How to use ATUS microdata files

Researchers can produce their own time-use estimates using the ATUS microdata files. The ATUS data files include information for over 60,000 respondents total from 2003 to 2006. Because of the size of these data files, it is easiest to work with them using statistical software such as Stata, SAS, or SPSS.

There are several key pieces of documentation that will aid you when working with the data files. The User's Guide (PDF) includes information about how to link the data files and use them to produce estimates and standard errors. The Data Dictionaries include variable definitions. The Activity Coding Lexicons provide information about the activity codes. If you would like some hints about useful variables and where to find them, read the ATUS documentation about Frequently Used Variables (PDF).

• About the Basic ATUS Data Files The Basic ATUS data files include data used for generating most time-use estimates.
• About the Additional ATUS Data files The Additional ATUS data files include data about the ATUS survey process, replicate weights for generating standard errors, and other miscellaneous data.
• Producing Time-Use Estimates
• Linking the ATUS Data files

1. ATUS Respondent File

   This file contains case-specific variables collected in ATUS (that is, variables for which there is one value for each respondent). These include, for example, labor force and earnings information, total time providing secondary childcare, and ATUS weights.

   There is one record for each ATUS respondent.

   Below is a simplified example. The variable TUCASEID identifies each household, and the variable TULINENO identifies each individual within the household. The example contains responses from five individuals; note that the respondent always has TULINENO = 1. In the example, each respondent has a corresponding statistical weight for use in generating estimates representative of the U.S. civilian, noninstitutionalized population (TUFINLWGT), and values for school enrollment (TESCHENR), labor force status (TELFS), and total number of minutes spent alone on the diary day (TRTALONE). The actual ATUS Respondent file contains more variables and records.

   TUCASEID	TULINENO	TUFINLWGT	TESCHENR	TELFS	TRTALONE
   20060101020210	1	22261358.19	1	1	40
   20060101020211	1	5019645.31	1	1	350
   20060101020212	1	2926068.74	1	5	0
   20060101020213	1	25780574.07	2	5	556
   20060101020214	1	3414645.94	1	4	100

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2. ATUS Roster File

   This file contains information about the age, sex, and relationship to the ATUS respondent of every household member. The same information also is included for the respondent's own non-household children under age 18.

   There is one record for each individual in the respondent's household (including the respondent's own non-household children under age 18).

   A simplified example appears below. The variable TUCASEID identifies each household and the variable TULINENO identifies each individual in the household. In the example below, TUCASEID 20060101020210 has three persons residing in the household, and TUCASEID 20060101020211 and TUCASEID 200601010120212 each have one person. The variable TERRP contains information about the individual's relationship to the ATUS respondent, TESEX shows the person's sex and TEAGE shows the person's age. The actual ATUS Roster file contains more variables and many additional lines.

   TUCASEID	TULINENO	TERRP	TESEX	TEAGE
   20060101020210	1	18	2	42
   20060101020210	2	20	1	45
   20060101020210	3	22	1	11
   20060101020211	1	18	1	65
   20060101020212	1	18	2	21

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3. ATUS Activity File

   This file includes activity-level information collected in the ATUS, including activity code, location, duration, activity start and stop times, and whether respondents had a child under 13 in their care during the activity.

   There is one record for each activity.

   A simplified example of the ATUS Activity file appears below. This is an illustration of one respondent's day. Because only one person is interviewed per household, each TUCASEID on the Activity file identifies a respondent. Each activity is identified by an activity number (TUACTIVITY_N). The variable TUACTDUR24 shows the duration, in minutes, of each activity during the 24-hour diary day, and the variables TUTIER1CODE, TUTIER2CODE, and TUTIER3CODE correspond to the 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-tier of the ATUS activity codes. (The Activity Coding Lexicons provide information about the activity codes.) The ATUS Activity file contains more variables describing each activity as well as many more lines than the example below.

   TUCASEID	TUACTIVITY_N	TUACTDUR24	TUTIER1CODE	TUTIER2CODE	TUTIER3CODE
   20060101020210	1	210	01	01	01
   20060101020210	2	40	13	01	31
   20060101020210	3	40	01	02	01
   20060101020210	4	10	11	01	01
   20060101020210	5	30	18	05	01
   20060101020210	6	180	05	01	01
   20060101020210	7	45	11	01	11
   20060101020210	8	300	05	01	01
   20060101020210	9	30	18	05	01
   20060101020210	10	30	12	01	01
   20060101020210	11	30	11	01	01
   20060101020210	12	180	12	03	07
   20060101020210	13	315	01	01	01

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4. ATUS Activity Summary File

   The ATUS Activity Summary file contains information about the total number of minutes each respondent spent doing each activity. The file also includes selected variables from the ATUS Respondent, ATUS Roster, and ATUS-CPS files.

   There is one record for each ATUS respondent.

   A simplified example of the ATUS Activity Summary file appears below. The variable TUCASEID is the unique identifier for each respondent and the variable TEAGE, which also appears on the Roster file, shows each respondent's age. The variable t010101 contains the total number of minutes each respondent spent doing activity 010101, "sleeping"; the variable t010102 contains the total number of minutes each respondent spent doing activity 010102, "sleeplessness." The ATUS Activity Summary file contains more variables describing each activity as well as many more lines than the example below.

   TUCASEID	TEAGE	t010101	t010102
   20060101020210	26	480	0
   20060101020211	53	430	30
   20060101020212	76	457	0
   20060101020213	16	600	0

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5. ATUS Who File

   This file contains codes that indicate who was present during each activity.

   There is one record for each "who" code for each activity. There is one record for activities done alone and multiple records for activities with multiple people present. "Who" codes are not collected for some activities, such as when respondents report sleeping or grooming; in these situations a "-1" denotes that the "who" question was not asked for that activity.

   A simplified example of the ATUS Who file appears below. In the first activity (TUACTIVITY_N = 1), no “who” code information was collected. Only one person was with the respondent during the second activity, so there is one line for TUACTIVITY_N = 2. Three people were with the respondent during the third activity, so there are three lines for TUACTIVITY_N = 3. Two of those present (TUWHO_CODE = 20 and 22) are members of the respondent’s household and can be linked to the Roster file using TULINENO. The third person present (TUWHO_CODE = 51) is not a member of the respondent’s household and thus has a value of "-1" for TULINENO. The actual ATUS Who file contains more variables for each line as well as many additional lines.

   TUCASEID	TUACTIVITY_N	TUWHO_CODE	TULINENO
   20060101020210	1	-1	-1
   20060101020210	2	22	3
   20060101020210	3	20	2
   20060101020210	3	22	3
   20060101020210	3	51	-1

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6. ATUS-CPS File

   This file contains information collected during the final interview of the Current Population Survey (CPS) for all persons selected to participate in ATUS, whether they did or did not participate, and members of their households. The CPS interviews were conducted two to five months prior to the ATUS interview. For this reason, some of the information on the ATUS-CPS file was out of date at the time of the ATUS interview. When possible, it is best to use variables collected in ATUS rather than their CPS counterparts.

   The file has one record for each household member.

   A simplified example of the ATUS-CPS file appears below. In the example, three households are shown, each represented by a unique value for TUCASEID. Each TULINENO refers to a different household member. TULINENO = 1 refers to the household member who was selected to participate in ATUS. To determine whether this individual participated in ATUS, it is necessary to link the ATUS-CPS file to another file, such as the ATUS Respondent file. This example shows some of the variables that are not updated in ATUS, such as information about educational attainment (PEEDUCA), race (PTDTRACE), and geographic region (GEREG). The actual ATUS-CPS file contains more variables for each line as well as many additional lines.

   TUCASEID	TULINENO	PEEDUCA	PTDTRACE	GEREG
   20060101020210	1	41	1	4
   20060101020211	1	39	2	3
   20060101020211	2	45	2	3
   20060101020211	3	43	2	3
   20060101020212	1	39	8	1
   20060101020212	2	41	4	1

    

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1. ATUS Case History File

   The ATUS Case History file contains case-specific information about the interview process, such as interviewer identifiers, outcome codes, and data quality variables.

   There is one record for each person who was selected to participate in ATUS, whether the selected person did or did not complete an ATUS interview.

   Below is a simplified example. TUCASEID identifies each person selected to participate in ATUS; this example contains information from five individuals who were selected for the ATUS sample. Each value of TUCASEID is associated with variables that list the final outcome code (TRFNLOUT), the number of activities respondents reported doing on their diary day (TUTOTACTNO), the average duration of reported activities (TUAVGDUR), and an interviewer identification number (TUINTID). Note that two of the cases do not show information for TUTOTACTNO and TUAVGDUR; this is because they were noncontacts (that is, they did not participate in ATUS), as is indicated by the value of TRFNLOUT. The actual ATUS Case History file contains additional variables and many more lines.

   TUCASEID	TRFNLOUT	TUTOTACTNO	TUAVGDUR	TUINTID
   20060101020210	001.001	27	42.4	AA01
   20060101020211	001.001	16	90	AA02
   20060101020212	194.001	-1	-1	BB01
   20060101020213	188.001	-1	-1	AA01
   20060101020214	001.001	31	46.5	BB01

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2. ATUS Call History File

   The ATUS Call History file contains information about each call attempt that was made to persons selected to participate in ATUS. It includes information such as outcome codes for each call, the date and time of each call attempt, and interviewer identifiers. This file contains information for all persons selected to participate in ATUS, whether they did or did not participate in the survey.

   There is one record for each ATUS call attempt.

   Below is a simplified example. TUCASEID identifies each ATUS case and TUATTMPTNO identifies each call attempt. The example shows information from two cases that were selected for the ATUS sample. The first case (TUCASEID = 20060101020210) received two calls from an ATUS interviewer, with the second call resulting in a complete interview; the second case (TUCASEID = 20060101020211) received three calls before resulting in a complete interview. The variable TRFNLCLL shows the outcome of each call. An anonymous interviewer identification number (TUHINTID) is associated with each call attempt.

   TUCASEID	TUATTMPTNO	TUATTMDATE	TRFNLCLL	TUHINTID
   20060101020210	1	20060102	188.001	AA01
   20060101020210	2	20060102	001.001	BB01
   20060101020211	1	20060103	188.001	BB01
   20060101020211	2	20060103	188.001	AA01
   20060101020211	3	20060110	001.001	BB01

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3. ATUS Trips File

   The Trips file contains information about the number of times each respondent was away from home for 2 nights or more in a specific reference month. This file does not include weights.

   For more information about the Trips file read the Notice about Trips file.

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4. ATUS Replicate Weights File

   The ATUS Replicate Weights file contains weights necessary for generating standard errors for ATUS estimates. The file contains one record for each individual selected to participate in ATUS, whether the person did or did not participate in the survey. Technical information about the Replicate weights file can be found in the text message that is enclosed in the Replicate weights zip file. The formula for calculating standard errors with the replicate weights can be found in Chapter 7 of the ATUS User's Guide (PDF).

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Researchers often are interested in estimates of the amount of time Americans spend doing a specific activity, such as the average time Americans watched television in 2003. This type of estimate can be generated by using the Basic ATUS data files. The simplest way to generate an estimate about time use on an average day involves using the ATUS Activity Summary file. Researchers who wish to investigate more complicated questions, such as the amount of time Americans spent watching TV with a family member, will need to link multiple files. To answer this particular question, researchers would need to link the ATUS Respondent file (to obtain the statistical weight), the ATUS Activity file (to obtain activity information and duration), and the ATUS Who file (to obtain information about who was with the respondent during each activity). For more information about how to calculate estimates, see Chapter 7 and Appendix J of the ATUS User's Guide (PDF).