Contour of the Day: Social Patterning of Time in Later Life and Variation in Reported Well-Being in Activities

Abstract

Objective: To contextualize experiences of activities during the day and investigate whether the contour of the day is correlated with well-being during activities. Methods: Drawing on American Time Use Surveys, we employ sequence and cluster analyses to create distinct typologies of daily life patterns, and bivariate analyses to describe whether well-being across activities varies by these typologies. Results: We identified four typologies characterized by different primary activity of the day: leisure (22.7%), TV (22.4%), housework (47.5%), and work (7.5%). Individuals in the work and leisure clusters tend to report more positive well-being and individuals in the housework and TV clusters tend to report more negative well-being in experiences of activities during the day. We also found that well-being experiences in the same activity differed across individuals in the different typologies. Conclusion: Understanding the daily life patterns of older adults may be important, given its correlation with well-being during activities.