respondents either don t know the answer to a question or they refuse to answer but it can occur for other reasons as well For example a variable may not be recorded due to an interviewer or computer error Item nonresponse should not be ignored because it is unlikely to occur at random Ignoring missing data and restricting analysis to records with reported values relies on the implicit and possibly inaccurate assumption that all respondents are equally likely or unlikely to respond to the item and that estimates are approximately unbiased Imputation is a very common way of dealing with item nonresponse and many ATUS variables are imputed if missing please refer to the ATUS data dictionaries at http www bls g
104. for which the codes would be inappropriate such as personal activities No imputation is performed on missing who codes Where code edits ATUS collects information where codes on the location or means of travel associated with the respondent s activities Because not all activities are eligible for a where code assignment one of the where code edits strips a where code from activities for which the codes would be inappropriate such as personal activities Another where code edit replaces inappropriate where codes with more realistic where codes such as when a respondent reports being at home while driving his or her car If the respondent does not supply the where code information for eligible activities a set of rules is used to determine the missing location information Childcare edits ATUS collects data for several categories of secondary childcare secondary childcare refers to care given by a respondent who is performing some other primary activity such as preparing a meal If the respondent does not answer secondary childcare questions for any reason summary childcare times are allocated by substituting time spent on activities when children were present excluding primary childcare activities Eldercare edits collected starting in 2011 ATUS collects information about each eldercare recipient for whom the respondent provided care This includes information about the re
105. g in the South whether or not they did housework on the diary day Sum of the statistical weights for persons residing in the South P who did housework on the dairy day J Sum of the statistical weights for all persons residing in the South The numerator is identical to the one calculated in example 4 the variable numerator TYPE FREQ numerator _ 0 1861 10773706011 To finish solving the problem calculate the denominator and then divide the numerator by the denominator Recall that the ATUS CPS Respondent Activity file cps resp act contains 12 943 records one for each person who participated in ATUS in 2006 To determine the sum of the statistical weights for persons residing in the South the denominator restrict the data set to persons residing in the South GEREG 3 Sample SAS code data subpop_denom set cps_resp_act if gereg 3 page 84 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 There are 4 705 respondents who met the criteria and thus there are 4 705 records appearing in the output file On the output file GEREG 3 for all records The file also includes the total minutes each respondent spent doing housework on the dairy day this information was needed to calculate the numerator but it is not needed to calculate the denominator File name subpop_denom TUCASEID TUFINLWGT housework 20060101061275 5912125 2082 20060101061282 3539883 3339 20060101061
106. hat uniquely identifies a person or a household a number of different variables must be used to link files The CPS file format changed in May 2004 and some variables previously used for linking were removed This document will discuss how to link to files before May 2004 and also during or after May 2004 CPS variable names in this document are based on the CPS data dictionaries available at the CPS FTP site http thedataweb rm census gov ftp cps ftp html One thing researchers should keep in mind when linking ATUS data files to CPS files is that there may be a considerable time difference in when the interviews occurred The final CPS interview MIS 8 occurred two to five months prior to the ATUS interview The fourth CPS interview MIS 4 occurred a year and two to five months prior to the ATUS interview Even though it is possible to link CPS supplements to ATUS data the interview dates may be so far apart that researchers may not want to use the information For example a CPS household responding to a CPS supplement in their first CPS interview MIS 1 may not be interviewed for ATUS for another 20 months This appendix covers the following topics Linking ATUS Files to CPS files A Linking the ATUS CPS file to the final Basic CPS Interview MIS 8 B Linking the ATUS CPS to a particular Basic CPS month not necessarily the final interview I C Linking the ATUS CPS file to CPS supplements other than ASEC March supple
107. he ATUS Interview Data Dictionaries for more information about the weighting variables available at www bls gov tus dictionaries htm 7 3 LINKING ATUS FILES To produce most estimates users need to link ATUS files All of the files contain the variable TUCASEID ATUS identification number Two other variables are used for linking in conjunction with TUCASEID TULINENO person line number and TUACTIVITY_N activity number File Linking Variables Basic ATUS data files Respondent file TUCASEID TULINENO always equal to 1 on the Respondent file Roster file TUCASEID TULINENO Activity file TUCASEID TUACTIVITY_N Who file TUCASEID TUACTIVITY_N TULINENO ATUS CPS file TUCASEID TULINENO Activity summary file TUCASEID Eldercare roster file 2011 and TUCASEID later TULINENO Additional AT US data files Case History file TUCASEID Call History file TUCASEID Trips file 2005 10 TUCASEID Replicate weights file TUCASEID page 36 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Eating and Health Module data files EH Respondent file TUCASEID TULINENO always equal to 1 on the EH Respondent file EH Activity file TUCASEID TUACTIVITY_N EH Child file TUCASEID TULINENO EH Replicate weights file TUCASEID Well Being Module data files WB Respondent file TUCASEID TULINENO always equal to 1 on the WB Respondent file WB Activity file TUCASEID
108. he duties of childcare the demands of their jobs their need to relax or exercise and their religious volunteer and other commitments Many other countries have done time use surveys and more are planning to conduct them in the future Time use data are currently collected in North America South America Europe Australia and New Zealand ATUS was designed to ensure that time use information in the United States can be compared at broad levels with information from other countries page 4 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAPTER 2 2 1 DEVELOPMENTAL PHASES The development of ATUS began in 1991 when it was first discussed at BLS as a statistical policy issue and continued to J anuary 2003 when ATUS data collection officially began Since then the survey has been continuously improved The 12 year period from 1991 to 2003 is described in four developmental phases below Developmental phase 1 Early interest 1991 1995 From 1991 to 1995 BLS began to develop an understanding of other countries collection of time use data and the demands for such data in the United States e 1991 Unremunerated Work Act This bill which called on BLS to conduct time use surveys of unremunerated work performed in the United States did not make it out of congressional committee but it acted as the catalyst for BLS to begin studying the issue of collecting time use data e 1992 Statistics Canada conference
109. helping household children This estimate is an average across all 7 days of the week and for all persons whether or not they actually provided childcare to household children on their diary day Thus it can be used to calculate an estimate of the average hours per week Americans provided primary childcare 0 41 hour per day 7 days per week 2 87 hours per week Note This estimate is for all persons in the U S civilian noninstitutionalized population age 15 and over whether or not they lived in households with children If the calculation is restricted to persons living in households with children or to parents of household children the results are higher Example 2 Step 1 Objective Calculate the average hours per day that women age 18 and over living in a household with at least one child under age 6 spent providing primary childcare to household children in 2006 Example 2 is the same as example 1 except that it is restricted to a subpopulation adult women living with a child under age 6 Step 2 Variables that are needed in addition to the variables and activity codes used in Example 1 TERRP Relationship to survey respondent on the Roster file TEAGE Age of household children and Age of respondent on the Roster file TESEX Sex of respondent on the Roster file TULINENO Line number of household members and the respondent s own nonhousehold children on the Roster file Note This is one way to do
110. hen industry and occupation information is re asked in the ATUS Table 6 2 below indicates the percent of CPS earnings industry and occupation variables that were updated in the ATUS The data are given in ranges because the percents vary slightly year to year Table 6 2 Percent of selected CPS variables that are updated in ATUS CPS earnings industry and occupation variables Percent updated in ATUS Earnings Hourly earnings 36 0 41 0 Weekly earnings 33 0 37 0 Industry and Occupation 32 0 38 0 ATUS respondents ages 15 to 49 are also asked about their school enrollment status 6 3 2 EDITS THAT ARE SIMILAR IN THE CPS AND THE ATUS The ATUS edits and imputation procedures for the labor force industry and occupation and earnings variables are almost identical to those used in CPS Labor force edits A major labor force status recode classifies adults as employed unemployed or not in the labor force Based on this recode the labor force items related to each classification are edited and longitudinal assignments and hot deck allocations are used to impute missing values There are fewer categories describing those who are not in the labor force in ATUS but the categories for the employed and the unemployed are the same as those used in CPS Industry and occupation edits In some cases coders were unable to assign 4 digit industry or occupation codes using information collected in the ATUS inte
111. here will be a small number of duplicates and mismatches This is because the linking variables available on the ASEC file do not uniquely identify households Use the following variables to eliminate mismatches and duplicates e Age o PRTAGE on the ATUS CPS file o A AGE on the ASEC file Caution the information on the ATUS CPS file may have been collected at a later date than the ASEC file and so age may be greater e Sex o PESEX on the ATUS CPS file o A SEX on the ASEC file In 2003 race is not a good screening variable because new definitions were introduced and it is missing for much of the ATUS CPS file Linking 2004 ATUS CPS to 2004 CPS ASEC March supplement 1 Restrict the 2004 ASEC to e 5 lt H MIS lt 8 AND H SEQ lt 78575 AND e A FNLWGT gt 0 The first restriction will limit the ASEC file to the more recent of the two interviews each household receives the ASEC questions twice Since the linking variables available on the ASEC file do not uniquely identify households it also reduces the likelihood of false matches The last two restrictions ensure that the SCHIPS and Hispanic oversamples are removed without this step there will be duplicate household ID and line numbers Restrict the 2004 ATUS CPS file to e HRYEAR4 2004 AND e HRMONTH 3 4 5 or 6 page 101 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 5 Since the linking variables available on the ASEC file do not uniquely identify households
112. industry and occupation I amp 0 classification schemes The Census Bureau s Industry Classification System is based on the North American Industry Classification System The 2007 Census Industry Classification System was incorporated beginning in the 2009 CPS and 2010 ATUS it replaced the 2002 Census Industry Classification System which was used by ATUS and CPS from 2003 until the 2007 classification scheme was implemented There were only minor differences between the 2002 and 2007 Census Industry Classification Systems ATUS occupation codes use the Census Bureau s Occupation Classification System which is based on the Standard Occupational Classification From 2003 10 ATUS and CPS used the Census Bureau s 2002 Occupation Classification System starting in 2011 ATUS and CPS began using the Census Bureau s 2010 Occupation Classification System There are numerous differences between the 2002 and 2010 Census Occupation Classification Systems and as a result occupational data beginning in 2011 are not strictly comparable with earlier years If the respondent s industry and occupation have not changed since the final CPS interview and the respondent provided adequate information in the CPS to accurately assign I amp O codes the four digit Census Bureau industry and occupation codes are retrieved from the data obtained from the last CPS interview and entered into the ATUS data file No further industry and occupation coding is required for thes
113. ing at least 21 of 24 hours are included in the Respondent file Roster file This file contains one record per household member for all households in which the designated person participated in ATUS variables indicate household membership status sex relationship to designated respondent and age These variables were updated in the ATUS interview Activity file This file contains information collected in the ATUS diary There is one record per activity reported in the diary The diary data include the activity code the activity duration start and stop times and where the activity took place This file also includes data that pertain to paid work childcare and volunteer activities Activity summary file This file is generated at BLS after all editing is complete It contains one record per respondent and is a summary of the information on the Activity file It also contains ATUS final weights and selected variables such as age and labor force status that are also available on other ATUS files ATUS CPS file This file contains one record per household member for all households in which an individual was selected to participate in ATUS It contains the ATUS case ID number TUCASEID and the ATUS person line number TULINENO as identifiers All information on the ATUS CPS file is from the eighth CPS interview and dates from 2 to 5 months prior to the ATUS interview Who file This file contains the who information collected in the
114. introduced Because the ATUS asks respondents only about yesterday the survey may underestimate activities that occur on overnight trips away from home Therefore from 2005 to 2010 ATUS respondents were asked a series of questions about trips away from home for 2 or more nights in a row during a specific reference month Questions were asked about the number duration and purpose of overnight trips This additional information may be used to adj ust time use estimates to correct for any bias introduced by the reporting methodology The reference period for trips data was either the month before the initial contact attempt or 2 months prior to the interview month whichever is most recent Because the trips data are underused the trips questions were replaced with eldercare questions in 2011 RESPONSE RATES BLS uses the American Association for Public Opinion Research s AAPOR s Response Rate 2 formula for determining the ATUS response rates C C R NC 0 4UE OF a o gt 3 o gt Completes complete or sufficient partial interview R Refusals NC Noncontact uncompleted callbacks never contacted O Other respondent absent ill or hospitalized language barrier etc UE Unknown eligibility phone number incorrect for household unconfirmed number etc The ATUS overall response rates appear in table 3 3 The response rate for persons in households without a telephone number was significantly
115. is available online at www bls gov tus Ivdatafiles htm Tables with estimates from the Leave Module were released in August 2012 and are also available online at http www bls gov tus news htm page 19 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 4 6 4 7 FOLLOWUP PROCEDURES ATUS interviewers are trained to use all of their skills and knowledge to complete the interview at the time of first contact with the household If an interview is not completed the interviewer attempts to set an appointment with the respondent to complete the interview later that day or on the next eligible reporting day If a respondent refuses to complete the interview a refusal conversion letter see appendices E and F is mailed to reemphasize the importance of ATUS and to request that the respondent reconsider participating in the survey The interviewer attempts to contact the respondent again during the 8 week period when his or her household remains in the ATUS sample CONFIDENTIALITY ATUS data are collected by the Census Bureau under the authority of Title 13 United States Code Section 8 Section 9 of the law requires that all information about respondents be kept strictly confidential and that the information be used only for statistical purposes Designated persons are informed of their right to confidentiality under Title 13 in the ATUS advance letter and brochure mailed approximately 10 days before the interview date The ATU
116. ited to participate in a mock ATUS interview followed by a face to face cognitive debriefing interview The cognitive interviews were used to assess the ease or difficulty with which the respondents could recall the information required for the ATUS interview the confidence with which they could report the information omissions and errors in responses to summary questions and other issues specific to each of the summary questions The information gained from these tests was used to modify the summary questions so that they would better elicit the information desired by BLS and the Census Bureau CODING LEXICON TESTING After data collection activities reported by respondents must be coded using a three tier coding system To ensure that coding could be done accurately and the analytical value of the data preserved or enhanced several coding tests were conducted BLS conducted three tests using coders at the Census Bureau s National Processing Center in Jeffersonville IN Each test introduced a revised lexicon and more extensive coding rules and training than the previous one The third test also evaluated the usability of new coding software These tests led to numerous changes in the classification system An additional test was conducted by BLS and Westat in 2001 to measure coding accuracy and efficiency over time to evaluate BLS coding training and to assess the usability of the coding instrument The tests showed that coding speed i
117. ith identical sequences of activities and only slight differences in the way they reported their travel The ATUS coding rules ensure these activity sequences are coded the same way even though the respondents reported varying degrees of detail about their travel As specified in the ATUS travel coding rules each of these travel activities is assigned a purpose according to the activity that immediately follows the travel episode Here the first driving to work or driving activity is coded as Travel related to purchasing gas the second travel episode is coded as Travel related to purchasing food not groceries and the final travel episode is coded as Travel related to working Members of the ATUS staff occasionally receive questions about data on commute times Researchers interested in commute times or other travel times must consider the complexities of travel behaviors and the way travel episodes are coded in the ATUS while performing analyses Such research will require an examination of respondents time diaries and it may involve recoding the purpose of some travel episodes For more detailed information see the ATUS Coding Rules Manual and ATUS Coding Lexicons both available here http www bls gov tus documents htm 5 5 VERIFICATION AND ADJ UDICATION The accuracy and consistency of coded ATUS data are critical to the usefulness and validity of the survey For quality assurance purposes the telephone center uses a
118. ith only a national reliability requirement ATUS does not have a State reliability requirement To improve the efficiency of the national estimates from the survey the CPS sample is subsampled to obtain the ATUS sample which is distributed across the States approximately equal to the proportion of the national population each one represents In the second stage of selection households are stratified based on these characteristics the race ethnicity of the householder the presence and age of children and the number of adults in adults only households Sampling rates vary within each stratum Eligible households with a Hispanic or non Hispanic black householder are oversampled to improve the reliability of time use data for these demographic groups To ensure adequate measures of childcare households with children are also oversampled To compensate for this households without children are undersampled In the third stage of selection an eligible person from each household selected in the second stage is randomly selected to be the designated person for ATUS An eligible person is a civilian household member at least 15 years of age All eligible persons within a sample household have the same probability of being selected as the ATUS designated person SAMPLE SIZE In 2003 3 375 households leaving the CPS sample were selected for the ATUS sample each month approximately 40 500 households annually Based on the race ethnicity of the ho
119. ities that care providers do also are collected The eldercare questions replaced the trips questions see section 3 5 page 10 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAPTER 3 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 UNIVERSE ATUS covers all residents living in households in the United States that are at least 15 years of age with the exception of active military personnel and people residing in institutions such as nursing homes and prisons SAMPLING FRAME The ATUS sample is drawn from the CPS so the ATUS universe is the same as the CPS universe The universe for the CPS is composed of the civilian noninstitutional population residing in occupied households in the United States From this universe the CPS selects approximately 60 000 households every month About one eighth or about 7 500 of these retire permanently from the CPS sample each month after their eighth CPS interview attempt Two months after households complete their eighth CPS interview they become eligible for selection into the ATUS sample SAMPLE DESIGN AND SELECTION PROCEDURES The ATUS sample is a stratified three stage sample In the first stage of selection the CPS oversample in the less populous States is reduced The CPS is designed to produce reliable estimates at the State and national level Because of the CPS State reliability requirement the less populous States are allocated a larger proportion of the national CPS sample than they would get w
120. ity code assignments See appendix for coding rules 5 3 CODER QUALIFICATION ATUS is unique in that it is the only survey conducted by the Census Bureau that uses the same personnel to do interviewing and coding rather than referring collected data to coding specialists Interviewers code one another s cases though never their own This process is used because having knowledge of the coding lexicon categories gives interviewers a better understanding of the importance of probing for helpful information and recording activities properly both of which make coding easier The telephone center uses a qualification process to prepare and certify coders for full production coding New coders must pass a test panel within 30 days of completing training to be qualified for coding production panels Formal coding evaluations and follow ups occur quarterly for all coders All ATUS coders are expected to attain an average coding error rate of under 10 percent each month If any qualified coder has an average coding error rate between 7 and 9 9 percent for the previous quarter he is counseled by an ATUS supervisor Qualified coders with production panel error rates equal to or exceeding 10 percent even if previous panel error rates met qualification standards are removed from both ATUS interviewing and coding production and placed in a re qualification cycle page 22 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 5 4 ACTIVITY CODING
121. kes linking much easier The linking variables that remain HRHHID HUHHNUM and PULINENO do not uniquely identify individuals or households This results in some incorrect matches e In order to increase sample size the ASEC includes two oversamples known as the SCHIPS and the Hispanic oversamples When the oversampled records were included in the ASEC file the variable identifying the month was changed to 3 to protect confidentiality This means that prior to 2005 these oversampled cases could not be identified e Some oversampled individuals are interviewed only once for ASEC These are individuals who are oversampled because of their unusual demographic characteristics for example mixed race households with children As they are interviewed only once for the ASEC there are no matches for these cases Note that the variable H MIS which indicates the record s month in sample is not always accurate on the ASEC file Records that are given the ASEC because they are part of a CPS oversample may have incorrect values of H MIS Linking the 2003 ASEC to the 2004 ASEC 1 Link the 2003 Basic March CPS to the 2003 ASEC March supplement using the instructions in II B 2 Link the 2004 Basic March CPS to the 2004 ASEC March supplement using the instructions in II B 3 Link the two merged Basic ASEC files using the following variables page 106 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 HRHHID PULINENO HUHHNU
122. l care activities include sleeping grooming such as bathing or dressing health related self care and personal or private activities Receiving unpaid personal care from others for example my sister put polish on my nails also is captured in this category Survey respondents are not asked who they were with or where they were for personal care activities as such information can be sensitive Professional and personal care services Time spent obtaining receiving and purchasing professional and personal care services provided by someone else for pay is classified in this category Professional services include childcare financial services and banking legal services medical and adult care services real estate services and veterinary services Personal care services include day spas hair salons and barbershops nail salons and tanning salons Activities classified here include time spent paying meeting with or talking to service providers as well as time spent receiving the service or waiting to receive the service page 51 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Religious and spiritual activities Religious activities include those normally associated with membership in or identification with specific religions or denominations such as attending religious services participating in choirs youth groups orchestras or unpaid teaching unless identified as volunteer activities and engaging in personal religious
123. la 7 5 Total time TUFINLWGT x Total time TUCASEID watching TV TUFINLWGT watching TV 20070101070044 325 7 509 876 309742 2 440 709 800 66615 20070101070052 35 25 893 211 878954 906 262 415 76339 20070101070513 0 2 661 217 803227 0 20070101070594 330 1 235 892 547415 407 844 540 64695 Total 86 178 611 590 072 13 564 061 358 607 gt fwet T T ______ 13564061358607 86178611590 072 157 395 minutes 2 62 hours gt fet See Appendix J of this User s Guide for more examples CALCULATING STANDARD ERRORS Variances may be calculated for ATUS estimates using a replicate variance method This method uses replicate weights to calculate replicate estimates The deviations between the replicate estimates and the original estimate form the basis of the variance calculation Chapter 14 of CPS Technical Paper 66 available at www census gov prod 2006pubs tp 66 pdf describes the replication method The formula is Var Y Cau F i i l where Y is the characteristic of interest Y is the original estimate of Y the SUM is over 160 replicate estimates and f isthe i replicate estimate of Y In section 7 4 there is an example that shows how to calculate the average hours per day individuals watched TV in 2007 The example showed that on average individuals watched 2 62 hours per day The standard error for this estimate is 0 0293 For tables that show ATUS esti
124. lationship of the eldercare recipient to the respondent the age of the recipient and the duration of care for the recipient If the respondent does not provide this information an editing process assigns values for the missing relationship age and duration of care based on relational imputation hot deck allocation or randomly within defined parameters Respondent level eldercare variables include the frequency of care the number of eldercare recipients and whether the respondent provided care yesterday Imputation is not done for the respondent level eldercare variables page 30 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 6 5 Spouse unmarried partner employment status ATUS collects information on the employment status and usual working hours of the respondent s spouse or unmarried partner If this information is incomplete longitudinal allocation is used to assign values from CPS In the rare cases in which the information also is missing in CPS allocations are made based on the age of the spouse or unmarried partner Manual edits ATUS staff members review the data carefully after the editing process and occasionally find inconsistencies that need to be investigated using the verbatim responses provided during the interviews Occasionally manual edits are made on various data elements These are usually demographic variables such as relationship to the respondent age or sex Information about trips collected in 20
125. ld be interviewed again in J une MIS 2 J uly MIS 3 and August MIS 4 The household would then be out of the sample for eight months and would not be interviewed again until May of the following year MIS 5 The final three interviews would occur in June MIS 6 J uly MIS 7 and August MIS 8 of the following year J anuary February March April May June July August September October November December Year 1 J anuary February March April May June July August September October November December Year 2 MIS 1 IO nmn moowo gt zl rc lt x g lt c a ua Do vio Z z MIS 2 XX A rT O nim ol olol gt lt C H u D oO oo z zlem MIS 3 WW x lt gt x lt IOn mooo gt i lt C Allvl D O VOC 2 Z m XK Month in sample MIS MIS 5 MIS 4 VV WW x lt gt x lt I On moomoo Cha wn D oO TD oO Z Zma AT MM NN 00 PP QQ RR SS TT UU W ww XX xiolimmoo w gt i MIS 6 L1 MM NN 00 pp QQ RR SS TT UU W ww x lt gt x lt IT On mo olw YS K MIS 7 MIS 8 KI ji L1 KI MM L1 NN MM 00 NN PP 00 QQ PP RR QQ SS RR TT SS UU TT VV UU ww VW XX ww A XX B A C B D C E D F E G F H G H page 110 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX M Statistical weights for merged data from the ATUS and a CPS supplement Analyses of ATUS and CPS data require
126. linking variables than does linking to an MIS 8 month page 95 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 1 When the Basic CPS month occurred prior to May 2004 Identify all possible MIS 8 months for the particular Basic CPS month For assistance with this step refer to Appendix L and the example below If all possible MIS 8 months are prior to May 2004 the Basic CPS file and the ATUS CPS file can be linked using the following variables 00000 HRHHID PULINENO HUHHNUM HRSERSUF HRSAMPLE Note that HRSERSUF has different default values in the ATUS CPS file and the CPS files available for download on the CPS FTP Web site Failure to account for this will result in many mismatches If at least one possible MIS 8 month is May 2004 or later Several variables must first be defined e On the ATUS CPS file O HUHHNUM If HRHHID2 1 then HUHHNUM last digit of HRHHID2 The restriction ensures that valid values of HUHHNUM are not overwritten HRSERSUF If HRHHID2 1 then HRSERSUF digits 3 and 4 of HRHHID2 converted to alpha characters 00 blank 01 A 02 B etc The restriction ensures that valid values of HRSERSUF are not overwritten NumHRSAMPLE If HRHHID2 1 then NumHRSAMPLE digits 1 and 2 of HRHHID2 If HRHHID2 1 then NumHRSAMPLE numeric part of HRSAMPLE characters 2 and 3 e Onthe Basic CPS file O NumHRSAMPLE numeric part of HRSAMPLE characters 2 and 3 e Link the Basic CPS files
127. lower than those shown in the table averaging about 39 8 percent in 2011 A survey conducted by BLS and the Census Bureau in early 2004 analyzing responses and operations data indicated that the primary reason for refusal is survey fatigue the designated persons are tired of participating in the CPS survey and do not want to respond to another survey See AAPOR s Standard Definitions Final Dispositions of Case Codes and Outcome Rates for Surveys 2004 7 These are response rates calculated prior to final processing and editing During processing cases with poor quality data are moved from a complete response category to a nonresponse category thus lowering final annual average response rates by 1 to 3 percentage points Cases with poor quality data are those containing fewer than five activities those for which refusals or don t remember responses account for 3 or more hours of the 24 hour day or both 8 See 3 2 for information on how ATUS selects respondents from households that have completed their final CPS interview page 13 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE Table 3 3 ATUS response rates by year December 2014 Year Response rate percent 2003 57 8 2004 57 3 2005 56 6 2006 55 1 2007 52 5 2008 54 6 2009 56 6 2010 56 9 2011 54 6 2012 53 2 2013 49 9 page 14 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CHAPTER 4 4 1 4 2 4
128. mates and corresponding standard errors contact ATUS staff by e mail at atusinfo bls gov page 40 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 7 6 There is one set of 160 replicate weights for each ATUS final weight TUFINLWGT TUO4FWGT and TUO6FWGT In 2003 to 2005 there is more than one set of ATUS replicate weights All ATUS replicate weights are available in the Replicate Weights file and can be downloaded from the ATUS Web site The following table shows the location of the replicate weight files by year Year Location of replicate weights file 2003 www bls gov tus datafiles 2003 htm 2004 www bls gov tus datafiles 2004 htm 2005 www bls gov tus datafiles 2005 htm 2006 www bls gov tus datafiles 2006 htm 2007 www bls gov tus datafiles_2007 htm 2008 www bls gov tus datafiles_2008 htm 2009 www bls gov tus datafiles 2009 htm 2010 www bls gov tus datafiles 2010 htm 2011 www bls gov tus datafiles 2011 htm 2012 www bls gov tus datafiles 2012 htm 2013 www bls gov tus datafiles 2013 htm For each final weight there are 160 replicate weights for each respondent The variables are named FINLWGT001 FINLWGT002 etc The replicate weights can be linked to the appropriate ATUS respondents using the variable TUCASEID To calculate a variance using the formula shown above calculate the statistic Y using all 160 replicate final weights in
129. ment I D Linking the ATUS CPS file to the ASEC March supplement Il Linking CPS files to other CPS files or CPS supplements II A Linking Basic CPS files to other Basic CPS files or to CPS supplements other than ASEC March supplement II B Linking Basic March CPS files to the ASEC March supplement files II C Linking two ASEC March supplement files III Common problems IV Obtaining CPS data and documentation page 93 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 I Linking ATUS files to CPS Files LA Linking the ATUS CPS file to the final Basic CPS Interview MIS 8 The ATUS CPS file contains almost all of the information available on the Basic CPS files with a few exceptions such as some geographic variables To obtain such information researchers must link the ATUS CPS file to the final Basic CPS interview file For a detailed list of variables that are on the Basic CPS files and not on the ATUS CPS file please see the ATUS CPS data dictionaries at www bls gov tus dictionaries htm Because the final CPS interview occurs two to five months prior to the ATUS interview fifteen months of CPS files from August to October of the following yearsink to a given ATUS CPS file For example CPS files from August 2003 to October 2004 link to the 2004 ATUS CPS file Due to the May 2004 format change in CPS researchers must use one set of variables to link cases whose final CPS interview occur
130. nally representative estimates of how people spend their time Many ATUS users are interested in the amount of time Americans spend doing unpaid nonmarket work which could include unpaid childcare eldercare housework and volunteering The survey also provides information on the amount of time people spend in many other activities such as religious activities socializing exercising and relaxing In addition to collecting data about what people did on the day before the interview ATUS collects information about where and with whom each activity occurred and whether the activities were done for one s job or business Demographic information including sex race age educational attainment occupation income marital status and the presence of children in the household also is available for each respondent Although some of these variables are updated during the ATUS interview most of this information comes from earlier CPS interviews as the ATUS sample is drawn from a subset of households that have completed month 8 of the CPS HOW CAN THE SURVEY RESULTS BE USED ATUS significantly furthers understanding about how Americans spend their time Because ATUS data are collected on an ongoing monthly basis time series data can be analyzed to identify any changes in how people spend their time ATUS data can provide a wide range of applications for different users For example many economists are interested in estimating the monetary val
131. ncreased rapidly with experience and coding accuracy increased as well though not as quickly BLS implemented several of Westat s recommendations to improve the classification system the coding software and the coding training Further progress was made in improving activity coding up to full production These advancements include but are not limited to the development of rules and job aids for training purposes and the implementation of a coding verification and adjudication process DRESS REHEARSAL BLS and the Census Bureau conducted an ATUS dress rehearsal between April and August 2002 The purpose of this test was to conduct ATUS in a standard data production environment incorporating most of the results from the 2001 4 Schwartz 2000 and 2001 page 8 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 2 2 6 operations field test A sample of 7 000 designated persons was drawn from households that had completed the last month of CPS interviews and these individuals were each assigned a day of the week about which they would be interviewed Advance letters describing the time use survey were sent to all designated persons and those in households without a telephone number were offered a 40 debit card to complete the interview The dress rehearsal was important because some operational issues of ATUS required further testing before full production began in 2003 ATUS was the first Census Bureau survey to use convers
132. new linking variables on the 2005 Basic April CPS file e HUHHNUM last digit of HRHHID2 e HRSERSUF digits 3 and 4 of HRHHID2 converted to alpha characters 00 1 01 A 02 B etc e NumHRSAMPLE digits 1 and 2 of HRHHID2 3 Define one new linking variable on the 2004 Basic April CPS file e NumHRSAMPLE numeric part of HRSAMPLE digits 2 and 3 4 Link the 2004 Basic April CPS file and the 2005 Basic April CPS file using HRHHID PULINENO HUHHNUM HRSERSUF NumHRSAMPLE Many records will not match This is due to the fact that many of those who were interviewed for the 2004 Basic April CPS were not interviewed for the 2005 Basic April CPS Delete all records that do not have a match 5 To verify that the linking was done correctly compare values of sex PESEX and race PRDTRACE There should only be a very small number of records that do not match on these two variables II B Linking Basic March CPS files to ASEC March supplement files of the same year Linking the Basic March CPS file to the ASEC file is difficult prior to 2005 because the linking variables HRSERSUF and HRSAMPLE are not on the ASEC The linking variables that remain HRHHID HUHHNUM and PULINENO do not uniquely identify individuals or households This results in some incorrect matches From 2005 onward the presence of the variable HRHHID2 which incorporates the information that was formerly in HRSERSUF and HRSAMPLE makes linking much easier
133. nited States Code Section 1 and Title 13 United States Code Section 8 authorize the U S Census Bureau to conduct this survey Section 9 of Title 13 United States Code requires us to keep all information about you and your household strictly confidential We will use this information only for statistical purposes Your voluntary cooperation is needed to make the results of this survey comprehensive and accurate We estimate that it will take an average of 15 20 minutes to complete this survey If you have any comments about the time estimate or any other aspect of this survey including suggestions for reducing the burden please send them to the Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey 1220 0175 2 Massachusetts Avenue NE Room 4675 Washington DC 20212 page 50 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX C Advance letter to parents or guardians of minor respondents sent 2003 to mid 2011 Parent or Guardian of respondent s name 123 Welcome Drive Gladwood MN 22222 Dear Parent or Guardian of respondent s name This letter is to inform you that your child has been selected to participate in the American Time Use Survey ATUS Conducted by the U S Census Bureau the ATUS is a brief one time only voluntary telephone interview that gathers information about how Americans spend their time The survey includes people ages 15 years and older and the answers your child provides will represent those
134. nts 120501 120501 120501 Waiting associated with socializing and communicating 120502 120502 120502 Waiting associated with attending or hosting social events Socializing and 1201 1201 1201 Socializing and communicating communicating except social events Attending or 1202 1202 1202 Attending or hosting social events hosting social events Relaxing and leisure 1203 1203 1203 Relaxing and leisure Watching TV 120303 120303 120303 Television and movies not religious 120304 120304 120304 Television religious Arts and 1204 1204 1204 Arts and entertainment other than sports entertainment other than sports Sports exercise and 13 13 13 Sports exercise and recreation recreation Participating in 1301 1301 1301 Participating in sports exercise and recreation sports exercise and recreation Attending sporting 1302 1302 1302 Attending sporting or recreational events or recreational events Travel related to 1812 1812 1712 Travel related to socializing relaxing and leisure leisure and sports 1813 1813 1713 Travel related to sports exercise and recreation Telephone calls mail 16 16 16 Telephone calls and e mail 1816 1816 1716 Travel related to telephone calls 020903 020903 020903 Household and personal mail and messages 020904 020904 020904 Household and personal e mail and messages Telephone calls to or 1601 1601 1601 Telephone calls to or from from Household and 020903 020903 020903 Household an
135. o make at least one call in each call block until contact is made with each household The call blocks vary according to the interview attempt day The center uses an automated call scheduler which tells the interviewers when each household should be called Once a household is contacted page 15 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 4 4 and the designated person agrees to complete the interview the interviewer conducts the interview using CATI 4 3 1 4 3 2 HOUSEHOLDS WITH A TELEPHONE NUMBER If a telephone number is available from the CPS an interviewer at the telephone center calls the household on the designated interview day to obtain a report about the designated person s activities on the previous diary day When the interviewer enters the CATI system to conduct an interview the first few screens that appear provide helpful information that was obtained during the CPS interview such as the household roster and any notes recorded by the last CPS interviewer For example the CPS interviewer may note the best time to contact someone in the household The interviewer attempts to contact the designated person after reviewing this information When that person is reached the interviewer introduces him or herself Once the interviewer verifies that the designated person received the advance mailer explaining ATUS the interview begins HOUSEHOLDS WITHOUT A TELEPHONE NUMBER Approximately 5 percent of the ATUS
136. o_ _remeesiot_ _ _ ttre 1571 rest 066 8 1 0485336E12 137 78816674 Women age 18 and over living in households with children under 6 spent 137 8 minutes 2 30 hours per day providing childcare as a primary activity Step 5 Verify your results if possible To verify that this is correct compare it to the estimate corresponding to Caring for and helping household children that appears on the first page of Table 8 in the 2007 news release www bls gov news release archives atus 06282007 pdf It matches page 75 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Time use estimates for Participants Examples 1 and 2 demonstrated how to calculate time use estimates for the population or a specific subpopulation based on characteristics of the respondent or the respondent s household The estimates included all persons meeting the criteria whether or not they did the activity on their diary day Consider the difference between time use estimates for a population as in examples 1 and 2 and estimates for participants This example illustrates the difference Time use for a population or subpopulation Americans spent 0 18 hour 11 minutes per day doing laundry in 2006 This estimate includes all persons in the population whether or not they did laundry on the diary day Time use for participants only On days they did laundry Americans spent 1 09 hours per day doing the activity This estimate is much
137. ochure for an additional explanation of why ATUS is so important Because your participation is so important we have enclosed a 40 ATM debit card for you as a way of showing our gratitude Once you have completed the survey the interviewer will give you a Personal Identification Number PIN that will allow you to activate the card and receive your payment More information about using the card is enclosed with this letter Since we do not have your phone number it is very important that you call us toll free at 1 800 232 1824 on DAY Date to complete this one time survey Our hours are Sunday 11 a m midnight Eastern Time and Monday Saturday 9 a m midnight Eastern Time If your scheduled date is not a convenient day to complete the interview please call to set up another time that is more convenient for you When you call to complete the survey you will be asked questions about how you spent your time on the previous day You have been selected to represent people like you and only you can accurately report how you use your time Please feel free to contact us with any questions Phone 1 800 232 1824 Email atusinfo census gov Web address www bls gov respondents tus A Message from the Director Enclosure The U S Office of Management and Budget OMB has approved this survey and assigned it control number 1220 0175 Without OMB approval and this number we would not be able to conduct this study Title 29 U
138. of many teenagers For this reason your child s participation in the survey is very important The enclosed package provides you and your child with information about the survey and the types of questions we will ask in the interview All responses are guaranteed to be confidential and will not be linked with your child s name or any other identifying information An interviewer will call your child to conduct the survey on day of week date If you have any questions please contact us at the following Phone E mail Web address www bls gov tus home htm I hope that you will encourage your child to participate in this important survey Sincerely Enclosure page 51 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX D Frequently asked questions sent with advance letters What is the American Time Use Survey ATUS The American Time Use Survey asks questions about how people spend their time Time is a resource just like money and knowing how people spend their time helps answer important questions Why is it important that I participate People use their time differently depending on their age and circumstances This survey asks a wide variety of people how they use their time students retirees workers parents men and women Your participation in this survey ensures we provide accurate data on the time use and quality of life of all people age 15 and over living in America You are an important
139. ogtiTi Teat 1 X fwot i In SAS the records can be summed with a PROC MEANS statement Sample SAS code proc means data formulal sum var tufinlwgt wtd_childcare output out summarydata sum tufinlwgt denominator sum wtd_childcare numerator The output file is only one record The variables denominator and numerator refer to the numerator and denominator for the calculation 18 File name Summarydata _FREG_ denominator numerator 12943 seein 2 0951 963E 12 D y Here the variable tot_childcare is equivalent to the numerator divided the denominator 18 The variables _TYPE_ and _FREQ_ are automatically generated by SAS software TYPE_ 0 indicates that all records on the input file were summed The value for _FREQ_ is equivalent to the number of records that were summed by the PROC MEANS statement page 70 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 SINEES _FREQ_ denominator numerator tot_childcare 12943 85089676117 2 0951963E12 24 623390078 The result is in minutes because the variable TUACTDUR24 is in minutes In 2006 Americans spent an average of 24 6 minutes per day providing primary childcare to household children This corresponds to 0 41 hour per day Step 5 Verify your results if possible Look at Table 1 of the 2007 news release to verify the result www bls gov news release archives atus_06282007 pdf it corresponds to the line Caring for and
140. ook place S5 Summary questions When the diary is complete the interviewer asks follow up questions to gain more information on the respondent s work childcare and volunteer activities e The interviewer first asks questions to identify activities that were done as part of the respondent s job and then asks about any income generating activities that were not part of the respondent s main or other job e Next the interviewer asks the respondent to identify activities and times when a child under 13 years old was in the respondent s care other than already mentioned primary childcare activities This measure of secondary childcare is captured separately for the respondent s own children that live in the household own children that live in another household other non own household children such as siblings or grandchildren and non own nonhousehold children such as a neighbor s children e The interviewer then asks the respondent to identify any volunteer activities done for or through an organization 5 a 2011 and later Eldercare Questions in this section identify eldercare providers If the respondent is an eldercare provider the interviewer collects information about the care recipient s age relationship to the respondent the duration of care whether or not care was provided yesterday and if so the activities done as care This section replaced the trips questions in 2011 S6 2005 2010 Trips Q
141. or weekday holidays Estimates for weekend days and holidays are an average of reports about Saturdays Sundays and the following holidays New Year s Day Easter Memorial Day the Fourth of J uly Labor Day Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day In 2003 data were not collected about Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day in 2004 and 2005 data were not collected about Thanksgiving Day in 2007 and 2012 data were not collected about New Year s Day in 2008 and 2011 data were not collected about Christmas Day and in 2010 data were not collected about the Fourth of J uly In 2006 and 2009 data were collected about all of these holidays Designated day The day of the week on which a designated person will be called for an interview For example a person with a designated day of Tuesday will be called for up to 8 consecutive Tuesdays to be interviewed about what she did on Monday Designated person A person selected to participate in the ATUS Diary day The diary day is the day about which the designated person reports For example the diary day of a designated person interviewed on Tuesday is Monday Diary days are assigned and designated persons may not substitute another day of the week on which to report Earnings Data represent usual weekly earnings before taxes and other deductions and include any overtime pay commissions or tips usually received at the main job in the case of multiple jobholders Respondents are asked to identify the e
142. other look at this data set from example 1 It includes 12 943 records one for each respondent and information about how much time the respondent spent providing childcare as a primary activity on the diary day variable childcare File name formulal TUCASEID TUFINLWGT childcare wtd_childcare 20060101060001 33845748596 2006010106001 4 3479067 9057 20060101060025 825165 4274 20060101 060033 51744472742 390 2018034436 9 200601 01060038 6353748 5253 0 0 20060101060049 8193457 4764 120 983214897 17 Note that the variable childcare includes many zeroes these correspond to respondents that did not report any time providing childcare as a primary activity Step 4 Apply the appropriate formula Average hours per day of participants T7 the average number of hours spent per day engaged in activity j by people who participated in that activity on that day is given by gt fost 1 7 e l X fst li where Tij is the amount of time spent in activity j by respondent i fwgti is the final weight for respondent i and lj is an indicator that equals 1 if respondent i participated in activity j during the reference day and 0 otherwise To calculate the average time participants spent providing childcare restrict the data set to persons who reported providing care childcare gt 0 The resulting file has 3 680 records TUCASEID TUFINLWGT wtd_childcare 20060101060033 51744472742 390 2018034436 9 20060101060049 81934
143. ough April 2004 The ATUS selects only a subset of those who were interviewed for CPS so there will be many CPS records for which there is no corresponding ATUS record Delete all records for which there is no match The remaining records comprise FILE1 2 Link to CPS files for May 2004 and later months using HRHHID PULINENO HRMONTH HRYEAR4 HRHHID2 All 2004 ATUS records where HRYEAR4 2004 and HRMONTH 5 will match to a Basic CPS record from May 2004 through October 2004 The ATUS selects only a subset of those who were interviewed for CPS so there will be many CPS records for which there is no corresponding ATUS record Delete all records for which there is no match The remaining records comprise FILE2 3 Concatenate FILE1 and FILE2 The remaining file should have exactly the same number of records as does the ATUS CPS file 4 To verify that the linking was done correctly compare the values of age PRTAGE on the ATUS CPS file and PEAGE on the Basic CPS sex PESEX and race PTDTRACE on the ATUS CPS file and PRDTRACE on the Basic CPS There should be no differences 1 B Linking the ATUS CPS file to a particular Basic CPS month not necessarily the final interview Researchers may wish to know how Basic CPS questions were answered in a given month especially if they are looking at CPS supplement data for that month Linking the ATUS CPS file to a specific non MIS 8 Basic CPS month requires using different
144. ousehold caring for and helping members household members Caring for and helping 04 04 04 Caring for and helping nonhousehold members nonhousehold members 1804 1804 1704 Travel related to caring for and helping nonhousehold members Caring for and helping 0401 0401 0401 Caring for and helping nonhousehold children nonhousehold children 0402 0402 0402 Activities related to nonhousehold children s education 0403 0403 0403 Activities related to nonhousehold children s health Caring for and helping 0404 0404 0404 Caring for nonhousehold adults nonhousehold adults 0405 0405 0405 Helping nonhousehold adults Caring for 0404 0404 0404 Caring for nonhousehold adults nonhousehold adults Helping 0405 0405 0405 Helping nonhousehold adults nonhousehold adults Travel related to 1804 1804 1704 Travel related to caring for and helping household caring for and helping members nonhousehold members Working and Work 05 05 05 Working and work related activities related Activities 1805 1805 1705 Travel related to work page 60 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Published tables 2008 2005 2003 Coding lexicon categories major categories 2013 2007 2004 Working 0501 0501 0501 Working Work related activities 0502 0502 0502 Work related activities Other income 0503 0503 0503 Other income generating activities generating activities Job search and 0504 0504 0504 J ob search and inter
145. ov tus dictionaries htm for further information on how to identify edited variables and their allocated values A description of three imputation methods used on ATUS data is given in exhibit 6 1 below Imputation fills in values for missing data allowing analysts to work with complete cases However treating imputed cases as actual responses may overstate the precision of the estimates The remainder of this chapter describes the different types of data edits and imputation procedures used on ATUS variables and calculates the percent of variables that are missing and imputed page 26 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Exhibit 6 1 ATUS IMPUTATION METHODS Relational imputation Relational imputation infers the missing value from other characteristics on the person s record or from records of others in the same household For instance if race is missing it is assigned based on the race of another household member or failing that taken from the previous record in the file Missing occupation codes are sometimes assigned a code by viewing the industry codes and vice versa If missing values cannot be assigned a code using this technique they are assigned codes using one of the two following methods Longitudinal assignments Longitudinal assignments are used primarily in the labor force edits If a question is blank the ATUS labor force module examines the final month of CPS data to determine whether the
146. personal care personal care Eating and drinking 11 11 11 Eating and drinking 1811 1811 1711 Travel related to eating and drinking Eating and drinking 1101 1101 1101 Eating and drinking Travel related to 1811 1811 1711 Travel related to eating and drinking eating and drinking Household activities All 02 All 02 All 02 Household activities except except except 020903 020903 020903 Household and personal mail and messages 020904 020904 020904 Household and personal e mail and messages 1802 1802 1702 Travel related to household activities Housework 0201 0201 0201 Housework Food preparation and 0202 0202 0202 Food and drink preparation presentation and cleanup cleanup Lawn and garden care 0205 0205 0205 Lawn garden and houseplants Household 0209 0209 0209 Household management management except except except 020903 020903 020903 Household and personal mail and messages 020904 020904 020904 Household and personal e mail and messages Interior maintenance 0203 0203 0203 Interior maintenance repair and decoration repair and decoration Exterior maintenance 0204 0204 0204 Exterior maintenance repair and decoration repair and decoration Animals and pets 0206 0206 0206 Animals and pets Vehicles 0207 0207 0207 Vehicles Appliances tools and 0208 0208 0208 Appliances tools and toys toys Travel related to 1802 1802 1702 Travel related to household activities page 58 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY US
147. plement records will not have a match to the ATUS CPS file Delete all records that do not have a match The remaining records comprise all members of households that were interviewed for the October 2003 Internet and Computer Use supplement and who were selected to be contacted for an ATUS interview The remaining file will have fewer than the total number of records on the ATUS CPS file with HRYEAR4 2004 and HRMONTH 1 10 11 12 or HRYEAR4 2003 and HRMONTH 10 11 or 12 or HRYEAR4 2005 and HRMONTH 1 This is because not everyone who could have been interviewed for the October 2003 Internet and Computer Use supplement actually was interviewed 5 To verify that the linking process worked correctly compare the values of sex PESEX and race PTDTRACE on the ATUS CPS file and PRDTRACE on the October 2003 Internet and Computer Use supplement There should be only a very small number of records that do not match on these two variables I D Linking the ATUS CPS file to the CPS ASEC March supplement Linking to the ASEC March supplement is particularly difficult for several reasons Two variables used for linking HRSERSUF and HRSAMPLE are not included on the ASEC file prior to 2005 In order to increase the sample size CPS includes two oversamples in the ASEC the SCHIPS and Hispanic oversamples The ATUS CPS files do not include the CPS SCHIPS or Hispanic oversamples and steps must be taken to exclude these when m
148. ponse rates differ across demographic groups and days of the week For example men have lower response rates than do women so the weights for male respondents are larger on average than those for female respondents The weights ensure that groups and days of the week are correctly represented in spite of differing response rates The ATUS final weights indicate the number of person days the respondent represents Thus in 2003 and 2004 summing the weights of all respondents for a given month yields the number of person days in that month the total population times the number of days in the month in 2005 and later summing the weights of all respondents for a given quarter yields the number of person days in that quarter the total population times the number of days in the quarter These weights can be used to estimate quarterly and annual averages CALCULATION OF WEIGHTS Generating ATUS weights involves several steps Because ATUS cases are selected from the CPS the CPS weights after the first stage adjustment are the basis for ATUS weights These base weights are adjusted to account for the fact that less populous states are not oversampled in ATUS as they are in the CPS Further adjustments are made to account for the probability of selecting each household within the ATUS sampling strata and the probability of selecting each person from each sample household The nonresponse adjustment increases the weights of records of interviewe
149. practices such as praying Socializing relaxing and leisure This category includes face to face social communication and hosting or attending social functions Time spent communicating with others using the telephone mail or e mail is not part of this category Leisure activities include watching television reading relaxing or thinking playing computer board or card games using a computer or the Internet for personal interest playing or listening to music and other activities such as attending arts cultural and entertainment events Sports exercise and recreation Participating in as well as attending or watching sports exercise and recreational activities whether team or individual and competitive or noncompetitive falls into this category Recreational activities are leisure activities that are active in nature such as yard games like croquet or horseshoes Telephone calls This category captures time spent in telephone communication it also includes texting and Internet voice and video calling Telephone and Internet purchases of consumer goods are classified in Consumer Purchases Telephone calls identified as related to work or volunteering are classified as Work or Volunteering Traveling All time spent traveling is coded here regardless of mode or purpose Walking is considered traveling when used to get from one destination address or building to another but not when the primary purpose is exercise Volunte
150. psed time between CPS and ATUS Interviews Time between CPS and ATUS Percent of ATUS interviews interviews 2 months 14 0 3 months 71 0 4 months 14 1 5 months 0 9 1 For a complete description of CPS edit and imputation methodology see Technical Paper 66 at http www census gov prod 2006pubs tp 66 pdf page 27 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 6 3 1 CPS UPDATES IN THE ATUS In addition to updating their household roster information all ATUS respondents are re asked an abbreviated set of the CPS labor force questions in order to determine if their labor force status has changed between the CPS and the ATUS To minimize respondent burden additional CPS variables relating to employment are only updated when the ATUS respondent indicates a change in labor force status or if values for certain variables were imputed in the CPS These include earnings industry and occupation Earnings information Earnings variables are updated in ATUS only when there is evidence that the respondent s job changed when the respondent went from not employed to employed or if the CPS weekly earnings value was imputed If any of these occurred earnings information could be out of date or incorrect Industry and occupation information If industry and occupation information was imputed in the final CPS interview or there is evidence that the respondent changed jobs or job duties between the CPS and ATUS interviews t
151. r each activity One strategy for working with the Who file involves first summarizing the data to an activity level and then summarizing the data to a respondent level Before summarizing the data to an activity level first merge the Who file with the Roster file page 86 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Take a look at the structure of the Roster file File name atusrost_ 2006 TUCASEID TULINENO TEAGE TERRP TESEX 200601 01060033 200601 01060033 200601 01060033 200601 01060033 200601 01060038 200601 01060038 Start by merging the Who and Roster files by their 2 common identifiers TUCASEID and TULINENO If working in SAS be sure the data are properly sorted before merging the data sets Sample SAS code proc sort data atuswho_2006 by tucaseid tulineno run proc sort data atusrost_2006 by tucaseid tulineno run data who_rost keep tucaseid tuactivity_n tulineno tuwho_code teage merge atuswho_2006 atusrost_2006 by tucaseid tulineno File name who_rost TUCASEID TUACTIVITY_ n TULINENO TUWHO_ coD TEAGE 200601 12050670 200601 12050670 200601 12050670 200601 12050670 200601 12050670 200601 12050671 200601 12050671 200601 12050671 200601 12050671 200601 12050671 sao 44 4 fp fB amp amp Ww The resulting file named who_rost includes information from both the Who and Roster files for persons identified on both files The variable TEAGE has a missing value when
152. r funds BLS made the first budget request for collecting time use data to the Office of Management and Budget Developmental phase 4 Building the survey 2000 2002 During 2000 2002 the survey specifications were turned into systems This period included detailed testing design work software development training and other preparatory work for the survey e 2000 Budget for ATUS The survey received official approval and funding in December 2000 At this time joint BLS Census Bureau teams were formed to oversee the management of the survey and they began working to fully operationalize the survey e 2001 2002 Survey development operations field test and coding tests During 2001 and 2002 developments took place in several areas of the survey including the building of ATUS data collection and coding instruments the development of an activity coding classification scheme and the drafting of procedures for the call center In addition several decisions about the survey and operations were made during these 2 years these included decisions about the survey s estimation objectives the frequency of the survey the survey reference period how sampling would be done what the questionnaire specifications would be how the survey would be carried out operationally and how the data would eventually be disseminated discussed further in sections 2 2 2 2 2 6 e 2003 Data collection J anuary 2003 marked the official beginning of data collec
153. r not related such as foster children or children of roommates or boarders For secondary childcare calculations respondents are asked about care for household children under age 13 Own children This refers to the respondent s own children whether they live in the respondent s household or in another household Stepchildren and adopted children are considered own children although foster children are not For secondary childcare calculations respondents are asked about care for own children under age 13 those living in the respondent s household and those living in other households Population versus participant measures Some ATUS tables refer to time use by a population group while others restrict analysis to those who reported participating in a particular activity Tables that refer to a population such as all persons or all employed persons include estimates that take into account every respondent even those who did not engage in a specified activity on the diary day This could result in low averages for the population for activities that are done infrequently such as volunteering or are of short duration Tables that are restricted to participants include estimates that take into account only the responses of individuals who engaged in a specific activity on the diary day page 49 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Primary activity A primary activity is the main activity a respondent was doing
154. r sequence in the coding instrument s diary they cannot be changed by the coder Exhibit 5 1 TRAVEL CODES Travel activities are a special case and they have more complicated coding rules than other activities captured in the ATUS In order to capture useful and detailed information travel activities are coded according to the purpose of the travel Travel codes are very specific and they are named according to the purpose e g Travel related to working Travel related to work related activities and Travel related to job search activities While in reality a travel activity might be associated with many different purposes the ATUS activity coding lexicon only allows one purpose to be assigned to each episode of travel In most cases this purpose is determined by the activity that immediately follows the travel activity Homebound trips are an exception in this case the purpose of travel home usually is determined by the activity that preceded the travel episodes These rules hold for single destination trips as well as multiple destination trips Following are four examples that demonstrate the main ATUS travel coding rules Example 1 Respondent reports the following series of activities Driving to the mall 20 minutes gt Eating dinner gt Going shopping ATUS coding rules are designed to identify a purpose for the travel that might not be indicated in the respondent s verbatim answer There could be a number of reasons why someone
155. rather than asking scripted questions This is a flexible interviewing technique designed to allow the respondent to report on his or her activities comfortably and accurately This technique also allows interviewers to use methods to guide respondents through memory lapses to probe in a nonleading way for the level of detail required to code activities and to redirect respondents who are providing unnecessary information As each activity is reported the interviewer records the verbatim responses on a new activity line The interviewers are trained to ensure respondents report activities and activity durations actually done on the previous diary day not activities done ona usual day One technique interviewers use to do this involves emphasizing the word yesterday throughout the interview The ATUS questionnaire is available online at www bls gov tus questionnaires htm Each section is described below in more detail 10 For more information on conversational interviewing see Michael F Schober and Frederick G Conrad Does Conversational Interviewing Reduce Survey Measurement Error Public Opinion Quarterly 61 December 1997 576 602 page 17 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE Table 4 1 ATUS Survey December 2014 Section Section description S1 Introduction In this section the interviewer attempts to contact the designated person on the designated day After contact the interview
156. re was an entry for that item If so the CPS value is assigned otherwise the item is assigned a value using the appropriate hot deck as described next Hot deck allocation This method assigns a code to a missing value by copying the code of a record with similar characteristics Hot decks are defined by characteristics depending on the nature of the question being referenced For instance most labor force questions use only age race sex and occasionally another labor force item such as full or part time employment status in defining the hot deck 6 3 EDITS AND IMPUTATION OF CPS VARIABLES IN THE ATUS Because the ATUS was designed with the CPS as a sample frame many variables collected in the CPS are used when analyzing ATUS data such as race and educational attainment The ATUS is conducted two to five months after the CPS and certain information that may have changed and could affect time use such as employment status is updated in the ATUS Table 6 1 summarizes the lag time between the CPS and ATUS interviews These CPS variables that are updated in the ATUS follow CPS edit and imputation procedures to varying degrees This section discusses which CPS variables are updated in the ATUS and how imputation procedures differ between the CPS and the ATUS for certain variables It also discusses missing data for CPS variables that are not updated in the ATUS Table 6 1 Lag time between CPS and ATUS interviews Ela
157. red before May 2004 and another set to link cases whose final CPS interview occurred during or after May 2004 The fields HRMONTH and HRYEAR4 identify when the final CPS interview occurred 1 When the final CPS interview MIS 8 occurred prior to May 2004 If the following condition is true e HRYEAR4 lt 2003 OR HRYEAR4 2004 and HRMONTH lt 5 then use the following variables to link HRHHID PULINENO HRMONTH HRYEAR4 HRSERSUF Note that HRSERSUF has different default values in the ATUS CPS file and the CPS files available for download on the CPS FTP Web site Failure to account for this will result in many mismatches 2 When the final CPS interview MIS 8 occurred during or after May 2004 If the following condition is true e HRYEAR4 gt 2004 or HRYEAR4 2004 and HRMONTH gt 5 then use the following variables to link HRHHID PULINENO HRMONTH HRYEAR4 HRHHID2 page 94 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Example Linking the 2004 ATUS CPS file to Basic CPS MIS 8 files Basic CPS files for August 2003 through October 2004 link to the 2004 ATUS CPS file Because of the May 2004 format change two sets of linking variables are needed 1 Link the 2004 ATUS CPS file to Basic CPS files for months prior to May 2004 using HRHHID PULINENO HRMONTH HRYEAR4 HRSERSUF All 2004 ATUS records where HRYEAR4 2003 OR HRYEAR4 2004 and HRMONTH lt 5 will match to a Basic CPS record from August 2003 thr
158. rket Work and Family Well Being Three positive developments that arose from this conference included 1 The introduction of BLS to the international community of time use researchers and survey practitioners 1 United Nations 1995 page 5 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 2 The presentation of evidence by researchers that time use data were analytically very important and that the lack of a time use survey was the biggest single gap in the Federal Statistical System and 3 The opportunity for the BLS time use working group to receive critical feedback on the pilot study and advisement on the direction of work in the subsequent developmental phase Developmental phase 3 Development of specifications 1998 1999 From 1998 to 1999 a small team of BLS researchers began to develop specifications for a BLS survey on time use e 1998 BLS working group The BLS Commissioner asked the working group to develop a more detailed plan for the collection of time use data The report that resulted from this request became the blueprint for the American Time Use Survey ATUS e 1999 National Academy of Science NAS Conference As a followup to the BLS MacArthur Conference the NAS held a workshop that explored the importance of time use surveys and the conceptual and design issues associated with them The BLS was invited to present its ideas on how it would go about collecting time use data e 1999 Request fo
159. rmation about the respondent s age TEAGE and sex TESEX It was created by summarizing the Roster file The file childpres has information about whether the respondent lived in a household with at least one child under age 6 CHILD_05 It was created by summarizing the Roster file Each of the files contains the identifier TUCASEID Merge these three files using the identifier TUCASEID The resulting file contains 12 943 records one for each respondent It includes all the variables needed to select the subpopulation of interest women 18 and over living in households with at least one child under age 6 File name combined 20060101060001 3384574 8596 2006010106001 4 3479067 9057 200601 01060025 5825165 4274 200601 01060033 5174447 2742 20060101060038 6353748 5253 20060101060049 8193457 4764 Next select the subpopulation women TESEX 2 age 18 and over TEAGE gt 17 living in households with a child under 6 CHILD 05 1 Sample SAS code data women set combined if tesex 2 if teage gt 17 if child_05 1 There are 1 571 records in the output file one for each woman age 18 and over living in a household with at least one child under 6 File name women TUCASEID TUFINLWGT child_05 20060101 060033 51744472742 20060101060049 8193457 4764 20060101060108 5942840 3145 20060101060545 2334152 2939 20060101060633 3622769 7785 ANNAM 11 NANFA TRRAQAS 7715 page 74 AMERICAN TIME USE S
160. rst of 8 weeks in the sample THE INTERVIEW The ATUS questionnaire contains both English and Spanish text The telephone center has several bilingual interviewers who conduct interviews in English but can interview in Spanish when the designated respondent speaks only Spanish or is more comfortable responding in that language CPS interviews may be conducted either by telephone or in person If the final CPS interview is conducted in person the respondent may or may not have provided a valid telephone number for the household The ATUS interview is conducted only by telephone page 16 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 The ATUS interview is a combination of structured questions and conversational interviewing It consists of five major topics the household roster the time diary the summary questions eldercare and a section related to information collected in the eighth CPS interview The portion of the interview relating to the CPS is divided into four sections labor force status looking for work industry and occupation and earnings and school enrollment These questions are used to update or confirm time sensitive CPS data or to fill in missing CPS data For all parts of the interview except the collection of the time use diary data in section 4 interviewers read scripted text on the CATI screen and enter the reported responses For the time use diary the interviewer uses conversational interviewing
161. rview In these situations the editing process assigns codes based on relational imputation and hot deck allocations page 28 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Earnings edits Edits are performed on earnings series items such as annual weekly or hourly rates of pay hours worked and overtime pay Because respondents report earnings in many different ways a usual weekly earnings recode is calculated so that respondents earnings may be compared Hot deck allocation also is used here 6 3 3 EDITS THAT DIFFER BETWEEN THE CPS AND THE ATUS ATUS household demographics and school enrollment edits are different from the CPS edits because ATUS uses fewer variables and different age ranges ATUS edits on these variables are performed using a modified version of the CPS edits After ATUS CPS household and demographic edits are applied to the ATUS variables the CPS edits are applied This step helps maintain continuity between CPS and ATUS estimates Household and demographic edits These edits ensure consistency of age sex and relationship across household members between the CPS and the ATUS Hot deck allocations are used in this edit process School enrollment edits School enrollment items such as school level and full time part time school attendance are edited for individuals ages 15 to 49 in the ATUS Hot deck allocation based on age race and sex is used 6 3 4 CPS DATA THAT ARE NOT UPDATED IN ATUS
162. s 00 blank 01 A 02 B etc This restriction will ensure that you do not overwrite previous valid values of HRSERSUF o NumHRSAMPLE If HRHHID2 1 then NumHRSAMPLE digits 1 and 2 of HRHHID2 If HRHHID2 1 then NumHRSAMPLE numeric part of HRSAMPLE characters 2 and 3 e On the Basic CPS file o NumHRSAMPLE numeric part of HRSAMPLE characters 2 and 3 page 98 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Link the Basic CPS to the ATUS CPS file using the following variables HRHHID PULINENO HUHHNUM HRSERSUF NumHRSAMPLE 0 0 0 0 Note that HRSERSUF has different default values in the ATUS CPS file and the CPS files available for download on the CPS FTP website Failure to account for this will result in many mismatches 2 Ifthe CPS supplement is from May 2004 or later link the CPS supplement and the ATUS CPS file using the following variables HRHHID HRHHID2 PULINENO Example Linking the 2003 2004 and 2005 ATUS CPS files to the October 2003 Internet and Computer Use supplement 1 Since October 2003 is prior to May 2004 first identify all possible MIS 8 months that could have received the October 2003 Internet and Computer Use supplement Refer to Appendix L and take Year 1 to be 2003 Households interviewed in October 2003 were in J H G VV UU TT and SS Those in SS had October 2003 as their MIS 8 month but all of the other groups had other MIS 8 months Those in TT UU and VV ha
163. s This category captures time spent obtaining and using government services such as applying for food stamps and purchasing government required licenses or paying fines or fees Civic obligations include government required duties such as serving jury duty or appearing in court and activities that assist or influence government processes such as voting or attending town hall meetings Household activities Household activities are those done by persons to maintain their households This category includes time spent in housework cooking lawn and garden care pet care vehicle maintenance and repair home maintenance repair decoration and renovation and household management and organizational activities such as filling out paperwork balancing a checkbook or planning a party Food preparation whether or not reported as done specifically for another household member is always classified as a household activity unless it was done as a volunteer work or income generating activity For example making breakfast for my son is coded as a household activity not as childcare Household services Time spent arranging for and purchasing household services provided by someone else for pay is classified here Household services include housecleaning cooking lawn care and landscaping pet care tailoring laundering and dry cleaning vehicle maintenance and repairs and home repairs maintenance and construction Personal care Persona
164. s gov tus tu2004coderules pdf www bls gov tus tu2005coderules pdf www bls gov tus tu2006coderules pdf www bls gov tus tu2007coderules pdf www bls gov tus tu2008coderules pdf www bls gov tus tu2009coderules pdf www bls gov tus tu2010coderules pdf www bls gov tus tu2011coderules pdf www bls gov tus tu2012coderules pdf www bls gov tus tu2013coderules pdf December 2014 page 64 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 APPENDIX J Generating ATUS Estimates Examples This appendix includes examples showing how to generate estimates using the 5 main ATUS single year data files The examples illustrate one method of solving each problem as with most problems there are other ways to correctly solve them In some cases SAS code is shown It is not necessary to understand the SAS code to follow the examples 1 The examples below illustrate calculations of average day estimates for the total population a subpopulation and for participants a count of persons and a percent When generating estimates from the ATUS data files it is best not to merge all files into one giant file Doing so will almost always require more work than is necessary and lead to errors Instead follow these steps 1 Consider the objective Deciding exactly what to compute can save a lot of time and prevent errors by providing a focus for your work with the files A clearly state
165. s tus tus home htm or by calling 202 691 6339 Note The ATUS Summary file summarizes the Activity file to a respondent level It also includes frequently used variables from the Respondent ATUS CPS and Roster files In some cases all data required for a calculation appear on the Activity Summary file The Activity summary file does not include detail about the diary day such as data for a specific hour of the day or showing who was in the room with the respondent during an activity Calculations requiring this detail necessitate use of the Activity file which provides activity level detail about the diary day The following examples do not use the Activity Summary file because it is relatively easy to use compared to the data files used here 16 Examples of SAS files also are shown The variables _TYPE_ and _FREQ_ appear on some of the files shown in this appendix these variables are automatically generated by SAS software page 65 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 The examples use these 2006 data files Respondent file atusresp_ 2006 dat Activity file atusact_ 2006 dat Roster file atusrost_2006 dat ATUS CPS file atuscps 2006 dat Who file atuswho_ 2006 dat These data files are available free of charge from the ATUS Web site at www bls gov tus datafiles 2006 htm The data files appear in zip files each zip file also includes a description of the data file and SAS
166. ta subpop set cps_resp_act if gereg 3 if housework gt 0 The output file contains 1 861 records one for each respondent who met the selection criteria Now sum the weights TUFINLWGT for all 1 861 records Sample SAS code proc means data subpop sum var tufinlwgt output out summarydata sum tufinlwgt numerator page 82 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 The output file contains one record the variable numerator is the sum of the statistical weights for the subpopulation TYPE_ 0 1861 10773706011 Divide the variable numerator by 365 to obtain the solution to the problem here result is the solution 0 1861 10773706011 29517002 769 29 517 003 persons who reside in the South did housework on an average day in 2006 Step 5 Verify your results if possible This estimate does not appear on the 2007 news release tables but it does match an estimate appearing on an unpublished table on Summary table 2 Unpublished tables are available from ATUS staff by filling out a request form online at http data bls gov cgi bin forms tus tus home htm or by calling 202 691 6339 Example 5 Step 1 Objective Calculate the percent of persons residing in the South who did housework on an average day in 2006 Step 2 Variables and activity codes that are needed This step is identical to that shown in example 4 Step 3 Summarize the data to a respon
167. te maternity or paternity leave job training or other family or personal reasons whether or not they were paid for the time off or were seeking other jobs Employed full time Full time workers are those who usually worked 35 hours or more per week at all jobs combined Employed part time Part time workers are those who usually worked fewer than 35 hours per week at all jobs combined Not employed Persons are not employed if they do not meet the conditions for employment The not employed include those classified as unemployed as well as those classified as not in the labor force using CPS definitions Household A household consists of all persons related family members and all unrelated persons who occupy a housing unit and have no other usual address A house an apartment a group of rooms or a single room is regarded as a housing unit when occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters A householder is the person or one of the persons in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented The term householder is never applied to either husbands or wives in married couple families but relates only to persons in families maintained by either men or women without a spouse Household children Household children are children under age 18 residing in the household of the ATUS respondent The children may be related to the respondent such as their own children grandchildren nieces or nephews or brothers or sisters o
168. tes per diary assigned data codes on a quarterly basis 10 1 4 CODING QUALITY Census and BLS staff track coding error rates on a quarterly basis These reports show coding error rates by interviewer If an interviewer s coding error rate is too high he is retrained on coding See chapter 5 3 for more information on coding qualification page 47 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 1 Operations and estimation terms 2 Activity definitions 1 Operations and estimation terms Average day The average day measure reflects an average distribution across all persons in the reference population and all days of the week Average hours per day The average number of hours spent in a 24 hour day between 4 a m on the diary day and 4 a m on the interview day doing a specified activity Estimates are adj usted for variability in response rates across days of the week Condition related to aging An ongoing ailment or physical or emotional limitation that typically affects older people such as becoming more frail having difficulty seeing hearing or physically moving becoming more forgetful tiring more quickly or having specific medical ailments that are more common among older adults It also refers to existing conditions that become progressively worse as one ages Day of the week Estimates for weekdays are an average of estimates for reports about Monday through Friday excluding maj
169. they care for their children or the elderly or when they engage in volunteer work housework lawn care or other types of unpaid activities This work is a vital part of the economy and your participation in the ATUS is essential to provide an accurate picture of how Americans spend their time Please read the enclosed brochure for an additional explanation of why ATUS is so important On Day date a U S Census Bureau interviewer will call you to complete this one time survey If you would prefer to call us in advance to set up another time for your interview we can be reached toll free at 1 800 331 4706 Our hours are Sunday 11 a m midnight Eastern Time Monday Saturday 9 a m midnight Eastern Time When called you will be asked questions about how you spent your time on the previous day You have been selected to represent people like you and only you can accurately report how you use your time Please feel free to contact us with any questions Phone 1 800 331 4706 Email atusinfo census gov Web address www bls gov respondents tus A Message from the Director Enclosure The U S Office of Management and Budget OMB has approved this survey and assigned it control number 1220 0175 Without OMB approval and this number we would not be able to conduct this study Title 29 United States Code Section 1 and Title 13 United States Code Section 8 authorize the U S Census Bureau to conduct this survey Section 9 of
170. tion for ATUS Bureau of Labor Statistics and MacArthur Network on the Family and the Economy Time Use Non Market Work and Family Well Being Summaries of the Time Use Conference Nov 20 21 Bureau of Labor Statistics and MacArthur Foundation 1997 page 6 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 2 2 FIELD STUDY Prior to full production in 2003 several tests and field studies were conducted that helped in the development of ATUS In addition to the 1997 BLS Westat pilot test several important tests occurred between funding in December 2000 and full production in J anuary 2003 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 1997 PILOT STUDY In 1997 BLS hired a survey contractor Westat to conduct a pilot study of two versions of a time use survey using a telephone methodology The pilot study drew on other surveys primarily efforts by Statistics Canada and provided a foundation for the development of testing specifications for ATUS The pilot yielded valuable insights on response rates the collection of simultaneous activities and how to probe for specific information In addition the study guided subsequent research on contact strategies OPERATIONS TEST Between April and J une 2001 three simultaneous field tests were conducted by BLS and the Census Bureau Because the field tests were done only once the agencies decided to use a paper and pencil questionnaire and control system rather than automating the survey
171. ty category the next two digits represent the second tier level of detail and the final two digits represent the third most detailed level of activity For example the ATUS code for making the bed is 020101 Making the bed is an example under the third tier category Interior cleaning which is part of the second tier category Housework which falls under the major activity category Household Activities 02 Household Activities 01 Housework 01 Interior cleaning 02 Laundry 03 Sewing repairing and maintaining textiles 04 Storing interior household items including food 99 Housework n e c The final code in every tier is 99 which represents an activity not elsewhere classified n e c Four of the activity categories in published tables are composites of several coding lexicon categories For example the two major coding lexicon categories of Socializing Relaxing and Leisure and Sports Exercise and Recreation are combined into one category called Leisure and Sports See table 5 1 See appendix H for a more detailed table linking the ATUS coding lexicon categories and major categories on the published tables page 21 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Table 5 1 Bridge between published table categories and coding lexicon categories Published categories Activity codes 07 Consumer purchases Purchasing goods and 08 Professional and personal care services services 09 Household services Part
172. ue of nonmarket work ATUS includes information about time spent doing both paid and unpaid activities By using time use data in conjunction with earnings data economists are able to estimate the value of nonmarket production such as housework volunteer work and childcare Some efforts are being undertaken outside BLS to account for such measures when developing aggregate output estimates including gross domestic product ATUS data can also provide insight into the total number of hours people work both at work and at other locations such as home Total hours of work can help economists more accurately measure productivity Lawmakers may use the data to make more informed decisions such as how a particular policy might affect people s behavior Likewise businesses can use ATUS data on how people spend their time to determine what kinds of goods and services to develop or market to a particular group ATUS data also include information on with whom and where respondents spend their time From this sociologists can determine for example the average amount of time fathers or mothers spend with their children or how much time people spend with colleagues and friends It also is possible to determine how much time people spend working outside of the office All of this information can help researchers understand page 3 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 how people in the United States are dividing their time among t
173. uestions in this section elicit information on any overnight trips of 2 or more nights that occurred during a specific reference month This section was replaced with questions about eldercare in 2011 S7 a Labor force status Layoff looking In this section the interviewer asks about the respondent s labor force status Respondents who reported being unemployed on layoff or disabled in section 3 are asked if and how they are looking for work Those who reported being on layoff also are asked if and when they expect to be recalled to their job S7 b Labor force status Employed Next the interviewer collects or updates information on the respondent s job title and description and on the industry in which the respondent works S8 Earnings amp School enrollment Lastly the interviewer collects data on the respondent s usual earnings including any overtime pay Based on this information the instrument then calculates the respondent s total weekly earnings a figure confirmed by the respondent Respondents between the ages of 15 and 49 are also asked about school enrollment S9 Conclusion After the interview ends the interviewer records any notes that may be helpful for coding the diary data If the interview was not completed the interviewer makes an appointment to call back on the same day or another designated day page 18 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 4 5 AT
174. uld have missed its MIS 7 monthly interview for example and still have received an MIS 8 monthly interview 5 To verify that the linking was done correctly compare values of sex PESEX and race PRDTRACE on the 2004 Basic April CPS and PTDTRACE on the ATUS CPS file There should only be a very small number of records that do not match on these two variables I C Linking the ATUS CPS file to CPS supplements other than ASEC March supplement Section IV of this appendix contains links to a list of CPS supplements 1 When the CPS supplement file occurred prior to May 2004 Identify all possible MIS 8 months that could have received the supplement For assistance with this step refer to Appendix L and the example below If all possible MIS 8 months are prior to May 2004 then use the following variables to link HRHHID PULINENO HRSERSUF HUHHNUM HRSAMPLE o0000 Note that HRSERSUF has different default values in the ATUS CPS file and the CPS files available for download on the CPS FTP website Failure to account for this will result in many mismatches If at least one possible MIS 8 month is May 2004 or later Several variables must first be defined e On the ATUS CPS file o HUHHNUM If HRHHID2 1 then HUHHNUM last digit of HRHHID2 This restriction will ensure that you do not overwrite previous valid values of HUHHNUM o HRSERSUF If HRHHID2 1 then HRSERSUF digits 3 and 4 of HRHHID2 converted to alpha character
175. uring the reference day and 0 otherwise and fwgt is the final weight for respondent i This formula allows users to generate estimates such as the percentage of people who watched TV on an average day the percentage of men who worked on an average day or the percentage of children under 18 who did homework on an average day Note that P does not represent the proportion of people who participate in activity j over periods longer than a day for example the percentage of persons who performed a volunteer activity at some time during 2003 Such a proportion is at least as large as the average proportion who volunteered per day in 2003 and almost certainly larger The proportion of people participating in any given activity cannot be computed from time diary data for any period longer than a day Number of participants Numj the number of persons engaging in activity j during an average day is given by fwot lij Num n D where fwgtiis the final weight for respondent i lj is an indicator that equals 1 if respondent i participated in activity j during the reference day and 0 otherwise and D is the number of days in the estimation period for example 365 for annual averages for years other than leap years Using this formula users can compute statistics such as the total number of people who watched TV per day the total number of men who worked per day or the total number of children under 18 who did homework per day Aver
176. useholder and the presence and age of household children households were classified into one of 12 possible strata Table 3 1 lists the approximate number of households sampled each year in 2003 from each of the 12 strata page 11 AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY USER S GUIDE December 2014 Table 3 1 Estimated annual sample size by ATUS sampling strata 2003 Race ethnicity of household reference person in CPS Household type Hispani Non Hispanic Non Hispanic Total spanie black nonblack With at least one child under 6 1 500 1 000 5 400 7 900 With at least one child between 6 1 400 1 400 7 800 10 600 and 17 Single adult no children under 18 800 1 800 5 900 8 500 Two or more adults no children 1 500 1 600 10 400 12 300 under 18 Total 5 200 5 800 29 500 40 500 Beginning with the sample introduced in December 2003 the monthly ATUS sample was reduced by 35 percent from 3 375 per month to about 2 190 per month This sample reduction was necessary to bring ATUS costs in line with the annual survey budget After consideration and statistical analysis BLS opted to reduce the sample from each stratum by the same proportion This step reduced the precision somewhat for each group but had less of an effect on the precision of the estimates for the larger groups This finding coupled with an understanding that time use patterns do not generally vary a great deal by race and ethnicity and that the focus of time us
177. viewing interviewing Travel related to work 1805 1805 1705 Travel related to work Educational activities 06 06 06 Education 1806 1806 1706 Travel related to education Attending class 0601 0601 0601 Taking class Homework and 0603 0603 0603 Research and homework research Travel related to 1806 1806 1706 Travel related to education education Organizational civic 14 14 14 Religious and spiritual activities and religious activities 15 15 15 Volunteer activities 1002 1002 1002 Civic obligations and participation 100305 Waiting associated with civic obligations and participation 100303 100303 Waiting associated with civic obligations participation 1814 1814 1714 Travel related to religious and spiritual activities 1815 1815 1715 Travel related to volunteer activities 181002 181002 171004 Travel related to civic obligations and participation Religious and spiritual 1401 1401 1401 Religious and spiritual practices activities Volunteering 15 15 15 Volunteer activities organizational and 1002 1002 1002 Civic obligations and participation civic activities 100305 Waiting associated with civic obligations and participation 100303 100303 Waiting associated with civic obligations participation Volunteer activities 15 15 15 Volunteer activities Administrative and 1501 1501 1501 Administrative and support activities support activities Social service and 1502 1502 1502 Social service and care activities except medical car

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