Are We Bowling Alone? Findings from the American Time Use Survey

Rapid changes in living arrangements and marital status suggest the need for further consideration of the behavior of individuals in diverse households, especially those with individuals who are divorced or cohabiting. Using new data from the American Time Use Survey, we examined how gender, living arrangements, and marital status affect social relationships with kin and non-kin. This paper focuses in specifically on the differences between married and cohabiting individuals. Findings indicate that both women and men in cohabiting relationships have higher odds of spending time with non-kin and lower odds of spending time with kin than those who are married. However, when cohabiting partners were included as kin in the analyses, there were no significant differences between married and cohabiting individuals. Results suggest the importance of conceptualization of kin and non-kin groups. They also suggest that cohabiting and married couples may be more similar to one another than previously thought.