A NEW LOOK AT PARENTS TIME SPENT IN CHILD-CARE - PRIMARY AND SECONDARY TIME USE

Parental child care time has historically been narrowly defined to inc lude only those child care activities where the parent's primary atten tion was occupied by the child. In this study, we expand this definiti on so that it includes parental reports of time where child care was a subsidiary activity. We find that such secondary child care time comp rises about one-third of all parental child care time. Time spent in b oth primary and secondary child care appear to be influenced by the ge nder of the parent, the age of the youngest child, the mother's hours of paid employment, household income, and residential location. Simula tions suggest that mothers in two-parent, two-child families average b etween 13,729 and 15,439 h in the care of children from ages 0 to 18. The corresponding figures for the fathers are lower at 4150 to 4415 h. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.