This project had one objective that fell under the parent project’s first aim of Database Expansion, which was to add five new years of ATUS data from 2016 to 2020; to double the number of countries included in a web-based portal entitled IPUMS-Time Use; and to incorporate newly-digitized U.S. time diary data from the 1920s and 1930s. The objective had been to support data collection on the well-being, quality of life, and physical and mental health of a large and nationally representative cohort of children and adults ages 15 and older spanning January through December 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted Americans’ daily routines, increased stress and worry for many, and amplified pre-existing racial, gender, and social class inequities in health and well-being. Evidence suggested that these consequences might not have been short-term, especially since the course of the pandemic was unknown. Time diary data in general and well-being data in particular were the best sources of information for understanding how COVID-19 affected Americans’ daily lives and perceptions of health and well-being.

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) was the only large, nationally representative source of information about how, where, and with whom the U.S. population spent their time outside of paid work. The data collection had replicated the ATUS Well-Being Module (WBM) that had previously been fielded in 2010, 2012, and 2013, and had added a new question to assess current family well-being in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The WBM had collected detailed information about Americans’ experienced momentary well-being at three points during the interview day, which could be tied to specific contexts during the day – what people were doing, where they were, who they were with, and when they felt these emotions. These data enabled the scientific community to investigate adherence to and effects of containment and mitigation efforts on daily behaviors, well-being, quality of life, and health, by subgroup. This had been of particular interest to NICHD because of the link to early life conditions, family processes and parenting, and the health and well-being of the next generation of Americans, taking into account variability across population subgroups. The web-based portal, IPUMS Time Use, had currently archived and made available data from historical American surveys of time use, the American Time Use Surveys from 2003 to the present, as well as data from 13 other countries across the globe. After processing, the WBM data had been incorporated into the data dissemination system, IPUMS Time Use, which had been easily and freely accessible to the research community and promoted broadly through webinars and a video training library.