Tijdgebruiks

Tijdgebruiks, in Dutch, refers to the way individuals or groups spend their time across different activities during a specified period, typically a day. The concept is central to studies of work–life balance, labor markets, energy demand, transportation, and public health. It encompasses paid work, unpaid domestic labor, study, caregiving, leisure, sleep, and other activities.

In practice, tijdgebruiks is often analyzed using time-use data collected via activity diaries or surveys, where respondents record what they were doing in set intervals. Data are usually reported as hours or minutes per day or per week, and can be broken down by demographic characteristics such as age, gender, employment status, and household composition.

Common data sources include national time-use surveys. Researchers classify activities into standard categories to enable comparisons across groups and over time. Methodological challenges include recall bias, misclassification, and comparing across cultures due to differing daily routines and definitions of activities.

Applications of tijdgebruiks research span policymaking, planning, and health. It informs decisions on parental leave, retirement, and public transport, and contributes to energy demand modeling and urban design. Time-use patterns help researchers understand sleep, physical activity, and sedentary behavior, and how daily routines influence overall well-being and productivity.

Notes and related topics include the standard Dutch term tijdgebruik, with tijdgebruiks appearing in some contexts as a stylistic or grammatical variant. Related areas include time-use surveys, time-use data, labor economics, and social demography.