I have a question about how secondary child care is measured in the harmonized AHTUS. In the ATUS, secondary child care includes care for any child under the age of 13. In the AHTUS, secondary child care is split into categories “care of infants” and “general care of older children.” In the harmonized AHTUS that includes ATUS data, it looks like the secondary child care measures from the ATUS survey (2003 and onward) are coded only as “general care of older children.”
My question is: when harmonized, are younger children/infants taken out of the measures for secondary childcare from the ATUS survey, or does “general care of older children” include all children under age 13 for the ATUS portion of the harmonized AHTUs data?
Thank you for your help!
It can be difficult to tell which samples the AHTUS descriptions refer to. In short, secondary childcare, described as general care of older children in the ATUS portion of the harmonized AHTUS data, is identical to childcare in the ATUS and includes care for all children under age 13.
To calculate how much each person spent on secondary childcare in the AHTUS, you will need to sum TIME for cases where SEC = 34 by IDENT. If you do so however, you will notice there is more secondary childcare reported in the AHTUS than in the ATUS. This is because child sleep and wake time are used in the ATUS to determine total secondary childcare. Thus, if a child went to sleep during a main activity, secondary childcare would only be counted for the portion of the activity for which the child was awake. However, in the AHTUS harmonization process, child sleep and wake times are ignored and the secondary childcare is assumed to extend through the entire duration of the main activity.
In the harmonized AHTUS, the secondary care indicators from the ATUS survey are coded only as "total care of older children. Unfortunately, this means that younger children and infants are not counted in the secondary child care indicators. Thus when harmonized, the category “total care of older children” includes only children over a certain age, usually older than infants.
Since I recently decided to get into foster parenting, I have been looking into this issue and can tell you that the harmonized data may have limitations in accounting for the specific care of young children. Good luck to you, and all the best.
For AHTUS samples prior to 2003, secondary child care is recorded across seven different codes in the variable SEC (33 care of infants, 34 general care of older children, 35 medical care of children, 36 play with children, 37 supervise child, help with homework, 38 read to, talk with child, and 39 other child care). The variable ACT_CHCARE notes that care of infants (SEC = 33) includes baby care, usually for infants who are under five. The coding rules further specify that for 1975 & 1985 this includes care of babies aged less than 5 years old. The same cutoff was used in the 1965 and 1998 samples. General care of older children (SEC = 34) in the 1975 & 1985 samples includes care for children of mixed ages (i.e. infants and older children) as well as care for children aged 5-17. In 1965, this included care for children over 5 years. In 1998, it included care for children ages 5 through 17, mixed ages, or ages of children not ascertained.
From 2003-onwards, all AHTUS samples are harmonized versions of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data; there is more consistency in these years as the data are fielded as part of the same survey. The ATUS secondary activity codes do not distinguish between childcare for infants and older children or whether the care included medical care, play, or any of the other previous categories. Rather, secondary childcare is segmented into whether it was care of own children and whether it was for household children. The AHTUS reports secondary childcare for own, household children in SEC = 34 (this is available in the ATUS-only database IPUMS ATUS in the variable SCC_OWNHH_LN). I verified that in 2018 all occurrences of SCC_OWNHH_LN in the ATUS are identical to instances of SEC = 34 in the AHTUS. In the 2003-forward samples for AHTUS, SEC includes all secondary childcare of own, household children under the age of 13. The current label for SEC = 34 (General care of older children) is misleading as it is only reflective of pre-2003 AHTUS samples.
I hope this clarifies what’s happening and that care of younger children and infants is included in this code. I will reach out to the IPUMS time use team to request an update to the value label.