Reassessing Parents' Leisure Quality With Direct Measures of Well-Being: Do Children Detract From Parents' Down Time?

Objective: The objective if this study was to directly assess the contamination and fragmentation of parents' leisure quality with direct measures of experienced well-being. Background: Parents report less leisure than those without children, and the nature of their leisure differs in ways that are assumed to reflect lower quality—contaminated by the presence of children or fragmented by care work or other demands. Previous research on this question has not been able to assess leisure quality directly. Method: Using the 2010, 2012, and 2013 American Time Use Survey's Well-Being Module (N = 5,433 parents; N = 7,066 activities) and random intercept models to account for multilevel data, the authors investigated mothers' and fathers' reports of well-being across multiple dimensions in leisure activities and directly assessed their experiences in leisure activities (a) with children present or (b) interrupted by care work or other demands. Results: Contrary to expectations from prior work, there was no evidence that leisure was of lower quality with children, and leisure interruptions had little bearing on parents' well-being. Well-being was especially high in “family time” with both children and other adults. Conclusion: Leisure time with children, considered of lower quality in prior accounts, was not experienced more negatively by parents. These findings suggest a reconsideration of how we think about and measure the quality of leisure time.