Cultural participation and time restrictions: Explaining the frequency of individual and joint cultural visits

Research on cultural participation has as yet paid little attention to restrictions of time. This study uses time constraints related to the working hours of couples to explain the frequency of their individual as well as joint high-brow cultural participation. With data on 5438 respondents from four large-scale surveys in the Netherlands, it shows that individuals in couples where both partners hold a full-time job visit significantly fewer high-brow cultural events than people in couples with other work arrangements. Especially men who work part time seem to participate in culture more compared to men who work full time. Moreover, in households where the husband works part time, the wife's cultural participation is higher too. For joint attendance at high-brow cultural events we find no evidence that working hours hamper visits. This indicates that full-time working couples probably prioritize their joint cultural participation; as cultural activities attended together are unaffected by their longer working hours.