Leisure Activity

Historical Background

In western Europe, as Geoffrey Godbey and Stanley Parker observed, time spent at work consistently increased from the Middle Ages until the middle of the 19th century, whereas in America, the work week averaged at least 70 hours for factory workers by 1850; in other words, work increased and leisure declined from the end of the Middle Ages until the height of the Industrial Revolution in the mid- to late 19th century. This reduction in leisure was not only mirrored in longer work hours, but, more generally, by perhaps the single most conspicuous characteristic of industrialization: the spatial segregation of daily life, wherein work came to be done in a specialized place (at work) at a certain time and under particular conditions, and leisure (and family life, generally) tended to occur somewhere else (at home). Although the average work week in western Europe has diminished to less than 40 hours during the past century, it would be fair to say that industrialization created leisure the way we know it, as a distinct and largely residual sphere of life, as the time left over after work.

Family as a Context for Leisure

So how do modern Americans—and modern American families—“spend” all of this “extra” time? Questions regarding family leisure are complicated. For example, people define leisure activities differently, and one person's leisure is another person's work (hobbies and volunteer activities are good examples of this principle). Moreover, social scientists know considerably more about how families work than how they play, although we have long believed that “the family that plays together, stays together.” It is fairly easy, however, to make the case that leisure behavior is an especially useful lens through which to view family behavior. Leisure behavior is discretionary behavior and lends itself well to questions about what families do in the way of leisure activities, and with whom family members undertake these activities, when they do not have to do anything at all?

Family members face several issues if they decide to participate in a leisure activity together. Leisure involving more than one person, in general, can be difficult to coordinate due to a handful of reasons. For one, parents and children may not enjoy the same leisure activities, and children may not be inclined to pursue the same activities. It is also the case that marked differences in family members' physical abilities and maturational levels can be a deterrent to joint leisure, both in terms of parents and children, as well as between siblings who are separated by several years. Along the same line, leisure activities hold different possibilities for interaction, some necessitating coordination among several people (e.g., playing cards) and others being essentially solitary activities that [Page 967]provide restricted opportunities for interaction (e.g., reading). Further, leisure activities that may be undertaken by more than one person are still subject to the interactional preferences of those involved. For example, research shows that those who “specialize” in activities (i.e., become devoted to certain leisure activities and become quite skilled at them) tend to avoid participation with nonspecialists, and this is one way that compan-ionate family leisure may be deterred (e.g., all family members enjoy playing tennis, but the husband played collegiate tennis, is a specialist, and is uninterested in pursuing that particular activity with others who cannot play tennis at his level). Research also shows that wider social network factors may bear on the extent to which family members participate in the same activities; for example, a wife may like going to garage sales and, further, may enjoy going to sales with her husband, but be disinclined to do so when her husband's friends and/or relatives are also involved. It should also be recognized that differences between family members in the simple structural characteristics of everyday life—such as work and school schedules—can deter joint leisure regardless of activity and interactional preferences.

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