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.     

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.     

Family Leisure Functioning: A Cross-National Study

The purpose of this study was to, first, determine whether positive relationships between family leisure (involvement and satisfaction) and family outcomes (cohesion, adaptability, family functioning, and satisfaction with family life) were present in a multinational sample, and second, determine whether the core and balance model could provide a consistent framework for between country comparisons of relationships between family leisure and family outcome variables cross nationally. Families were recruited from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Data were analyzed using blocked multiple regression models, and generalized linear models to compare relationships across countries. Overall, findings indicated positive relationships between family leisure and family outcomes were consistent across all five countries. Some differences in relationship strength, not directionality, occurred primarily in family leisure involvement rather than family leisure satisfaction.     

Factors Influencing the Physically Active Leisure of Children and Youth: A Qualitative Study

A phenomenological framework guided data collection and analysis of the prevalent influences on attitudes and behaviors of elementary, junior, and secondary school students towards their physically active leisure. Twenty-two students participated in individual in-depth interviews. Parental influence and outdoor play effected choice and level of physically active leisure for elementary students. Opportunities for organized and non-structured physically active leisure and friends were significant for junior students. Academic responsibilities and organized physically active leisure were influential for secondary students. Common threads were parental influence and the belief that the students were too old to start new activities. These findings highlight the importance of providing opportunities in safe environments for children and youth to participate in a variety of structured and non-structured forms of physically active leisure.     

Family Activity Model: Crossroads of Activity Environment and Family Interactions in Family Leisure

ABSTRACT

This article proposes the Family Activity Model (FAM) that integrates the previous work of Orthner's theoretical constructs of joint and parallel activities with Zabriskie and McCormick's constructs of core and balance experiences. FAM includes two dimensions of family experiences: activity environment and family interaction. Activity environment refers to the degree of novelty in the environment, while family interaction refers to the degree of social interaction among family members. These dimensions include objective and subjective elements of experiences. As a result of these orthogonal dimensions, four categories were developed providing a more nuanced understanding of family experiences: core-joint, core-parallel, balance-joint, and balance-parallel. The broader implications of using the FAM are discussed for researchers and practitioners.     

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.     

How Muslim Women in The Netherlands Negotiate Discrimination During Leisure Activities

Qualitative research about discrimination encountered by Muslim women in The Netherlands who are participating in leisure activities in public spaces shows that perceived discrimination is part of everyday life. This is especially true for women who wear the veil because their visible head covering signals their “otherness” to people. The discriminatory actions encountered by women in this sample are typically of a nonviolent nature and mostly comprise unpleasant looks and negative remarks. Perceived discrimination often does not prevent the women from participating in leisure activities. Instead, they actively negotiate discrimination by applying various coping strategies, including justification, direct confrontation, accepting the discrimination, and modifying leisure behavior.     

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.     

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.     

国内外休闲研究扫描--兼谈建立我国休闲学科体系的设想

本文全面地介绍了国内外休闲研究的发展背景、演变历程、研究现状、相关机构和代表文献，提供了一个把握休闲研究脉络和体系的图景，并就建立适合我国国情的休闲学科研究体系提出了设想。     

The Contribution of Leisure Participation and Leisure Satisfaction to Stress-Related Growth

This study examined the contribution of leisure participation and leisure satisfaction on the experience of stress-related growth (SRG). Some types of leisure activity may be beneficial for SRG under certain circumstances. In addition, leisure satisfaction may be positively related to the stress-related growth experience. The participants of this study were 318 undergraduate students at an eastern Canadian university. The results indicated that frequent participation in civic activities and leisure satisfaction were statistically significant predictors of SRG. The findings in this study provided further evidence that positive leisure experiences and specific types of leisure activity not only help people cope with various stresses, but also facilitate growth-related changes.     

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.     

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.     

北京五类人群休闲方式的比较与分析

随着生活水平的不断提高,人们对于休闲活动的需求也越来越大,也越来越重视休闲在自己生活中的地位.本文通过对北京五类人群的调查与研究来了解北京不同阶层人群的休闲方式的不同之处,以及他们选择休闲方式的决定因素和制约因素,从而揭示休闲在人们生活中的重要地位,倡导不同阶层人群选择健康与积极的休闲方式.     

Rumbles in the Jungle: Boxing,Racialization and the Performance of Masculinity

Men's boxing is a sport with successful, high profile and affluent participants and one that includes many of the very much less well off. It has traditionally involved high participation by men from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. The sport is beset by contradictions, between racism and opportunity, discipline and excess, beautiful bodies and those that are fractured and damaged, and between traditional and alternative presentations of masculinity. The negotiation and presentation of raced and gendered identities have a strong presence, especially in terms of the ways in which hegemonic masculinity might be enacted. This paper is about racialized masculinities in boxing and links ethnography at a Sheffield gym that has produced some very well-known boxers, with an exploration of popular, media narratives about this particular performance of masculinities and the discursive location of boxing as a sport. It looks at the enactment of masculinities at a site that might appear to offer particularly essentialized and polarized versions of masculinity, race and class. It examines the ways in which men participate in boxing at a variety of levels and the interconnections between the public and the private stories that are told about men and boxing.     

也论休闲与旅游

本文是一篇属于基础理论研究的文章.由于前驱者的开拓与努力,近年,中国的休闲研究和旅游研究都取得了突飞猛进的发展.但是在近一两年,却出现了一种舆论过热的现象,甚至有媒体炒作出了中国进入休闲时代的"新闻".有鉴于此,本文试图从休闲、Leisure和Recreation等基本概念出发,寻找着国内外研究者的视野,从而提出应该加深对休闲内涵的理解的主张,其中包括如何根据UNWTO关于旅游的定义来认识休闲与旅游的异同等.在廓清了一些模糊概念之后,本论文便转入了中国是否进入了休闲时代的讨论,作者的观点是,判断是否进入了一个新时代,必须有重大的标志或衡量的标准,而就目前中国居民真正拥有的休闲时间、经济实力及其消费趋向来考察,说中国进入休闲时代还为时过早.     

国际休闲研究动向与我国休闲研究主要命题刍议

西方关于休闲学的研究已有100多年历史,也已具备相当的理论与实践积累,成果颇丰,当前呈现出多学科综合交叉研究动向.我国休闲研究起步10年,出现了一批理论成果.随着社会经济文化的发展,我国面临诸多与休闲相关的问题,休闲研究显得极为紧迫.本文借鉴国外研究动向与现实课题,尝试性提出我国目前休闲研究的主要命题.     

休闲消费和休闲服务调查:国际经验与相关建议

在当前消费休闲化与休闲社会化、市场化的发展趋势下，进行休闲消费和休闲服务调查不仅是理论研究纵深发展的需要，更能为政府决策和企业经营提供科学依据。本文介绍了国内外休闲消费和休闲服务调查的进展情况，并就推动我国休闲消费和休闲服务调查发展提出了建议。     

The Temporal Phases of Leisure Experience: Expectation,Experience and Reflection of Leisure Participation

While there have been studies whereby the methodology relied on evaluations of pre-, during, and postparticipation experiences, it is far more common that research on leisure does not consider the temporal phases of a leisure experience. Further, many of the studies that have attempted to encompass the multiple temporal phases of experiential leisure involvement have not focused on participants who had established significant leisure careers or long histories of recreation participation in a singular activity. The purpose of this study was to explore the temporal phases of a leisure experience in the context of individuals' in situ attendance at a niche music performance. These phases consisted of participants' expectations before the event, the actual experience during the event, and the memory of that experience after its completion. Because participants wanted to feel in control of their lives, personal reassessments and the prioritization of positive events sought to emphasize the value of their agency. Researchers found that the reconstruction of memory drives desire for future participation as well as the associative expectations of what is to come.     

Measuring Serious Leisure in Chess: Model Confirmation and Method Bias

The serious leisure inventory and measure (SLIM) was tested with 348 chess players to confirm the factors, assess the effects of method bias, and propose a set of the best-performing items for the 18 factor SLIM. The 54-item SLIM demonstrated acceptable fit and reliability values. The effect of method bias was evidenced in the sample and explained one-third of the variance. Inspection of factor loadings, when controlling for method bias, yielded one best-performing item per factor. Findings indicate method bias continues to be problematic for self-report measures such as the SLIM.