Creating Versus Negating Togetherness: Perceptual and Emotional Differences in Parent‐Teenager Reported Time

Abstract

Objective We examine discrepancies between parents' and adolescents' reports of the quantity and the quality, or emotional valence, of time spent together. Background The question of how much time parents spend with children is vital to scholars and families. Although parents' reports of time with children are taken as standard and reliable, assessing different family actors' perspectives on time together is important to consider. Method Using the perspectives of 15–17‐year‐old adolescents and of parents with teenagers aged 15–17 years, we examine reports of parent–teen co‐presence (“in the room with”) and emotions during daily activities. Data are from American Time Use Survey time diaries (2003–2018) and the 2010, 2012, and 2013 Well‐Being Modules. Results There are considerable perceptual discrepancies in the amount of time reported as together. Parents report nearly an hour per day more than teenagers do—with the weekly gap equivalent to about an entire school day. Though the perceptual gap is sizeable, the emotional one is not: both generations experience reported time together as more meaningful, happier, and less stressful than time apart, partly due to the nature of activities and presence of other people. Social statuses, including parental employment and educational attainment, pattern perceptions of time together and well‐being during reported co‐presence. Conclusion Ultimately, generational position and social statuses shape perceptions of co‐presence in the form of “creating” versus “negating” classifications of togetherness.

Racial/Ethnic Variation in Residential Fathers’ Time in Childcare and Co-presence with Children

“…Adolescence is the period when parents must balance their wishes to maintain a close relationship with their teenagers while they must also guide them toward independent adulthood. While it is likely that parents and adolescents may not have the same taste in activities, hobbies, or kinds of media content, some parents may cherish time in shared activities with their adolescents (Milkie et al, 2021). We find that Black and Asian fathers spend less down timeusing screen media or relaxing-with their adolescent children than their White and Latino counterparts.…”

“…Fathers spend less time with children as they get older, particularly in basic care activities since children need less of this. As pointed out in recent research (Milkie et al, 2021;Wray et al, 2021), examining father-child copresence, not just fathers' direct parenting time, is especially important when investigating fathers' involvement in children's lives for older children.…”

“…Having a greater number of children may result in more time spending with children overall, but less time spending with each child (Raley et al, 2012); on average Latino and Black fathers have more children than White and Asian fathers (Smock & Schwartz, 2020). Standard time diary controls are also included, which are: whether the diary was taken during the summer break, whether it was a holiday or weekend, the number of activities reported, and year of the survey (Milkie et al, 2021).…”

“…The vast majority of parent-child time happens when parents are doing their own things-daily routine or leisure activities-while children are present in their reach, which we call parent-child co-present time. This is especially the case when children are adolescents (Milkie et al, 2021).…”

MyTimeUse: An Online Implementation of the Day-Reconstruction Method

“…By drawing on the sociology of emotions literature and theoretical insights within it, we hope to standardize the measurement of emotions in time use research. There is strong evidence that emotions vary across both activities and demographic groups (Milkie et al, 2021;Musick et al, 2016), but a theoretically informed and consistent way of measuring emotions is needed going forward.…”