Why and how to carry out the Time Use Survey: the Italian experience

1. Why and how to carry out the Time Use Survey: the Italian experience Italian National Statistical Institute by Maria Clelia Romano Istat – “Time Use” Unit e-mail: romano@istat.it

2. Gender statistics and Time Use Surveys The aims Time Use Surveys are a precious source of information on gender statistics With Time Use data it’s possible: • to analyse in detail the division of paid and unpaid workloads between men and women. • to understand how men and women use their time • to identify the way gender differences in time use develop during the various stages of life Time use

3. Time use data can also be analysed to study: • The relationship between working times, times of study, of other productive activities, leisure time and family care • The activities and needs of particular social categories (elderly and children) • Household productive activities not reported by the National Accounting System • The days of the week and the hours of the day in which public services are used • The times in which places and locations are used (helpful for their better planning ) • The leisure time • The use of mass media including the most innovative IT tools The aims Time use

4. For these potential uses: The international attention for the Time Use surveys is very strong In the European context the HETUS project (Harmonised European Time Use Studies) has been created to harmonize the Time Use surveys The Guidelines have been written and published during this project, in the year 2000 and are being updated thanks to the work of a TF. At present these Guidelines, although not constraining, are the main reference guide for the Member countries that are interested in the international results’ comparability In the international context, the MTUS project (Multinational Time Use Studies) has the objective of collecting the datasets coming from the Time Use Surveys carried out in 20 countries and to produce comparative tables. The context Time use

5. Population and sample design • TUS are restricted to persons resident at domestic addresses. This means that persons in institutions (military service, hospitals, prisons) or with no regular abode are not to be included in the Time Use surveys • Persons of 10 years and older are included in the Time Use Surveys. If that recommendation can not be followed the minimum age limit is 15 years and older Why? Because it’s very important that all ages are represented for a generational analysis of time use The methodology Time use

6. Population: the italian choice The methodology In Italy, as in the previous survey carried out in 1988/89, we’ve chosen to also ask children, aged three years and more, to fill in the diary. Obviously when necessary it was the mother or another adult to fill in the diary describing the daily activities of her child/children Why this choice? Because it’s very important, as the literature teaches, to know and analyse the childrens’ time Time use

7. Population and sample design The methodology • Highest priority is given to individual observations and to keep individual non-response low • All members of the household are included in the sample Why? To make the analysis of different perspectives of intra-household relations possible Only in this way we are able to know exactly how partners use their time and to study the intra-household division of domestic and extra-domestic work by gender Time use

8. How is it possible to survey time use? The methodology By using a daily diary instead of a questionnaire In this way it’s possibile to individuate the way people organize or simply live the time dimension of their life: AT THE MAXIMUM DETAIL LEVEL Time use

9. Number of diary days The methodology It is preferable to ask the interviewed to compile two diary days, a weekday (Monday-Friday) and a weekend day (Saturday or Sunday) Why? Because only in this way it is possible to study the variation of a person in his use of time The use of only one day is also acceptable, but with only one diary day it’s impossible to have any idea of the intra-personal variation The general rule from this point of view is that more diary days are better Time use

10. Number of diary days: The Italian experience In Italy we’ve chosen to use only one diary day • because of the sample size (about 25.000 households for a total of more than 55.000 individuals) • to reduce the burden on respondents • and to contain the non-response rate Time use

11. The survey field work should be spread over 12 consecutive months and an average time use for very different activities is estimated over a year WHY COVER AN ENTIRE YEAR? The methodology • People carry out their activities in time according to different cycles (for example.daily, weekly, monthly, annual ) that follow natural or social paces • The annual cycle, articulated in all its seasonal phases, is the observation period considered most adeguate to compile a time budget • It’s not opportune to exclude from observation the “anomalous” periods, because we would exclude from the budget particular activities carried outexactly in those periods (for example, winter leisure time activities or seasonal jobs ) Time use

12. The sample is structured in such a way that everydayof the year is appropriately represented with all of its particularities This sample design permits to achieve the objective of giving estimates on the activities carried out and detected by the diaries : • for different types of days 1. MONDAY-FRIDAY 2. SATURDAY 3. SUNDAY 4. AVERAGE DAY • in each quarter of the year The methodology Time use

13. Selection of diary days The methodology Diary days/dates have to be allocated among households/individuals by a controlled random procedure The household cannot modify the day to fill in the diary according to its own ease or else, because this would imply a biasof the time budget. This biaswould be greater if the choice of day is linked to the type or intensity of the activities which will be carried out in those days Days which are more or less busy, spent at work or on vacation, at home or travelling, “normal” or “particular”: they must all be surveyed to correctly estimate the overall time allocation among the different activities Time use

14. By self-interview during the described day Why? This is the only possible way: • To register all the activities during the day, including the ones of short duration or the ones that are often forgotten because of the little importance they assume • To avoid the memory effect, or rather the memory bias introduced by compiling the diary the day after How is the diary filled in? The daily diary Time use

15. What are the contents of the daily diary? The daily diary The daily diary starts at 04:00 am and covers 24 hours with144 intervals of 10 minutes. The diary pages have: • One column wheremain activitiescarried out should be recorded (freely expressed) • One column to recordparallel activitiescarried out at the same time (freely expressed) • One column in wich thepresence of other personsshould be recorded (with pre-coded items) According to the Guidelines the information on location has to be coded by using the diary information on activities. Time use

16. What are the contents of the daily diary? The daily diary In Italy we introduced a fourth column, where respondents had to record the location where they were or the mean of transport used to move(freely expressed) This choice induced the respondents to provide more details in describing travelling and changing of location, which is one of the activities that is most difficult to reconstruct and to code, due to the lack of exact information provided in describing them. Adding a column ad hoc for describing the location, the identification of movements and trips has been facilitated. Also the next Eurostat Guidelines will suggest to bring in the diary this new column Time use

17. How to plan the diary? The interval duration The daily diary The pilot surveys carried out in the 90’s in Italy and Sweden demonstrated that: • The recourse to open intervals, that’s to say where the respondents had to point out freely the beginning time and the ending time of every activity described, besides expressing the activities, produced a underestimate of the number of reported activities. • The intervals of 5 minutes induced respondents to report not very important activities (for example: I open the door, I close the window, etc.). • The intervals of 15 minutes induced respondents to excessivelyaggregate the activities. So, the suggested duration of the intervals is 10 minutes Time use

18. Who have to fill in the diary? The daily diary • Every household member must fill in the daily diary on the scheduled date, assigned randomly to the household Why? • Because only in this way it is possible to make intra-household analyses of the time use and to answer questions like these: While mummy is cooking the dinner, what is daddy doing? Where is he?And whom are the sonswith? Time use

19. How does the interviewer behave? The interviewer The designated date cannot be changed nor by the interviewer nor by the household If the household has problems to fill in the diary on the designated day…. How does the interviewer behave? It is possible to postpone the compiling date, to one or two weeks later, as long as the day of the week is the same Why? To avoid easy choices, auto-selection…. Time use

20. The importance of monitoring The methodology The survey’s complexity, the necessity to follow all the rules given to the interviewers and interviewees require the necessity to implement a monitoring system to control the unfolding of the survey In general it’s important to include actions concerning recruitment and training of interviewers, planning and supervision on interviewers’ work and the supervision of the coding activity In Italy a monitoring form has been conceived to photograph the situation of each sample household at the moment of the scheduled diary withdrawal Time use

21. Coming back to the daily diary The coding The respondents describe the activities performed using common language The coding process translates the sentences reported by the interviewed into codes Classification system proposed by Eurostat, adapted to the national needs International comparability Time use

22. Coding activity: the problems The coding Association text-code is not an easy one to one linkage, but it is the outcome of a process Extreme content variety Extreme language variety Necessity to keep a lot of contextual information under control Scarcity/Redundancy of Information Wrong compilation (wrong cell use) Incomplete compilation (missing information about some variables in one or more intervals) Time use

23. Two equal actions, performed in the same setting, can be coded in different ways depending on their different purpose The coding The same activity can be coded with different codes depending on: • who performs it (sex, age, profession, household structure, etc.) • location where the activity takes place • the target of action • the sequence of activities • etc. Time use

24. Examples of difficulties: The coding For whom is it performed? For own household 31-39 To help other households 421-429 Examples To cook for own household 311 To cook for a sick friend 421 To care for own children 38 To care for own grandchildren (not cohabiting) 427 Time use

25. The activitiy codes The coding The system of activity codes is: First level is always present. The following levels are just specifications of the first level’s categories In total the Eurostat activity codes are 209 Italian codes are 275 Hierarchical At three levels Time use

26. The activity classification list 0 PERSONAL CARE 1 EMPLOYMENT 2 STUDY • HOUSEHOLD AND FAMILY CARE 3.1 Food management 3.1.1 Food preparation 3.1.2 Baking 3.1.3 Dish washing 3.1.3.1 Laying/clearing the table 3.1.4 Preserving 3.2 Household upkeep …… 4 VOLUNTEER WORK AND MEETINGS 5 SOCIAL LIFE AND ENTERTAINMENT 6 SPORTS AND OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES 7 HOBBY AND GAMES 8 MASS MEDIA 9 TRAVEL AND UNSPECIFIED TIME USE The coding Time use

27. Which tool for coding The coding There are three tools for coding activities: • Manual coding • Assisted coding or semi-automatic coding • Automatic coding WHICH TOOL TO CHOOSE? Time use

28. The tools for coding : The Italian experience The coding In the previous Istat surveys the coding was manually performed and only the codes were recorded What were the main problems? “Time Use” (1988) Pilot survey (1996) • Little accuracy in the coding • Long times • Troubles in monitoring the coders staff • Necessity to come back to paperdiaries to read the original descriptions and to correct some coding errors Time use

29. Why not an automatic coding? Because it is necessary to interpret and to contextualize the activities, before attributing the correct code In fact, automatic softwareis particularly suitable for coding information (such as profession, list of municipalities, etc.) whose code can be univocally attributed. This kind of coding can be suggested when the adopted classification system provides for a single code for each of the collected entries/expressions. While, in the “Time use survey” equal activities can be coded in different ways, concerning the time in which they are carried out, the goals, the recipients of the action etc.; therefore there are several variables contributing to single out the right code. The coding Time use

30. What solutions to improve the coding process? The coding Italy chooses the computer assisted coding using the Blaisesoftware The data entry of sentences made this waypossible Time use

31. The weekly diary The weekly diary • It’s timetable form • For persons aged 15 or more • Self-interview Time use

32. The weekly diary

33. Principal knowledge objectives Estimate of the time spent at paid work for each day of the reference week (net length of the working day, that’s to say without considering the lunch break and the other breaks) For each day several time intervals spent at work The weekly diary is filled in by the “official” employed and by everyone that has carried out at least 15 minutes of work during the considered week (it allows thereforeto capture every kind of working activity) It allows to capture not official work It allows to analyse the conciliation of the working time inside the household The weekly diary Time use

34. Are thediariesenough? It is necessary to have contextual information about: • individual and household characteristics • thematic aspects The questionnaire Time use

35. The individual questionnaire The individual questionnaire must not be a complex tool, because it must give adequate importance to the daily dairy At European level particular importance is given to the following objective : the multiform aspects of the labour reality using the LFS definitions of the principal aggregates concerning the labour market The questionnaire Time use

36. Why survey labour in Tus? • Dimension of the working time • Capability of influencing the non-working time (family time, leisure time) • Transformations of the labour market A particular attention is dedicated to survey the non standard jobs, or rather jobs implying: > different places • flexible timetables > different modalities (shift work, on sundays, etc.) The questionnaire Time use

37. The main indicators The data Mean time, spent on activities considering all the population Mean time, spent on activities considering only the people who carried it out Participation rate which expresses the proportion of persons who performed the activities during the course of the day diary Time use

38. The daily diary