Men at Work: Time Investment and Subjective Well-being

Men at Work: Time Investment and Subjective Well-being | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Men at Work: Time Investment and Subjective Well-being Ariel Kalil, Rebecca Ryan, Daniela Bresciani This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6777890/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Compared to their college-educated peers, men without college degrees have become less attached to the labor market over time. Much research has focused on economic factors, suggesting that the decrease in real wages for less-educated men discourages work among this group. The differences in subjective well-being that men experience at work are less understood. Work encompasses more than just financial compensation; college-educated men may work more because their jobs provide a higher level of subjective well-being. Using data from the 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2021 waves of the Well-Being Module of the American Time Use Survey, we investigate whether college-educated men experience more positive and fewer negative momentary feelings at work than their less-educated peers. We find no such evidence. In fact, among all men, spending time at work is linked to fewer positive and more negative momentary feelings than engaging in other activities. This pattern does not differ by men’s education or age and is robust to the inclusion of a rich set of covariates and individual fixed effects. Approaches to encouraging work for less-educated men should consider highlighting the long-term economic and social rewards of stable employment, which may be worth experiencing work’s day-to-day negative feelings. Time use work men’s employment men’s education subjective well-being Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6777890","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":476917965,"identity":"ed9a1e7f-15f5-437e-88f2-b506a2bf9f68","order_by":0,"name":"Ariel Kalil","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA3ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACHgbGAwkFNgwMEowNUKEEgloYDiQYpJGqhcHgMFALXIiAFv6eww8OPDA4n9g/u7nxw49fNgz87DkGeLVInG0zADrsduKMOwebJXv70hgke97g18JwngGiZYNEYhsDb89hBoMbBGyRP8/+AajlHFgL41+gFntCWgzO9oBsOQDWwszzA2iLBAEthmfOFAC1JBvPuJHYLC3bkMYjceZZAV4tcmfSNz78UWEn2z8j/eHHN39s5Pjbkzfg1YIKGNtA8UQa+EOqhlEwCkbBKBgJAAAL4E9uc+pUDwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of Chicago","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ariel","middleName":"","lastName":"Kalil","suffix":""},{"id":476917966,"identity":"1d66c36b-acf0-4170-8dd9-069616b6fcd4","order_by":1,"name":"Rebecca Ryan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Georgetown University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rebecca","middleName":"","lastName":"Ryan","suffix":""},{"id":476917967,"identity":"2b4aedf8-6a71-42d3-998f-97793fbc2447","order_by":2,"name":"Daniela Bresciani","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Daniela","middleName":"","lastName":"Bresciani","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-05-29 15:23:23","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6777890/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6777890/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":104402441,"identity":"e5dbebee-44c6-4686-a6e8-43d925df5f86","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 12:15:23","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1173572,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"KalilRyanBrescianisubmitted.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6777890/v1_covered_d6c3d8e6-e2ce-44b5-8e21-a4d9cb04a8da.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Men at Work: Time Investment and Subjective Well-being","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Time use, work, men’s employment, men’s education, subjective well-being","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6777890/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6777890/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eCompared to their college-educated peers, men without college degrees have become less attached to the labor market over time. Much research has focused on economic factors, suggesting that the decrease in real wages for less-educated men discourages work among this group. The differences in subjective well-being that men experience at work are less understood. Work encompasses more than just financial compensation; college-educated men may work more because their jobs provide a higher level of subjective well-being. Using data from the 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2021 waves of the Well-Being Module of the American Time Use Survey, we investigate whether college-educated men experience more positive and fewer negative momentary feelings at work than their less-educated peers. We find no such evidence. In fact, among all men, spending time at work is linked to fewer positive and more negative momentary feelings than engaging in other activities. This pattern does not differ by men\u0026rsquo;s education or age and is robust to the inclusion of a rich set of covariates and individual fixed effects. Approaches to encouraging work for less-educated men should consider highlighting the long-term economic and social rewards of stable employment, which may be worth experiencing work\u0026rsquo;s day-to-day negative feelings.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Men at Work: Time Investment and Subjective Well-being","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-07-01 04:46:50","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6777890/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"fe042318-e8fd-402b-950c-bf63227a68c3","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 1st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-06T03:10:25+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-07-01 04:46:50","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6777890","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6777890","identity":"rs-6777890","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}