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years). Once we control for employment status there are no differences
between people with different levels of education.
If we introduce the effect of committed time (Model B), it is clear that those
with high volumes of committed time, the time poor, feel more rushed than
those with low combined paid and unpaid work. So ‘objective’ measures of time
poverty (not having a lot of free time) and ‘subjective’ measures of time poverty
(feeling under time-pressure) are indeed strongly associated. The model fit
statistics show that introducing committed time into the model allows us to
give a much better explanation of feeling rushed.
However, we can also identify a number of groups who feel rushed and
stressed, over and above the effect of time use. This suggests that it is not just
having high demands on time that makes individuals feel rushed. For
example, those in paid employment feel more rushed, even when we account
for the fact that, on average, they have higher levels of committed time than
the non-employed. Interestingly, those with higher incomes are also more
rushed (p < .10). While ‘rushed’ may have more negative connotations than
‘busy’, this finding is consistent with Gershuny’s work on busyness as ‘a badge
of honour’ (Gershuny, 2005).
To further investigate the type of time use on feeling rushed, we estimate
another model (Model C) distinguishing the effect of paid work and unpaid
work. Both contribute to feeling rushed, but the effect of paid work on feeling
rushed is stronger). This suggests that the dramatic increase in the proportion
of the adult population in paid employment in Ireland following the boom -
particularly among women - may indeed be contributing to an increased
feeling of people being rushed and stressed. Table 11 shows that of all
household ‘types’, it is dual-earner couples who are the most likely to feel
under time-pressure.21 So, following the Jacobs and Gerson argument for the
US, the rise of dual-earner couples in Ireland discussed in Section I is also
fuelling the feeling that ‘we are running out of time’.
Previous research has found gender differences in subjective time poverty.
Mattingly and Sayer (2006) find that US women are more likely to feel rushed
than men, even when they controlled the amount of free time.22 They suggest
that this may be due to the inferior quality of women’s leisure time (e.g. more
interrupted, fragmented - see also Mattingly and Bianchi, 2003) and also
cultural models of motherhood, which have increased the demands on women
looking after children. Overall gender differences in feeling rushed in Ireland
21 Couples’ employment status is not included in the model as it is strongly correlated with
individual employment status, especially for women.
22 Note that Mattingly and Sayer (2006) measure free time in a different way, including free time
combined with childcare. In this paper all time recorded as childcare counts as childcare, and
leisure is ‘pure’ leisure (see Section 2 above).