Patrick Sharkey
Sociological Science August 2, 2024
10.15195/v11.a20
Abstract
The changes in daily life induced by the COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed attention to longstanding concerns about social isolation in the United States. Despite the links between the physical setting for individuals’ daily lives and their connections with family, friends, and the various institutions of collective life, trends in where American adults spend their time have been largely overlooked as researchers have focused on how and with whom they spend their time. This article analyzes data from the American Time Use Survey over a timeframe spanning nineteen years and argues that the changes in Americans’ daily routines induced by the COVID era should be seen as an acceleration of a longer-term trend: the rise of time spent at home. Results show that from 2003 to 2022, average time spent at home among American adults has risen by one hour and 39 minutes in a typical day. Time at home has risen for every subset of the population and for virtually all activities. Preliminary analysis indicates that time at home is associated with lower levels of happiness and less meaning, suggesting the need for enhanced empirical attention to this major shift in the setting of American life.
The changes in daily life induced by the COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed attention to longstanding concerns about social isolation in the United States. Despite the links between the physical setting for individuals’ daily lives and their connections with family, friends, and the various institutions of collective life, trends in where American adults spend their time have been largely overlooked as researchers have focused on how and with whom they spend their time. This article analyzes data from the American Time Use Survey over a timeframe spanning nineteen years and argues that the changes in Americans’ daily routines induced by the COVID era should be seen as an acceleration of a longer-term trend: the rise of time spent at home. Results show that from 2003 to 2022, average time spent at home among American adults has risen by one hour and 39 minutes in a typical day. Time at home has risen for every subset of the population and for virtually all activities. Preliminary analysis indicates that time at home is associated with lower levels of happiness and less meaning, suggesting the need for enhanced empirical attention to this major shift in the setting of American life.
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Replication Package: All data files and code for replication are available here: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/R4P98D.
- Citation: Sharkey, Patrick. 2024. “Homebound: The long-term rise in time spent at home among U.S. adults” Sociological Science 11: 553-578.
- Received: May 15, 2024
- Accepted: June 26, 2024
- Editors: Ari Adut, Jeremy Freese
- DOI: 10.15195/v11.a20
I can only speak to a tiny sliver of population, retired folks in a retirement city in SW FR. This is a wealthy town where many can stay at home, because French medical insurance puts what amount to hospital rooms at home. Deemed better & more economical than hospitals, the homebound effect isn’t necessarily better than retirement homes due to the isolation. Families are more scattered than they used to be, so that support wanes. Issue is that nothing is in place to replace family support, and isolation will eventually prevail. Again a single data point abroad, but I had a non-profit trying to address isolation in rural East Anglia until COVID & Brexit distraction.