Understanding the Implications of Increased Lifestyle Diversity NSF SBE 2020 White Paper Michael Jindra University of Notre Dame Abstract: Lifestyles, defined as contrasting patterns of how people spend their time (e.g. work, leisure, education, consumption and family life), are crucial to understanding socioeconomic outcomes. Because of a number of changes, including recent developments such as the Internet, lifestyle diversity in increasing, possibly contributing to increased inequality. Future research should focus on specifying lifestyle diversity, the various forces that influence lifestyle, and the possible implications of increased lifestyle diversity. Given the complexity of this project, significant interdisciplinary collaboration will need to occur. Various pieces of existing research needs to be brought together to understand how various forces (structural, cultural and individual) interact to influence how we live our lives. One of the greatest challenges of the next decades will be to understand the influences and implications of different lifestyles, and how they affect the socioeconomic status and quality of life of different groups. This is made even more important and relevant by the increased diversity of lifestyles in the U.S. Class, ethnic, subcultural and other differences in human behavior are actually increasing, along with socioeconomic outcomes. For instance, there is a growing divergence in family structure by social class, income, education, and ethnicity, along with greater divergence in family life patterns such as leisure and work practices among parents and children. The extent to which these trends significantly feed into increased socioeconomic inequalities should be addressed. How do people and families pattern their daily lives? What habits do they have, and how do these play into socioeconomic outcomes? Lifestyle patterns of different groups have evolved in the context of culture, structure, and other environments, such as technology. Television, for instance, stimulated the strongest shift in time use over the past century. The Internet and entertainments such as video games have also had a significant impact. Food choices and availability have also changed, and people have responded differently to these opportunities. Social life, clubs, sports and enrichment activities have also changed dramatically, though only some are able and/or willing to be a part of these activities. A vast array of hobbies and activities are now available to families, from sport to music fandoms. At the same time that various leisure and consumption activities occupy various people, others devote themselves to work, careers, or enrichment activities for their children. These contrasting patterns are play a role in maintaining or increasing inequalities. Sometimes attempts to decrease structural inequalities backfire, as when providing lower income families with computers actually hurt educational attainment, since they became a distraction used most often for gaming, according to recent research. Families do different things with the opportunities presented to them, and it is these contrasting family patterns that must be taken into account. This paper was submitted to the National Science Foundation as part of its SBE 2020 planning activity (www.nsf.gov/sbe/sbe_2020/). Its inclusion does not constitute approval of the content by NSF or the US Government. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the NSF or the US Government. Note- For later published research on this topic, see "The Dilemma of Equality and Diversity" (2014) also on Michael Jindra's academia.edu webpage