Re‐injecting spontaneity and balance in family life: parents’ perspectives on recreation in families that include children with developmental disability

Abstract

These analyses revealed that family recreation most often involved small combinations of family members - usually mothers and their children - in physical recreation activities (e.g. swimming, walking, bike riding). Parents viewed these interactions as beneficial for enhancing family relationships and providing children, particularly those with a disability, opportunities for skill and self development within an accepting and supportive environment. Difficulties in coordinating family members schedules, finding activities to accommodate wide age and skill ranges, planning demands, and limitations in marketing and promotional materials were among the constraints most commonly identified in relation to the family as a whole and the children with developmental disability. Links to existing family and leisure research, family systems theory, and considerations for future research also are discussed.

The Leisure Behavior of the Turkish Prospective Teachers

“…Gordon and Catalbiano (1996) indicate that leisure satisfaction during the college years has great importance as students develop leisure patterns and behaviors that have long-term implications for shaping leisure attitudes and behaviors in the following life-stages. As such, in examining the leisure behavior patterns over the lifetime, findings consistently indicate that family leisure is positively related to family functioning, cohesiveness, satisfaction with family life, healthy couple relationships, healthy relationships between parents and their children, and family strength (Mactavish & Schleien, 2004;Poff, Zabriskie, & Townsend, 2010;Zabriskie & McCormick, 2001). However, in leisure, perceived freedom was another leisure structure related with life satisfaction (Poulsen, Ziviani, Johnson, & Cuskelly, 2008) and subjective well-being (Kim, 2010).…”

Balancing the Boat: Enabling an Ocean of Possibilities

“…Sharing leisure occupations helps balance other preoccupations with caregiving tasks, and provides shared meaning, cohesiveness and happiness. Family leisure routines can augment the positive effects of having a child with a disability (Downs, 2008;Mactavish et al, 2005;Mactavish & Schleien, 2004;Taanila, Jarvelin, & Kokkonen, 1999).…”

Family leisure-time physical activities – results of the “Juniors for Seniors” 15-week intervention programme

“…However, at issue is the fact that many young people are not interested in being physically active anymore and instead prefer sedentary lifestyles [28,35]. If children are to lead a physically active lifestyle, involvement (with younger children) and support (in adolescents) provided by parents are essential [14].…”

“…If other family resources are to be mobilized and used, time must be available. Among the various patterns in the use of family time, there is ample evidence of a positive relationship between participatio n in family leisure and family functioning [18,28,36,58,59].…”