Time for Life » (2ND)

Is it possible that Americans have more free time than they did thirty years ago? While few may believe it, research based on careful records of how we actually spend our time shows that Americans have almost five hours more free time per week than in the 1960s. Here time-use experts John P. Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey explain this surprising trend and how it has come about. They also discuss why so few Americans apparently appreciate how their free time has increased or how that new free time is being used. Their unique source of time-use information, the Americans' Use of Time Project, is the only such detailed historical data archive in the United States. Every ten years the project has been asking thousands of Americans to report their daily activities on an hour-by-hour basis in time diaries.

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Through their national time diary surveys in each of the past three decades<-->with 1990s study data in this update, Robinson (sociology, U. of Maryland) and Godbey (leisure studies, Pennsylvania State U.) confirm that Americans feel more stressed despite actually having gained about an hour of free time daily. Replete with trend graphics. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)