Reading Activity Method TimeUse Diaries for Studying Reading Practices

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Reading Activity Method Time-Use Diaries for
Studying Reading Practices

• M Cecil Smith
• Northern Illinois University

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Time-use diaries

• Widely used in sociological research
• Method originated in the 1920s in the Soviet
  Union
• Time-use diaries have been used to study
• Sexual activities
• Leisure activities
• Nutritional practices
• Workplace productivity
• Child-rearing
• Distribution of household labor
• Television viewing habits (Nielson ratings)

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Time-use diaries

• Time is a behavioral indicator of values and
  preferences
• Time diary data can be construed as evidence of
  the value people put on the activities in which
  they engage and in very real behavioral terms
• Time diary data show a clear relationship between
  general attitudes toward activities, such as
  reading, and time spent on these activities ?
  (Robinson, 1988)

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Categories of time use

• PRODUCTIVE functions
• Contracted time (paid work)
• Committed time (housework family care)
• MAINTENANCE functions
• Personal time (sleeping, eating, grooming)
• EXPRESSIVE functions
• Free time (TV, reading, socializing)
• (Reading can be found across all of these)

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Types of time-use diaries

• Retrospective (recall)
• What do you do on a typical day?
• subject to recall error
• What did you do yesterday?
• more accurate recall
• Prospective
• Record activity as it occurs

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Time-use studies

• Multi-national time use study (Szalai, 1972)
• 12 countries participated
• Survey Research Center, U of Michigan (1965)
• N 1,244 adults 24 hr. diary
• (Robinson, 1977)
• Survey Research Center, U of Michigan (1975)
• N 1,519 adults 24 hr. diary
• (Robinson, 1976)

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Advantages of time-use diaries

• More accurate and unbiased data
• Participant recall problems diminished
• Better for obtaining data on low-frequency events
• Can capture a wide variety of behavioral and
  related (i.e., affective) data

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Disadvantages of time-use diaries

• Increased participant burden
• Decreased cooperation
• Participant reactivity
• Yields missing data
• when no behavior is recorded, does this indicate
  that no behavior occurred?
• Huge volume of data increases labor and data
  processing / analyses costs

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Alternatives to time-use diaries

• Direct observation of behavior
• Interviews
• Paper-and-pencil surveys / questionnaires
• Experience Sampling Method (ESM)
• Electronic trackers
• Telephone calls

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Reliability validity of time-use diaries

• Reliability frequently determined with
  alternate-form diaries (including phone calls,
  mail-back diaries, and personal interviews)
• Validity frequently determined with independent
  observations, degree of correspondence between
  spousal couples, shadow technique
• In general, time-use diaries are reliable and
  valid

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Time-use diaries in reading research

• Greaney (1980)
• Irish 5th graders
• Neuman (1982)
• 4th, 5th, 6th graders
• Anderson, Wilson, Fielding (1988)
• 5th graders
• Taylor, Frye, Maryuyama (1988)
• 5th 6th graders
• Smith (2000)
• adults

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The Reading Activity Method (RAM)

• Notebook format (portable!)
• Instructions (detailed)
• Questionnaires
• Multiple data-gathering sheets

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RAM Diary Form
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Research questions

• What are the characteristics of adults everyday
  reading practices?
• How does the setting and the purpose for reading
  interact to determine selection of reading
  material, reading effort and enjoyment, and uses
  of learning strategies?
• What are the associations of age, occupation, and
  education with reading practices?

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Sample characteristics

• N 154 adults
• 20 84 years of age
• 88 females, 66 males
• 84 White
• Occupations 26 business 24 clerical, sales,
  service, production 23 disciplinary health
  care 23 crafts trades 4 not in labor force
• Graduate students recruited one participant each
• 5 participants had ltHS diploma 6 had doctoral
  degrees median educ attainment of sample 15
  years

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Design of study

• Participants recruited in 5 waves over a period
  of 28 months (1993-1995)
• Waves ranged from 26 40 persons each
• Participants were asked to keep a RAM diary for 5
  days (Time 1)
• Three follow-up times over a 1-year period
• recorded RAM diary for 3 or 5 days (over 1 or 2
  weeks)
• 90 of sample kept diary for requested number of
  days
• 30 kept diaries for at least 2 times of
  measurement
• Only Time 1 data have been analyzed

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Role of theory and associated research literature

• Readership studies
• W.S. Gray B. Rogers Maturity in Reading
  (1956)
• Surveys of adults reading habits
• National Adult Literacy Survey (1992)
• More reading associated with higher levels of
  literacy proficiency (Smith, 1996)
• Practice engagement theory (Reder, 1994)
• literacy skills develop within particular
  contexts of practice
• literacy develops primarily through individuals
  participation in literacy activities, rather than
  through school learning

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Design integrity

• 12 of sample randomly phone interviewed
• Estimate of actual amount of reading recorded
• Diary at hand all, most, some, none of time
• Difficulty of diary recording
• Alternate form reliability study
• 119 university students ? 1 day diary
• 24 hour recall
• RAM participants monitored for compliance
• 2 phone calls during recording period

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Limitations of RAM

• Cannot compare reading to other activities that
  might support, undermine, or be unrelated to
  respondents reading (e.g., TV viewing,
  child-rearing, hobbies)
• Biases respondents toward reading (R is aware
  that reading is focus of study may over-report
  reading activity)
• Robinson recommends open-ended rather than
  specific activity focus

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Lessons learned

• Less is more
• Play close attention to the methodological
  literature
• Dont over-complicate the design and data
  collection procedures
• Have a good data analysis plan in place
• Time-use diaries are a useful tool for studying
  everyday literacy practices

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