Leisure is inextricably connected to social context and daily life experiences. Leisure do not occur in a social vacuum, and the most common social context for leisure activity is the family. The family is the primary location for the development and ...
Leisure is inextricably connected to social context and daily life experiences. Leisure do not occur in a social vacuum, and the most common social context for leisure activity is the family. The family is the primary location for the development and expression of significant social relationships. It is also seen as the main agent of socialization, responsible not only for children's emotional and psycho-social development, but also for facilitating adult transitions across the life course. Family leisure activity contributes to recreation functions, family relationships and overall satisfaction with the quality of family life. Also, it has significance because it decreases not only family member individual's conflict but also social conflicts and problems. Therefore Leisure life is important and needed for the home. Family life is influenced by the family life cycle in that it changes the needs and resources of family, roles as family members because of family formation, child bearing years, the children leave home, and family dissolution caused by the death of a spouse.
Evelyn Duvall defines the family life cycle as the "sequence of characteristic stages beginning with family formation and continuing through the life of the family to its dissolution" Indeed, the basic concepts of "life cycle" come from developmental psychology, in which it is applied to individuals. But the family is a social institution. It is not an organism. It has no life of its own but it does have its distinctive stages and broadly predictable patterns.
The family life cycle is a useful indicator of consumer behavior. The family life cycle concept utilizes a combination of demographic and socioeconomic variables that best explains the changes in the construct of the family.
Previous research related to the family life cycle has mostly focused on income of households, consumption, saving pattern, tourist behavior, individual leisure behavior but very little has been written about family leisure behavior.
This study is concerned with investigating the relations and differences family leisure behavior and the family life cycle. The objectives of this study are to reveal how family leisure activity pattern, motivation, and constraints are different across the family life cycle stages.
To accomplish the objectives of the study, the theoretical background was described along with a review of related literature about family life cycle and leisure behavior. Based on these theoretical backgrounds, the hypotheses are set up and empirical analysis were performed for identifying the hypotheses. For statistical analysis, analysis methods such as frequency analysis, factor analysis, analysis of variance and crosstabs were performed.
This study can not be applied to all cases because this study is focused only on citizens of Jeju city and has a limited sample. And this study considered only home maker's reponses about family members, these reponses have limits to be generalizability. This study focused on only the family life cycle of many variables which influence leisure behavior. It cannot explain the correlation between leisure behavior and other factors. In spite of these limitations, this study is meaningful in that it established family life cycle stages and applied to households of Jeju city and revealed characteristics of family leisure behavior.