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The wholesale changes brought about by the COVID‐19 pandemic to men and women's paid work arrangements and work–family balance provide a natural experiment for testing the common elements of two theories, needs exposure (Schafer et al. Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne De Sociologie, 57(4);2020:523–549) and parental proximity (Sullivan et al. Family Theory & Review, 2018;10(1):263–279) against a third theory also suggested by Schafer et al. (2020), and labelled in this article, entrenchment/exacerbation of gender inequality. Both needs exposure and parental proximity suggest that by being home because of the pandemic, in proximity to their children, fathers are exposed to new and enduring family needs, which may move them toward more equal sharing in childcare and other domestic responsibilities. By contrast to studies that have tested such theories using retrospective, self‐report survey data over a 2‐year period, we analyse more than a decade of time‐use diary data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) that covers the first 2 years of the pandemic. We model the secular and quarterly trends to predict what would have occurred in the absence of the pandemic, contrasting this to what indeed happened. Our analyses consider aggregate and individual impacts, using methods of sequence analysis, clustering, and matching. Among our results, we find that the division of childcare responsibilities did not become more equitable during the pandemic. Suggestions for future research are provided as are suggestions for the implementation of social policies that could influence greater gender equity in unpaid work and childcare. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Social Welfare is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
In this study, the most recent American Time Use Surveys containing reported activity-based emotions and sensations information before (10,378 respondents in 2013) and during (6,902 respondents in 2021) the COVID-19 pandemic are used to assess if time use related individuals' subjective wellbeing (SWB) decreased in the pandemic. Given that the coronavirus has been shown to strongly influence activity decisions and social interactions, sequence analysis is applied to find daily time allocation patterns and changes in daily time allocation. Then, those derived daily patterns and other activity-travel factors, as well as social and demographic, temporal, spatial, and other contextual characteristics are added as explanatory variables in regression models of SWB measures. This provides a holistic framework of exploring the direct and indirect effects (via activity-travel schedules) of the recent pandemic on SWB while controlling for contexts such as the life assessments, daily schedule of activities, and living environment. The results show that respondents in the COVID year reported a new time allocation pattern that has a substantial amount of time at home, and they experienced more negative emotions. Three relatively happier daily patterns in 2021 contained substantial amounts of outdoor and indoor activities. In addition, no significant correlation was observed between metropolitan areas and individuals' SWB in 2021. However, comparisons among states show Texas and Florida residents experienced more positive wellbeing presumably due to fewer COVID-related restrictions.
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In China, a developing country, the car ownership level is much lower than that in developed countries, but transportation policies have been implemented to discourage car ownership and mitigate traffic congestion. However, car ownership (considered as car availability in this paper, meaning that an individual has access to a household private car) may influence travelers' well-being. To highlight the interrelation between car ownership and travelers' well-being, this paper develops a probit-based discrete-continuous model to analyze the relationship between car ownership and the duration of commuters' three major non-work outdoor activities (Act1: shopping and dining;Act2: leisure and entertainment;and Act3: visiting relatives or friends) in Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, China. Empirical results indicate strong effects of individual and household socio-demographics, built environment attributes, and work-related characteristics on the car ownership decision and the duration of three non-work activities. The analysis shows positive correlations in unobserved factors between the car ownership decision and the duration of Acts1-3, indicating a mutually promotive relationship. Similarly, negative correlations among the duration of Acts1-3 show that non-work activities' duration is mutually substitutive. These findings will help to better understand commuters' car ownership decisions and non-work outdoor activity behavior restricted by fixed work schedules in developing countries, which can, in turn, better evaluate the impact of transportation policies (such as car ownership restriction) on travel demand as well as well-being, and provide decision support for the formulation of transportation policies.
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Although events such as the global financial crisis, natural disasters, or the COVID-19 pandemic have large impacts on entrepreneurship, the literature lacks a differentiated analysis of such events. This editorial highlights the importance of events which are discrete and bounded in space and time, unexpected, and strong enough to produce change that can lead to subsequent events. An event based approach is well suited to integrate context and time to predict entrepreneurial activity. We provide a more systematic description of events, their characteristics, and causal mechanisms to allow more holistic and generalizable analysis of the role of events in entrepreneurship.
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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on participation and time allocated to work from home (WFH) by ethnic/racial group. Design/methodology/approach: The authors employ USA time-use data [American Time Use Survey (ATUS)] for the 2017–2020 period and a parametric approach in their analysis. Findings: Estimates show that the time allocated to WFH increased during COVID-19, especially for women. This increase is likely driven by more workers shifting to WFH (higher participation) rather than by longer hours worked by those who already teleworked. The authors also find relevant differences in the impact of COVID-19 on WFH by ethnic/racial group. Among ethnic/racial groups, only Asians increased WFH compared to White Americans. Within this ethnic group, the authors find significant differences across genders. Asian men increased participation in WFH, whereas Asian women increased both participation and hours worked, compared to White American women. Differences in this racial/ethnic group could be explained by previous research, which demonstrates a higher ability of Asians to perform job tasks remotely. However, this finding could also be attributed to an increase in discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the recent and limited literature exploring the heterogeneous impact of COVID-19 on participation and time allocated to WFH by ethnic/racial group. Understanding the mechanisms driving vulnerable populations' abilities to work during socioeconomic downturns is of high policy importance. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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This paper presents a preliminary comparison of the Eurosystem response to the Global Financial Crisis and Eurozone Crises with the onset of the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020. It analyzes bank, national central bank (NCB), and government balance sheets to show the effect of ECB decisions to consrain or enable liquidity provision across the Eurozone, particularly along core and peripheral lines. It argues that these dynamics reflect Post-Keynesian theories of endogenous money, and the potential for monetary authorities to structurally influence liquidity preference and provision. As Eurozone governments debate whether to continue these practices, systemic liquidity crises that hurt financial and fiscal activity remain a risk at the time of writing.
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COVID19 is inherently geographical in its impact on society. Not only has it deepened pre-existing inequalities and further isolated groups that rely on physical spaces, such as LGBTQ people, the pandemic required a restructuring of multiple forms of time–space relations including activism. Using interview and questionnaires responses from early 2021, we explore the impact of COVID19 on the activities of those expressing concerns about, and opposition to, socio-legal changes related to sexualities and genders in Canada, Great Britian and Ireland. Participants' perceptions of the effects of COVID19 regimes (lockdowns and restrictions) highlight four key trends. First, the biggest group of questionnaire respondents understood their views/activities as unchanging. Second, some participants noted a disengagement with sexual and gender politics. Third, those who were activists before/during COVID19 noted challenges in continuing their activities online with the loss of face-to-face interactions, and how they negotiated new spatialities. Finally, for some participants COVID19 regimes meant either newly engaging in, or increasing their pre-pandemic, activism with time to ‘research' and to develop their activities. Further work is needed to investigate if our findings are similar to other groups engaged in other forms of activism and the longitudinal effects and implications of COVID19 geographies on activism.
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Our study examines the effects of the sudden shift to WFH on three specific aspects of managerial work: how managers allocate their time across different activities;whether the incidence and length of different activities (e.g., meetings) changed;and whether the changes in time allocation and activity structure varied according to the type of organization employing the manager. We use this evidence to inform and inspire the discussion of two questions related to the development of human-computer interaction (HCI) technology. In particular: 1) can HCI technology reduce (or even eliminate) the possible additional burden that managers experience due to the shift to working from home? And 2) can HCI technology help take advantage of opportunities for improving managerial productivity and wellbeing that are made possible by this shift? Our findings indicate that the forced transition to WFH created by the COVID pandemic was associated with a drastic reduction in commuting time. Managers did not reallocate the "extra" time to personal activities, rather reallocating the time gained from commuting toward more time spent in meetings. These results suggest an attempt to to recoup some of the extemporaneous interactions that typically happen in the office. Furthermore, managers employed by larger organizations - i.e. managers whose typical interactions are likely to be more complex and include a broader number and variety of people - were disproportionately affected by WFH arrangements during the COVID pandemic. We find that this group ended up spending more time in work-related meetings, and less time in personal activities, relative to managers employed by small/medium-sized organizations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
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Intercollegiate Athletics Directors (ADs) are the primary managers of athletics programs on college campuses. At the Division I level of the NCAA, ADs manage multimillion dollar budgets and programs that relate to their institutions' profitability, visibility, student-interest, student-achievement, and donations, yet little is known about ADs' day-to-day job responsibilities. The purposes of this study were (1) to systematically examine the composition and content of ADs' workdays at NCAA Division I member institutions, and (2) to examine potential relationships between ADs' work, the sports seasons in which their work is performed, and the league membership of their institutions. Twelve ADs from the Ivy League, Patriot League, and Southeastern Conference (SEC) completed electronic time diaries for 113 workdays featuring 714 distinct work activities during fall and spring of the 2020-21 school year. For each activity, participants recorded the exact beginning and end time, whether or not the activity was planned in advance, the location of the activity, the personnel with whom they engaged, the primary purpose of the activity, the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the activity, and their level of stress during the activity. Overall, results indicated the daily work of NCAA Division I ADs was largely administrative and engaged with others. It was most often pre-planned and episodic, rather than spontaneous and choppy. Moreover, the amount of time ADs devoted to each of their major job responsibilities per day was generally consistent across sports seasons. ADs experienced low levels of occupational stress, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the purposes of ADs' work throughout the 2020-2021 year were relatively low. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and recommendations for future researchers and practitioners are offered. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the division of household labour could continue to lock down or start to break gender roles. Using time-use data of n = 473 individuals collected during the lockdown restrictions in Belgium from March to May 2020, we analyse the gendered division of routine and non-routine household labour in absolute time use and relative shares. We compare against the Belgian time-use data of 2013 for the same time period (n = 678 individuals). A time-demanding work and living situation associate with an increase in men's time spent on household labour during the lockdown but not with a change in women's time use. The gender gap closes in absolute time but not in relative shares of routine and non-routine household labour. The limited impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gender division of household labour indicates a temporal rather than a substantial change in gender roles.
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Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted working life quality. This study investigated whether changes in work/sleep patterns due to the pandemic are related to poor psychological status among Japanese workers during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (December 2020). We hypothesized that workers who experienced drastic changes in working hours and sleep duration would be at an increased risk of psychological distress. Methods: A cross-sectional self-administered Internet survey was conducted that included questions regarding socio-demographics, lifestyle, health, and occupational background and conditions. Multivariable logistic regression models were utilized to examine the association between psychological distress and a combination of changes in working hours and sleep duration. Results: Among 25,762 workers, decreased work hours and decreased sleep duration presented 2.59 times higher odds of psychological distress (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.05-3.28) compared to those who had no changes in work hours combined with unchanged sleep duration (reference group). Increased work hours and decreased sleep duration were associated with 1.98 times higher odds of psychological distress (95% CI = 1.64-2.39). Conclusion: Our observations confirmed that decreased sleep duration could be a key factor for psychological distress, irrespective of working hours. Interestingly, workers with a combination of decreased work hours and sleep duration posed the highest risk of psychological distress. Decreased work hours accompanied by financial difficulties in the early stage of the pandemic may have caused decreased sleep duration, resulting in a high prevalence of psychological distress. Our study underlined the importance of sleep management in maintaining workers' mental health, moreover, the need to consider situations and conditions of other daily tasks, such as work hours, for better sleep management.
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Objective: This study uses time diaries to examine how parents' work arrangements shaped their time use at home and work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: The pandemic transformed home and work life for parents, disrupting employment and childcare. The shift to work from home offered more flexibility to manage increased care burdens, but the lack of separation between work and family also likely contributed to more challenging work environments, especially among mothers. Method: This study relies on the 2017-2020 American Time Use Survey and matching to estimate changes in time use among parents working from home and on site in the pandemic relative to comparable parents prior to the pandemic. Results: Data showed no overall increases in primary childcare time among working parents. Parents working from home during the pandemic, however, spent more time in the presence of children and supervising children, much in combination with paid work. Mothers working from home increased their supervisory parenting while working for pay more than fathers, and they more often changed their paid work schedules. The study's main findings were robust to gendered unemployment and labor force exits. Conclusion: Parents, especially mothers, working from home responded to childcare demands through multitasking and schedule changes with potential negative effects on work quality and stress. Parents working on site during the pandemic experienced smaller changes in time use. Implications: The pandemic has generated new inequalities between those with and without the flexibility to work from home, and exacerbated gender inequalities among those working from home.
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The measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic have strengthened Work from Home and the use of digital communication technologies and digital collaboration. The resulting flexibility in terms of control over time and place of work can support workers in improving their work-life balance. In this paper, we investigate whether workers using digital communication technologies made use of this flexibility and changed the distribution of their work hours across the week and day. To answer this question, we investigate the use of an Enterprise Collaboration System in 2019-2022. Using real-world data, a MS Power BI dashboard was created following the steps suggested by the Social Collaboration Analytics Framework (SCAF). The dashboard shows that the system use increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, an expansion of work on weekends and outside of regular working hours can be observed. Although, timely adjustments of use-patterns were highest in the beginning of the pandemic, long-term trends could be observed as well. The results indicate that knowledge workers used digital collaboration technologies to restructure working days, according to their specific personal and business needs while working from home. The paper is a valuable starting point in the context of a long-term interdisciplinary research project on the digitalisation of the workplace.
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Adherence to national physical activity guidelines among youth ages 6-11 in the United States is low. The emergence of COVID-19 and the public health measures implemented in response may have decreased children's physical activity even further. We conducted an online survey among parents of students attending Columbus Elementary School in Columbus, New Mexico, a rural community on the US-Mexico border, to assess changes in children's physical activity and screen time use from summer 2019 to summer 2020. We also sought to identify important covariates. All parents (N = 55) and children (N = 87) identified as Hispanic; most parents were born in Mexico, while most children were born in the United States. Most parents (79.3%) reported a decrease in their children's physical activity from 2019 to 2020, and the vast majority of these parents reported that the changes were due to COVID-19 home confinement. The mean number of days children were physically active for >60 minutes significantly decreased, while daily screen time use increased. Having parents born in Mexico, infrequent family meals (<3/week), and not having community spaces for physical activity close by protected children from decreases in their level of physical activity from 2019 to 2020. Home-based exercise may serve as a suitable method of physical activity when public health responses to COVID-19 restrict community spaces. Future interventions should also be mindful of the role that parental nativity and related cultural factors may play in children's physical activity levels.
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This paper presents findings from time-use surveys in the UK, which were conducted prior to, during and following the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. These findings are set against the background of evidence from similar surveys in the UK and globally from 1920s onwards. Movements into and out of successive lockdowns between 2020 and 2021 disrupted former temporary routines with consequences that endured in 2022. There has been no return to the old normal, or even towards that normal. The new normal was a population with more leisure time than pre-pandemics but which was also spending more time doing paid work. There were differences in sex, age and income, but overall time had been released for other uses by people doing less travelling, less studying and less unpaid child care. Extra leisure time was being filled mainly by the media. [ FROM AUTHOR]
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The main aim of this paper is to analyse and estimate the behaviour of the Spanish economic activity in the next 12 months, by means of a Real-Time Leading Economic Indicator (RT-LEI), based on Google Trends, and the real GDP. We apply methodologies based on fractional integration and cointegration to measure the degree of persistence and to examine the long-term relationship. Finally, we carry out a forecast using a Machine Learning model based on an Artificial Neural Network. Our results indicate that the Spanish economy will experience a contraction in 1Q-21 and will require strong measures to reverse the situation and recover the original trend.
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Objective: This review article provides an overview on the state of policy-related fatherhood research in high income countries. Background: The review article focuses on four main currents of multi-disciplinary policy-related fatherhood research. The first considers the research on national level parenting leaves. The second explores research on organisation and workplace policies. The third presents research on policies around male health and fatherhood practices. The fourth looks at the impact of COVID-19 related policies on fathers. Method: This is a review article and so presents a review of the literature. It is not a systematic literature review but rather aims to show the benefit of multi-disciplinary conversation within fatherhood research. Results: Commonalities are found across the four policy-related areas in terms of key questions, but also in terms of research gaps. Conclusion: There is consensus around what works for engaging fathers across policy contexts. There is perhaps a paradox in that `de-gendered' policies are usually most effective, but that fathers need to recognise that these degendered policies are for them.
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PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to examine where and with whom adolescents spent time during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to 2019. METHODS: Time diary data from the May 2019 to December 2020 waves of the American Time Use Survey were used to examine trends in where and with whom a sample of individuals aged 15-18 years (N = 437) spent their time. RESULTS: Only 13% of adolescents spent any time at school on a given day during the pandemic (May-December 2020), compared to 36% in the same period in 2019. Average time with friends decreased by 28%. Over the 7.5-month period, this amounts to an average of 204 fewer hours/34 fewer days in school and 86 fewer hours with friends. Time spent sleeping or sleepless did not change. DISCUSSION: Time at school and with friends decreased substantially during the first months of the pandemic.
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Durant la pandémie de COVID-19, des mesures exceptionnelles restreignant les libertés ont été appliquées avec pour mot d'ordre : « Restez chez vous! » Si la prison est devenue métaphore du confinement, peu de choses sont connues sur la façon dont la période a été vécue par les personnes détenues. À partir d'une enquête sociologique réalisée dans cinq prisons françaises durant la pandémie (2020-2021), associant observations et entretiens, cet article interroge les effets des politiques de confinement sur l'expérience carcérale. Nous montrons que l'altération ou la suspension des principales « activités » dans lesquelles les détenus sont tenus de s'impliquer durant l'incarcération (l'école et la formation professionnelle, le travail, les soins), et dont l'engagement est récompensé en temps ordinaire par des réductions et des aménagements de peine, a exacerbé l'un des paradoxes majeurs d'une institution enjoignant son public à l'« activité » tout en le contraignant à l'immobilité. Nous soutenons qu'au-delà d'un quotidien bouleversé, c'est le sens même de la peine de prison, construite autour du thème de la « réinsertion », qui a été troublé dans une institution à l'arrêt et une société confinée.Alternate :During the COVID-19 pandemic, exceptional measures that restricted freedoms were applied using the motto : "Stay home! " If the prison became a metaphor for confinement, little is known about how this period was experienced by actual detainees. Based on an ethnographic field study conducted in five French prisons during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and combining observations and interviews, the present article questions the impacts of confinement policies on the penitentiary experience. We show that the alteration or suspension of the major activities that inmates are required to partake in during their time in prison (school and training, work, healthcare)–and whose commitment is rewarded in ordinary times by sentence reductions and accommodations–has exacerbated one of the main paradoxes of an institution that pushes its population towards "activity," while forcing them into immobility. We suggest that it is the very meaning of the prison sentence, built around the theme of "reintegration," which has been disturbed in the context of a standstill institution and a confined society.Alternate :Durante la pandemia de Covid-19, se aplicaron medidas excepcionales de restricción de libertad, bajo el lema de « ¡Quedaos en casa! ». Si la cárcel se volvió una metáfora del confinamiento, poco se sabe sobre cómo las personas detenidas vivieron dicho periodo. Partiendo de una investigación sociológica llevada a cabo en cinco cárceles francesas durante la pandemia (2020-2021), asociando observaciones y entrevistas, este artículo se interesa por los efectos de las políticas de confinamiento sobre la experiencia carcelaria Los autores muestran que la alteración o la suspensión de las principales « actividades » en las que los detenidos pueden implicarse durante su encarcelamiento (escuela y formación profesional, trabajo, cuidados de salud), y cuya implicación se recompensa en tiempo ordinario con reducciones de pena y beneficios penitenciarios, ha venido a exacerbar una de las mayores paradojas de una institución que exhorta su público a la « actividad » mientras lo obliga al mismo tiempo a la inmovilidad. El artículo sostiene que, más allá de la vida cotidiana en prisión, es el propio significado de la pena de prisión, construido alrededor del tema de la « reinserción », el que ha sido puesto en cuestión en una institución paralizada y una sociedad confinada.
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The wide spread of COVID -19 in Europe, which also affects Romania, and the increasingly stringent measures taken by experts to prevent negative consequences for citizens and the economy, raise a number of questions about the activities that need to be undertaken by companies to ensure compliance and those who are in a position to take these measures. Many businesses in Romania have already made a conscious effort to guard against the threat of COVID -19, whether by stopping movement altogether for an indefinite period of time, changing the way in which activities are carried out (e.g. only online now), or by working with notable safeguards to mitigate the threats.