Spending Time Together—Changes Over Four Decades in Leisure Time Spent with a Spouse

Using American time diary data from 1965, 1975 and 2003, this study investigates to what extent couples' joint leisure time has changed in the past four decades and to what extent joint leisure time varies between men and women and between single and dual-earner couples. Results show that partners now spend more time together engaged in various leisure activities than they did in the past, not only in percentages but also in absolute number of minutes. The difference between men and women (women reported a lower percentage of joint leisure than men) has grown smaller in the past four decades.