How is leisure experienced by U.S. single mothers? In this exploratory analysis, I
plan to examine not only the sheer quantity of leisure experienced by single mothers, but
also the quality, processes, and meanings placed on these activities.
It is well established in the literature that single mothers experience income
inequality in comparison to their married counterparts. This is in part due to
compositional differences between the groups, and in part due to the lack of partner with
which to share financial resources. Also common in the literature is the idea that these
women may also be time poor, as they are responsible for the whole of market and
household work for the family (Vickery 1977). Yet, there is little empirical evidence in
the literature to support the latter assumption, and few investigations of single mother’s
time use in general.
While the empirical question of quantities of leisure may be answered with
conventional time diary data, a full understanding of the quality, processes, and meanings
places on these activities requires qualitative investigation. Quantitative researchers who
use time diary data generally do not consider how respondents would categorize their
own activities, opting to categorize the activities into particular groups themselves. While
this may increase reliability, it fails to consider the importance of the context in which
activities occur, and how respondents conceptualize their own time. I hope to address
these issues in my analysis.
The first goal of this investigation is to outline quantities of free time experienced
by U.S. single mothers. The quantitative results presented in these preliminary analyses
will address this first goal. The second goal of the paper is to investigate what types of
activities in which these women are engaging, where they are occurring, and with whom.
This is important because there is limited evidence suggesting that for single mothers,
Convention