Disparities in Alone Time: Using an Intersectional Framework to Examine Social Isolation
Over the last several decades, there has been an increase in the number of single person households which has implications for how much time people are spending alone and who is socially isolated. Using an intersectional framework, I examine how gender and race-ethnicity shape how much time people spend alone by analyzing time diary data from the American Time Use Survey, 2003-2018. Following McCall’s (2005) method of intercategorical intersectional analysis, I find that Black men spend the most time alone compared to seven other gender-race groups. I also find that marriage and employment have varying effects on how much time each group spends alone with Black men, unemployed persons, and older adults spending more time alone than other groups. This research highlights the importance of examining how much time people spend alone by both gender and race and identifies groups who may be at greater risk of social isolation due to disparate rates of time spent alone.