Recent Scientific Accomplishments

Robinson specializes in social science measurement and methodology. He has studied changes in American and other societies?time use since the 1960’s. Robinson, with fellow MPRC faculty associates, Suzanne Bianchi and Melissa Milkie, just published Changing Rhythms of American Family Life, as part of the Rose Monograph Series of the American Sociological Association. Earlier, with Geoffrey Godbey of Pennsylvania State University, he completed an updated and revised 1999 edition of Time for Life, a comprehensive assessment of Americans?use of time and how it has changed from 1965 through 1995. It reaches the controversial conclusion that, despite more feelings of time pressure, Americans have more free time at their disposal on average than in the past. Much of this work on time use in the past eight years has been collaborative (with Suzanne Bianchi and other sociologists/demographers) on time use and the family. Particular attention in recent diary studies focuses on an important demographic group reporting maximal levels of stress and time pressure and the lowest amount of free time, namely parents in dual-income families. By using complete weekly diaries of the varied activities of both parents and children in these households, Robinson and Bianchi are documenting time coping strategies in situations of maximal time pressure. Several measures of time pressure and stress are included in the study, including feelings of spending too little time with one's children, to capture both the "objective" (time diary) and “subjective? dimensions of time allocation. In a separate analysis of U.S. and French diary data, Robinson et al. (forthcoming) identifies activities that seem to work effectively based on the different work schedules of husbands and wives. Finally, Robinson has a long-standing interest in the effects of communication technology on society. Between 1999 and 2004, he led a major project on inequality in access and use of the Internet, as published in the online journal he edited, ITandSociety.org. Currently, Robinson coordinates several studies to test competing theories and hypotheses about the Internet's impact on society, including inequality in Internet skills and usage, time displacement, possible declining social capital, polarized political attitude and reconfigured social networks. Additionally, Robinson edited two major handbooks of attitude measures - Measures of Political Attitudes, and Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Attitudes. Robinson’s publications and research have been acknowledged by his recent nomination for a lifetime career award and selection into the Sociological Research Association.

Funded Research

While not currently funded, Robinson was a principal investigator (P.I.) on a grant from the National Science Foundation and on a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that supported his studies of the impact of the internet on society.

Future Plans

Since 2000, Robinson has documented how the Internet has become the most used medium for health information (among those seeking health information) and how that has not resulted in lower use of the earlier media. He hopes to obtain funding both to continue this time series and to extend the GSS Internet module to include questions on what specific information was sought and how useful the information obtained was. In addition to simple access to the Internet (which has been highlighted in studies of the "Digital Divide"), the study would examine further inequalities that may result from social support networks, navigational skills and other resources. Analyses to date provide support for the "Newtonian" world of resource acquisition - there is the tendency for those already rich in information and resource to become relatively richer through the use of these new technologies. Of considerable interest is how well elderly respondents have been able to obtain medicines and drugs via the Internet. Another recent research area centers on foreign language speaking in America with the University’s new Center for the Advanced Study of Language (CASL). Language access has emerged as a critical issue in the provision of healthcare in the US, driven by the recognition of language barriers as a significant source of preventable medical errors and patient deaths, as noted in the 2005 National Healthcare Disparities Report and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Robinson plans to develop new CASL surveys on language access as a barrier to health care and information, and he wants to examine the impact of these disparities on healthcare outcomes and minority attitudes towards healthcare.