Food and Eating Consequences of Time-Use Decisions:
A Research and Policy Conference
ERS and the Farm Foundation hosted a 1-day conference
at ERS in Washington, DC in July 2004, on data to be released
from the Bureau
of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey. These
important new data will allow researchers to analyze the
choices people make about how they spend their time, the
time and income constraints they face, and the consequences
of their decisions. Researchers will also be able to use
data from the survey's proposed Eating and Health module
to study the relationship between time use and eating
patterns and between time-use patterns and food assistance
participation.
The 2004 conference provided researchers, policymakers,
program administrators, and industry analysts an opportunity
to discuss and identify research priorities that will
improve their understanding of how economic theory and
application can be used to generate policy-relevant insights
from time-use data. PowerPoint presentations from the
conference are available on the Farm
Foundation's website. Brief abstracts of most of the
presentations are included below.
The American Time Use Survey: Operations and Output
Diane Herz, Bureau of
Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor 
This presentation is an overview of the American Time
Use Survey. Included are a discussion of the purposes
of the survey, the development of the survey methodology,
the structure of the survey, the sample stratification,
and the operational issues in administering the survey
including data file formats. The status of the survey
is also discussed.
The Food & Eating Module of the American Time Use
Survey
Karen Hamrick,
Economic Research Service, USDA
This presentation discusses the planned ERS module to
the American Time Use Survey. Topics presented are the
research questions driving the data collection; the development
of the module, including difficulties in collecting data
on eating as a secondary activity and self-reported height
and weight; and policy relevance and implications of the
possible findings from the data.
Ten Research Questions You Might Answer with ATUS Food-Related
Data
Daniel S. Hamermesh,
University of Texas at Austin, National Bureau of Economic
Research, and IZA (Institute for the Study of Labor)
This presentation examines how the ATUS will allow us
to study basic issues of scarcity of goods and time in
relation to food and nutrition, including ideas on how
to link time use data on food shopping, food consumption
and clean-up to data on food spending, both at home and
away from home. One might study how these have changed
over time and their correlates with demographic characteristics.
Because of a greater ability to purchase food due to rising
incomes while the constraint of a 24-hour day remains
unchanged, changing patterns of food purchases and time
inputs into food consumption are especially interesting.
Special attention should also be paid to the role of rising
income inequality, particularly to the distributional
issues involved. Issues regarding a shift between consuming
food at home and eating in restaurants could also be timely
and interesting.
The special supplements to the Current Population Survey
(CPS) have research potential. ATUS has enough observations
to link to the information on Food Stamps in CPS and to
the March CPS income data to analyze how different sources
of income affect time spent on food and its preparation.
For example, if the main purpose of income maintenance
is viewed as consumption maintenance, combining the ATUS
with the March CPS data could provide insight into how
well various income maintenance programs are performing
this fundamental task. Also, the large size of the ATUS
will allow researchers to examine how time spent on food
preparation and consumption differs by demographic group
(particularly by age group), thus shedding light on the
way in which food habits are formed.
A third set of questions involve the context of food-related
activities—where they take place and with whom they
are conducted. This information is relevant for analyzing
eating and food preparation as social activities, and
thus for discovering their roles as inputs for child development
and the creation of social capital.
Work-Family Spillover, Time Use, and Food Choices: Perceptions
and Strategies of Low-Income Workers
Carol M. Devine,
PhD, RD, Associate Professor Nutritional Sciences, Cornell
University
 Long work hours, lack of schedule flexibility and backup,
spillover of employment demands into home life, a decline
in family meals prepared or eaten at home, and poor nutritional
quality of meals prepared outside the home make integration
of work and family roles an important issue for nutrition
and health. Work-family strain may be particularly challenging
among low- and moderate-income employed parents. Workers'
experiences of work-family spillover, including time pressures,
activities concurrent with eating, daily patterns of food
and beverage consumption, and strategies for managing
the negative and positive effects of spillover on food
choices are presented. Implications for research on time
and food choices are also discussed.
Who Has Time to Cook? New Directions for Food and Nutrition
Policy Research on Household Meal Production
Diego Rose, Department
of Community Health Sciences, Tulane University
In a majority of American households, women are principally
responsible for meal planning and preparation, despite
the dramatic increases in their labor force participation
over the last several decades. Is there enough time to
meet the demands of both work and home life, in particular,
to prepare nutritious meals for the family? 
This paper outlines new areas of time use research on
the meal production process that can inform food and nutrition
policy. First, we review previous conceptualizations of
how time can be included as an important dimension of
poverty. Assessment of “time poverty” requires
information on minimum time needs for various basic subsistence
activities, including food preparation, cleaning, and
child care.
Next, we narrow the focus to food-related activities
by illustrating a contradiction in current government
policy: welfare policy encourages recipients to work outside
the home, but Food Stamp allotments implicitly assume
that time is not a constraint to the homemaker. USDA's
Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) is used as the basis for inflation
cost adjustments to Food Stamp allotments, yet, to a large
extent, the TFP is based on meals that are prepared from
raw ingredients. We assess the time inputs of suggested
recipes for the TFP and compare this with historical time
use data on meal preparation in American households. Suggestions
are then developed for research in the area of food preparation
behavior.
New directions for research on food assistance policies
that could harmonize competing objectives are also proposed.
Recognizing the importance of food preparation knowledge
as well as time for the production of nutritious meals,
the presentation ends with some suggestions for nutrition
education programs.
Eating Patterns, Activities, and Obesity
Sandra L. Hofferth,
Department of Family Studies, University of Maryland, College
Park
 This presentation discusses how researchers might explore
the associations among eating patterns, physical activity,
and overweight and obesity among American men and women.
Types of issues that are addressed include meal preparation
and eating out, the timing and length of mealtimes, and
participation in physical activities. Physical activities
may include both exercise regimes and the proportion of
time spent in sedentary versus active pursuits during
a normal day. Gender, age, number of children, partner
availability, and employment are also considered.
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