THE EFFECTS OF FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS AND TIME USE ON TEENAGE GIRLS’ AND BOYS’ HOUSEHOLD LABOR

Studies suggest that children’s housework contributions are minimal. However, much of this research focuses on young or early adolescent children and utilizes data regarding adult tasks, while ignoring chores children more often perform. We address these gaps by analyzing longitudinal time-use data collected from teens on the types of household chores that children are most likely to perform. Specifically, we examine gender inequity in teens’ contributions to household labor and how it changes over high school. Additionally, we explore how teens’ household contributions vary based on family structure characteristics such as maternal employment and parental marital status, and as a function of teens’ involvement in such nonfamily contexts as school and paid work. We find that girls devote more time to household tasks than boys with this gender gap increasing across high school. Teens’ efforts are greater in larger families, especially for girls, and those headed by single or remarried parents. Lastly, high school males spend more time on extra-curricular and leisure activities than girls who work longer hours in both unpaid and paid labor. Thus, we conclude that the leisure gap and the “second shift” documented between wives and husbands (Hochschild, 1989), may originate in the family of orientation.