Hi, when I click on a time use variable name, I don’t see a list of codes and description of universe for time use variables, either aggregated or for individual activities. Where should I look? For example, I want to know whether values of “995” for a variable like ‘bls_hhact_food’ are minutes or a code for NIU, “vary” etc. Thanks much, SG
The universe of all person-level time use variables—including the ones already available from IPUMS ATUS and those you make yourself using the ATUS variable builder—is all ATUS respondents. ATUS respondents each complete a time diary, and information from these time diaries is used to create the time use variables. Some respondents will have 0 values for some time use variables. This means they did not spend any time on the activity. All numeric codes for these person-level time use variables represent the amount of time in minutes spent on the specified activity.
You can choose to create an IPUMS ATUS extract that includes other household members in addition to the ATUS respondent themselves. This option is given when you are in the final stages of requesting your extract. In these extracts, there will be a number of individuals included who are NIU for all time use variables (and many other variables only collected for the ATUS respondent). These non-respondent individuals may be household members of the respondent or other individuals the respondent spent time with. There is some basic information available on them, but because they did not complete a time diary, they will not have any time use variables available on their person record. They have missing values for the time use variables.
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