The purpose of this research was to examine changes in demographic information and time use patterns over an eight year time period for husbands in Roanoke area families. The information was used to create profiles of three subsamples in the study. Husband’s time use was recorded for both weekend and weekdays in 1978 and 1986. The men were analyzed as a whole and then broken down into three age cohorts so that they could be "tracked" over the eight year period. Analysis of variance and t-tests were used to determine significant differences in time use patterns. Descriptive statistics provided information on demographic changes that occurred.

Demographic changes included increases in age, family income, size of homes, education, and hours of employment of both husband and wife. Appliance ownership increased with a specific increase of 78% in microwave oven ownership. Change in use of outside help over the years was most evident in the decrease in help with child care and the increase in help with housecleaning.

Changes in time use included increases in employment hours and decreases in household work time, nonwork (leisure) time, and personal maintenance time. Within the category use were physical husbands of household work, significant decreases in time found in both weekend and weekday samples in care of other family members. On weekdays, grouped as a whole, spent significantly less time in household work and eating. On weekend days, significantly less time was spent in physical care of other family members by all husbands, while the middle aged group of husbands spent significantly less time in nonphysical care of other family members.