Intrahousehold Interaction Analysis between Husband,Wife,and Child Using Joint Time-Allocation Model

This paper describes research on intrahousehold interactions, based on results of an activity-based time allocation model. The paper describes a joint time-allocation model that explicitly considers a child in addition to parents. It analyzes activity duration as well as activity type. This model was formulated as a nonlinear Tobit model for econometric analysis. The model parameters were estimated with data from a household time-allocation survey completed during 2003 in Toyama, Japan. Two models were estimated with the sample data sets: one for weekdays and one for weekend days. The results indicate that social and cultural backgrounds relating to the husband's preference of child gender, household child-care role sharing between husband and wife, and the husband's immersion in work influence the household interactions significantly. The paper presents a summary of model results, conclusions, and recommendations for further research.