The objective of this study is to find the current situation of adolescents's family leisure activities and family strengths and how family leisure activities influence the strengths of family. There are four types of family leisure activities--1) edu...
The objective of this study is to find the current situation of adolescents's family leisure activities and family strengths and how family leisure activities influence the strengths of family. There are four types of family leisure activities--1) education and experience-oriented activities, 2) hobby-oriented activities, 3) social and sociable-oriented activities, and 4) family-oriented activities. As for family strengths, this study looked into family cohesion, adaptation and family communication.
For this study, a survey was conducted on 2nd- and 3rd-grade middle-school students (US equivalent of 7th and 8th grade middle school students) and their parents, leading to a total of 301 pairs. The answers to the survey was analyzed with the SPSS WIN 12.0 program, using frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and Multiple Regression.
The results of this study were as follows:
First, by the type of family leisure activities, family-oriented activities were the most common leisure activities, followed by education and experience-oriented activities; social and sociable oriented activities; and family-oriented activities. In addition, more family leisure activities were found among male students compared to female students; among oldest child compared to those who are not the oldest child in the family; among families with fathers whose jobs are managerial-type jobs or professional jobs; and among families with mothers who work 5 days a week or who work 6 days a week, but take off every other Saturdays.
Second, it was found that family strengths were relatively high; family cohesion was a little higher than family adaptation. In addition, children have better communication with their mothers than with their fathers. Families who have fathers with graduate school-level education or higher education showed higher family cohesion. It was also found that 2nd-graders have better communication with their fathers than 3rd-graders. In addition, adolescents in the rural areas communicate well with their mothers.
Third, each type of family leisure activities influences each factors of family strengths. In particular, the more families do education and experience-oriented activities and hobby-oriented activities, the higher the scores of family strengths.
The conclusion of this study on the relationship between family leisure activities and family strengths in adolescence is as follows:
Families can become strong and healthy when they have cohesion and adaptation and when the members communicate well among themselves. It should be noted that family strengths during adolescence years play a crucial role in whether the children become a model member of the society or not. It is found that when families enjoy family leisure activities, it can lead to greater family strengths. Education and experience-oriented activities and hobby-oriented activities were particularly important in enhancing family strengths.
Nowadays, as leisure time increases and as the importance of leisure is ever-more emphasized, I wish that families become more active in their family leisure activities as more studies on family leisure activities are released and I hope that with such increasing studies, families can become stronger than ever before.