Time Use Investment and Expenditures in Social Networks

Spatio-Temporal Constraints on Social Networks Workshop, University of California, Santa Barbara, Center for Spatial Studies, 13-14 December 2010

Kostas Goulias

“In this presentation I use Brofenbenner’s Person-Process-Context-Time (PPCT) model and two-day time use diary data to first identify social network types based on reported activities, travel, and the types of persons with whom and for whom these activities and travel were completed. The data used are from a time use two-day diary of 1471 persons collected between November 2002 and May 2003 in Centre County, Pennsylvania. In their time use diaries respondents provided a detailed record of each activity they completed in each day, the persons with whom they completed each activity as well as for whom they participated in each activity. The social networks identified by the respondents include immediate family, relatives, friends, schoolmates, businessmates, clubmates (members of a society or church), and all other. Measures of investment and expenditures in social networks include the number of episodes in a day, and the amount of time allocated to activities per day. These two measures (episodes and amount of time allocated) are classified by the amount of time allocated to activities at home, work, school, and elsewhere to examine the “placial” nature of social network investments. They are also classified by the persons with whom these activities are conducted and for whom these activities are conducted offering additional insights. A third measure considered is an estimate of the social network size based on the number of persons that each respondent interacts with per day in each of the social networks defined above.”

Read the paper [PDF]