Couple Time and Partnership Quality: an Empirical Assessment using Diary Data

Abstract

It is often assumed that partnership quality is positively associated with the amount of time couples and families spend together. However, little about this link has been demonstrated empirically. This study investigates how time spent with the partners, children, parents, siblings, friends, and acquaintances is associated with partnership conflicts and partnership satisfaction. A time-use module was set up as part of a longitudinal survey about family relations and conflicts in Switzerland. The results show a robust association between partnership quality, time shared with the partner, and time shared with the partner and children. Results show that the more time couples spend together, the more likely they are to experience high partnership quality and to report being satisfied with their relationships. Partners who are satisfied with their relationships are more prone to talk to each other, to share leisure time, and to go to bed together. In contrast, time spent with friends and kin is not associated with partnership quality.

Harmful Stress-Related Couple Processes During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown: A Longitudinal Dyadic Perspective

“…Next, the lockdown led partners to stay at home, to decrease their personal leisure activities and to work at home, that is, to spend more time together. Previous studies (e.g., Vagni and Widmer, 2018 ) indicated a positive association between the partnership quality and the amount of time partners spend together. We hypothesized that the more time couples spent together, the more couple satisfaction increased during the lockdown.…”

“…On the positive side, the lockdown led romantic partners to spend more time together due to isolation measures and working conditions. Vagni and Widmer (2018) showed that the more time couples spend together, the more likely they are to experience high partnership quality and to report being satisfied with their relationships. Thus, spending more time with one’s partner could positively influence couple functioning and satisfaction during the lockdown.…”

Impact of Time-Use Behaviour on Residential Energy Consumption in the United Kingdom

“…According to Hellgren [21], the sequence of activities that an individual performs during the course of a day is influenced by social factors as well as three types of constraints: capacity, coupling, and authority constraints. Vagni [22] examined the work, leisure, and other activities of 23 countries and more than 50 years of time diaries in a recent study. People's daily activities were compared and classified using techniques such as optimal matching and related sequence analysis techniques, as well as classification methods such as cluster analysis.…”