The Core and Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

In the past 15 years, the Core and Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning has emerged as a focus in family leisure research. This body of work has demonstrated that family leisure involvement is consistently a significant predictor of elements of family well-being from multiple perspectives in the family, and among a variety of family types. A closer examination of this work reveals a more complex interrelationship between family leisure involvement and well-being and calls for further refinement and testing of the model. A systematic review of this body of work was conducted with the goals of offering a summary of findings, a revised graphic of the model, strengths, limitations, and recommendations for future work. Nineteen peer-reviewed journal articles, nine research abstracts, and one dissertation were reviewed.     

Practices and meaning of purposive family leisure among working- and middle-class families

This article explores the relationship between purposive family leisure and social class in Australian families. A brief review of family leisure literature is followed by a review of conceptual developments in family sociology and the new sociology of class in order to build a richer conceptual and theoretical base for exploring purposive family leisure. Qualitative data are reported from semi-structured interviews with parents in 28 working- and middle-class families in Brisbane, Australia. An analysis of family leisure practices show differences in what constitutes family leisure and its display. Moreover, parents’ stated intentions for engaging in family leisure practices suggest that there is a classed dimension to purposive leisure, in that working- and middle-class parents emphasise different values and imagined futures for their children.     

Profiling Asian and Western family independent travelers (FITS): An exploratory study

This study explored perceptual and behavioral differences in service quality, satisfaction, and intention to revisit between Asian and Western family independent travelers (FITs) and to profile each group by its demographic and vacation characteristics as well as its family vacation decision‐making modes. Qualified FITs (n = 183) from seven major source markets were interviewed in the departure lounge at the Hong Kong International Airport. Results indicated that, compared to Asian FITs, Western respondents were more likely to favorably evaluate service quality, be first time visitors, and be younger. However, they were less likely to return to Hong Kong for leisure. Most Western travelers shared all decisions together between spouses, whereas their Asian counterparts were more likely to report individual dominant decisions, especially for those trip specific decisions. Marketing implications and future research directions are discussed.     

The (In)Visibility of Grandparents in Family Leisure Research: A Call for Expanded Conceptualizations of “Family”

ABSTRACT

The continued focus on the individual as a unit of analysis, along with the privileging of the nuclear family over the past two decades of family leisure scholarship, has rendered grandparents virtually invisible in family leisure scholarship. In this commentary, I examine the position of grandparents in leisure research and suggest that the implicit acceptance of the status quo has been detrimental to the state of family leisure research. Drawing on literature from both leisure studies and family relations, I assert a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of diverse family forms is vital to the progression of family leisure scholarship.     

Married couples’ involvement with family vacations

Abstract

The involvement construct has received a great deal of attention in recent years. However, the majority of research on this topic has focused on the individual and has ignored spouses’ shared leisure involvement. In addition, little work has been done on involvement in the product‐class context of family vacations. This study examined the underlying dimensions of married couples’ involvement with family vacations and how these dimensions relate to selected personal variables. Factor analysis revealed two underlying dimensions. Stepwise multiple regression revealed that pleasure‐importance was positively related to gender role ideology and education and negatively related to presence of children in the home. A positive relation existed between the second dimension, sign value, and age. The study provides insight into both the nature of the involvement construct and how it might be used in future research.     

Updating the Family Operating System: A Literature Review of Information Communication Technology and Family Leisure

ABSTRACT

This article examines the ways in which information communication technology (ICT) influences how contemporary families function, build relationships, and enjoy leisure. The literature review focuses on several areas of family life influenced by ICT use, specifically e-leisure, family communication, and family intimacy. A call for future research outlines several areas of exploration, including ICT use and family leisure, changes in perception of healthy and well-functioning families, the influence ICT use has on the development and well-being of individual family members and families with diverse family structures, and characteristics of technology that might be used by family members to improve leisure and relationships.     

The Racialization of Leisure: Comments on Stodolska's Discrimination Model

Abstract

This cross‐sectional study examines the relationship between barriers to leisure enjoyment and family stages. A list of 18 barriers, which included time, money, knowledge, and attitudinal and motivational constraints was analyzed for two samples of citizens and for one sample of recreation professionals over five family stages, sex of respondent, and four attitudinal measures (internal‐external control, political alienation, community relatedness, optimism). Results indicated varying relationships, depending on the barrier. Findings are discussed in terms of leisure resourcefulness and awareness of respondents (citizens compared to recreation professionals), the need to identify individuals at risk or benefit for particular family stages, and the implication of the findings for identifying target groups and appropriate approaches for leisure service providers.     

Does Women's Preference for Highbrow Leisure Begin in the Family? Comparing Leisure Participation among Brothers and Sisters

Research shows that women are more likely than men to participate in highbrow leisure activities, but we do not know whether this gap develops within the family at an early age or is the outcome of socioeconomic differences between men and women later in life. We compare highbrow leisure participation among brothers and sisters from the same family and report three findings: (1) gender differences in highbrow leisure participation are largely unrelated to family background, (2) there is little evidence that parents engage in gender-specific cultural socialization, and (3) socioeconomic position and family obligations account for less than 20% of brother-sister differences in highbrow leisure participation. Our results suggest that gender differences in highbrow leisure participation originate in factors outside the family.     

Assessing Alternative Techniques for Scaling the Family Leisure Activity Profile: Recommendations for Future Family Leisure Measurement

Psychometric properties of the Family Leisure Activity Profile (FLAP) were evaluated using family leisure and family functioning ratings from 884 parents and children residing in the United Kingdom. Review and critique of the FLAP resulted in identification and evaluation of three alternative scaling techniques. Scaling Technique 1 was current practice, Technique 2 focused on family leisure environments rather than family leisure activities, and Technique 3 involved generating an estimate of duration of participation in family leisure in natural units of time. Inter-rater agreement and reliability were strong for all three scaling techniques. Technique 3 yielded the best model fit. Empirical relations with family functioning variables were consistent with predictions, yet none of the scaling techniques resolved a longstanding problem regarding specific relations among core and balance patterns of participation, family cohesion, and family adaptability. Suggestions for improving the FLAP are provided.     

Measurement of Time Involvement in Family Activities: Alternative Scaling Procedures for the Family Leisure Activity Profile

ABSTRACT

This research note describes an alternative scaling procedure for the Family Leisure Activity Profile (FLAP; Zabriskie & McCormick, 2001). The alternative scaling procedure preserves the ratio-level character of responses to FLAP questionnaire items, and it produces an estimate of prevalence of participation with interpretable units of time (hours). In contrast, the traditional FLAP scoring approach produces scores on an arbitrary scale, and these scores can be distorted indicators of involvement in core and balance activities. The increased precision and greater variation produced by the alternative scoring procedure may be a key to more consistent findings regarding family leisure in future studies.     

Family Leisure and Leisure Service Provision: Making the Case for Including Perspectives from Practice

ABSTRACT

Research over the last 20 years has contributed to the conceptualization and theorizing about family leisure. Missing from this body of knowledge has been research that focuses on the provision of family leisure programs and services that includes the perspectives of practitioners. Also missing from this research are the perspectives of those who engage in programs and services that have been designed for or offered to families. The first purpose of this article is to, through a discussion of the literature, demonstrate the potential value of engaging recreation and leisure agencies in research that advances knowledge about how family leisure is practiced in program and service contexts. The second purpose is to identify potential areas of inquiry that not only will contribute to advancing theory about family leisure but also support practice in delivering recreation and leisure programs and services for families.     

The influence of leisure and travel experiences on the school enjoyment of adolescents: a panel analysis

ABSTRACT

This research note examines the influence of experiential activities and family travel experiences on the school enjoyment of adolescents by applying a panel regression analysis. The authors used data from the Korean Children & Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS) for data analysis and performed a one-way fixed effect regression and a feasible generalized least square (FGLS) regression analyses. The findings reveal that 1) higher levels of satisfaction in experiential activities could enable adolescents to better enjoy their school lives and 2) the frequency of family and group trips had a positive impact on adolescents’ school enjoyment. However, the frequency of experiential activities was negatively associated with adolescents’ school enjoyment. This research discusses the implications with regard to the influence of leisure and family travel experiences on the school enjoyment of adolescents based on the findings.     

Parents' Leisure,LGB Young People and “When We Were Coming Out”

ABSTRACT

This article examines parents' leisure experiences in relation to their child's coming out process and developing lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identity. Thirteen heterosexual-identifying parents (seven mothers and six fathers) from Canada and the United States were interviewed about the social context and relational aspects of their leisure experiences (e.g., special events and holidays, friends, co-participants, co-workers). Analysis showed that leisure contexts could be altered in relation to their child's developing LGB identity and cultural norms related to heterosexism and homophobia. Three main themes that best reflected the mothers' and fathers' experiences emerged: (a) grieving heterosexist ideals and reframing familial expectations, (b) encountering homophobia and the loss of community, and (c) coming out of the family home and creating a supportive network.     

Gendered time use at home: an ethnographic examination of leisure time in middle‐class families

Home is often conceived as a refuge for busy working parents, but new findings indicate that relatively little leisure takes place there. We describe the indoor home leisure activities of middle‐class, dual‐earner parents, using ethnographic data from 32 Los Angeles‐area families of many ethnicities and real income levels. In our analysis, we rely most heavily on systematic scan sampling data in which the locations and activities of each family member were documented by hand‐held computer every 10 minutes. Only about 15% of parents’ time at home appears to be dedicated to leisure activities. Of that leisure time, nearly all is experienced indoors, much of it in passive and often non‐interactive contexts like watching television. Both mothers and fathers often experience indoor free time in very short, fragmented episodes, although fathers are more likely to have some longer periods of leisure. There are also gender inequalities in how often, when during the day, and where in the house parents spend their leisure time, although these inequalities are more pronounced in some families than others.     

Revisiting Family Leisure Research and Critical Reflections on the Future of Family-Centered Scholarship

ABSTRACT

In this special issue of Leisure Sciences, we examine the progress made and challenges ahead in research on leisure and families—20 years revisited. We consider what advancements have been made in family leisure research and potential new directions that family-centered scholars can look towards. We also consider the dominance of particular theoretical perspectives and methodological designs, and the limitations and consequences of such perspectives, to understand the complexities, diversity, and richness of the lived family experience. Emphasis is placed on the need for scholarship that explores diverse constructions of family and to provide a call to action for family-centered scholars to engage with broader global social issues.     

Negotiating work and family: lifestyle migration,potential selves and the role of second homes as potential spaces

This article is based on ethnographic research conducted in the USA with migrants who use an act of relocation as a means of deliberately constructing identity as well as seeking greater ‘balance’ and ‘control’ in their lives. Specifically, it examines how ‘second’ homes can serve as a transitional or ‘potential space’ in the lives of these migrants not only between different geographic places but also what are taken to be distinct identities and ideals associated with these places and the lives lived in them. Such behaviour is not simply about coping and adapting to a new environment; rather, it is about using qualities of destination places to reconcile different visions of self and family purposefully set apart by relocation and a particular notion of ‘the good’ that underlies a ‘lifestyle commitment’ attached to the new place. The author highlights how research into the changing dynamics of work and family can help us understand, generally, effects of an emergent, economic order on working families and, specifically, how associated social and cultural changes shape this migration behaviour. Through analysis of lifestyle migration, this article contributes to discussion of the ways in which cultural values of work and family interrelate in migrancy as well as of challenges and opportunities facing migrants who purposefully attend to leisure activities and places associated with leisure as proper domains for essential identity work and to lifestyle as the means of realising what we may call the ‘potential self’.     

Families at leisure outdoors: well-being through adventure

ABSTRACT

This study investigates families who choose to co-participate in outdoor adventure holidays, and explores how they benefit from these shared experiences. In so doing, it seeks to determine the role of adventure tourism in developing and enhancing family well-being (FWB). Hyper-modern family life for many is powered by technological hardware, each room in the house replete with on-line pleasures, distractions and identities. In response to this dystopia, some families opt to take adventure holidays together. However, scholarship concerning collective experiences of adventurous leisure, in this case as families, is limited. Using a qualitative whole family approach, 15 (adventure tourist) families were interviewed, totalling 62 interviewees (29 adults and 33 children under 18 years old), in their home environments. Four key themes related to FWB emerged. First, families extended their active lifestyles to adventure holidays and repeatedly mentioned the health and fitness benefits gained from these experiences. Second, adventure holidays facilitated unmediated time together for families. Third, parents harboured ideals of positive personal development for their children in these adventure settings. Fourth, making memories during adventure holidays, and recollecting these post-trip, were integral to family bonding. Further research should consider non-traditional families, and various socio-economic and cultural groups in this context.     

Leisure,gender and family: the influence of social policy

A number of authors have recently called for reconsideration of the way in which gender and the family are investigated within leisure studies. This paper proposes that future analyses should include more explicit recognition of the ideological and practical influence of social policy on contemporary gender relations. The paper suggests that social policy has particular significance for debates within leisure studies, about the relationship between men and women's market and domestic labour, and their access to leisure. The paper investigates the influence of social policy on male and female adult life patterns through comparative analysis of social policy interventions and labour market outcomes in the economically advanced nations. It focusses on the policy stance in relation to paid work, especially maternal and paternal employment. It is shown that ‘family-related’ social policies universally support fathers' employment, but vary in the extent to which they encourage mothers' labour market activity. The implications of this for gender differentiation in leisure are explored through analysis of cross-national data for male and female sports participation in Europe. The analysis shows a strong correlation between gender discrimination in family-related social policy, and differentials in male-female sports participation rates. The paper next considers the implications of policy intervention for divergence within the female population. A detailed case study of the UK examines how family-related policy may differentially affect women in different socio-economic situations. The paper concludes that whether family-related policies encourage women to see themselves primarily as caregivers within the family unit, or as citizens with individualized rights, is likely to affect both their sense of entitlement to personal leisure and their ability to access it.     

The Relationship Between Father Involvement in Family Leisure and Family Functioning: The Importance of Daily Family Leisure

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between fathers’ involvement in family leisure and aspects of family functioning from both a father and young adolescent perspective. The sample consisted of fathers and their adolescent child from 647 families throughout the United States. Results from both the father and youth perspective indicated significant relationships between father involvement in both core and balance family leisure with family cohesion, family adaptability, and overall family functioning. Satisfaction with core family leisure that included the father's involvement was the single strongest predictor of all aspects of family functioning from both perspectives highlighting the importance of regularly occurring home-based family activities such as eating dinner together, participating in hobbies and informal sports or yard activities together, watching television together, or playing board games and video games together. Discussion and implications for fathers, families, practitioners, and future research are presented.     

Locating leisure as the route to well-being: challenges of researching women’s leisure in Turkey

ABSTRACT

This article interrogates the relation of leisure to subjective well-being by focusing on the language-based challenges during empirical research, which deeply impact upon both the substance of the data collected and its interpretation, thereby the knowledge that is produced on leisure. Drawing upon the empirical data collected via qualitative methods, the article seizes on the relationship between women’s free-time, labour, leisure and subjective well-being. The findings of the research suggest that the translation of leisure as ‘free time activities’ in Turkish creates serious challenges in researching women’s leisure. Women in this research understand leisure in multiple ways, such as an escape from boredom, a sphere of recuperation, pleasure and self-fulfilment which altogether represent their understanding of leisure as a route to their subjective well-being. Building on these findings, the article aims to highlight the importance of ethnographically guided qualitative research in uncovering both the meanings of and the interdependence between leisure and subjective well-being in both Turkey, the focus of the study, and other comparable societies around the world.