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

Examining Couple Recreation and Oxytocin via the Ecology of Family Experiences Framework

“…The purpose of this study is to examine the release of oxytocin during couple recreational experiences. However, not all recreational activities are equal (Melton, ; Orthner, ; Zabriskie & McCormick, ). Therefore, this study examines the release of oxytocin during two distinct forms of couple activities to explore whether some forms of activity are more likely than others to produce an oxytocin response.…”

The Creation of Military Family Leisure Experiences

“…The creation of family experiences (CFE) framework is a conceptual model that provides a lens to examine the context of family activities (Melton, , ), and family researchers can use it to identify the benefits that distinct types of family leisure produce for human development and family relations (e.g., Melton, Larson, & Boccia, 2017). Although it has been established that not all family leisure is equal (e.g., Melton, ; Orthner, ; Zabriskie & McCormick, ), too often family scholars and programs treat family leisure as a residual category of time that is conducted in the presence of a family member. Thus, little is known about the effects of different types of family leisure (Orthner & Mancini, 1990).…”

“…Thus, the framework provides researchers a lens for identifying under which conditions family leisure provides relationship‐building experiences for families. More specifically, the CFE framework builds on the process of creating structured experiences (Duerden et al, ) by contextualizing the process in families, and it then combines the creation process with four distinct categorizations of family activities (Melton, ). As a result, the CFE framework suggests three primary domains for the creation of family experiences: (a) family factors and (b) activity factors, which are situated in (c) subjective norms (Figure ).…”

“…Each type of family activity has a range of outcomes that can meet individual and familial needs; therefore, it is often recommended that families diversify their activity profile by intentionally participating in each quadrant of the family activity model (Melton, ; Zabriskie & McCormick, ). By researching these characteristics of a family activity, scholars can discover the benefits of distinct types of family leisure for human development and family relations.…”

“…In this article, we provide practitioners, researchers, and families with a family leisure framework for use in military research, program design, or family education. Specifically, we integrate the Creation of Family Experiences (CFE) framework (Melton, , ) with literature on military families, family leisure, and structured experiences. We review relevant studies of military families and general family leisure, and apply the CFE to those findings.…”