Family Recreation: It’s More Than Just Fun & Games Ramon B. Zabriskie, Ph.D., TRS, CTRS Brigham Young University Well & Wise Lecture Brigham Young University, 2013

Family Recreation Is play and recreation important for families? Exercise: One of your fondest childhood memories with your family?

Family Recreation In our modern society, leisure is perhaps the single most important force developing cohesive, healthy relationships between husbands and wives and between parents and their children (Couchman, 1988). Both families and professional helpers see joint leisure time as an important element in promoting marital and family quality. (Holman & Epperson, 1984)

Family Recreation Leisure researchers have consistently demonstrated a positive relationship between family recreation and leisure involvement, and family strength and bonding. (Hawkes, 1991; Orthner and Mancini, 1991) Hawkes (1991) concluded that six decades of family leisure research have found that “family strength or cohesiveness is related to the family’s use of leisure time” (p. 424).

Family Recreation More recent research: Parents “consciously and deliberately” plan and facilitate family leisure activities to improve family relationships; do this with a “sense of urgency” (Shaw & Dawson, 2001). Family leisure has been found to be associated with several family strengths: Increased satisfaction with family life (Zabriskie & McCormick, 2003) Increased collective efficacy (Wells, Widmer, & McCoy, 2004) Improved family communication (Huff, Widmer, McCoy, & Hill, 2003) Overall family functioning (Freeman & Zabriskie, 2003; Taylor, Smith, Zabriskie, & Hill, 2004)

The Family: A Proclamation to the World Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and …. wholesome recreational activities! Is family recreation important?

Family Recreation Does it automatically happen? WM 11, HM 13, F 8 (ISR, 1986) Is it a magic pill? Wouldn’t be great if…? – We understood how family leisure worked? – Clearer direction on how to strengthen families… Family Leisure Research!

Family Needs… Structure, stability, familiarity … which lead to… personal relatedness, feelings of closeness, bonding, or family cohesion And… Change, challenge, novelty, … which lead to… Ability to negotiate, modify, and adapt to the different challenges of today’s society

Core & Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning The model indicates that there are two basic categories or patterns of family leisure, core & balance, which families utilize to meet needs of stability and change, and lend to outcomes of cohesion and adaptability.

Core & Balance Family Leisure Patterns Core – common everyday, low-cost, often home-based, relatively accessible – often require little planning and resources, can be quite spontaneous and informal – Include elements of consistency, safety, structure Balance – less common, more investment, usually not home-based – often require substantial planning and resources, may be less spontaneous and more formalized – Include elements of unpredictability, novelty, challenge

Core Family Leisure

Balance Family Leisure

The Core & Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning Family Leisure Core FLP’s Balance FLP’s Cohesion Adaptability Meets needs for Stability Familiarity Structure Change Novelty Variety Challenge Outcomes of Family Functioning Zabriskie, 2001 Zabriskie & McCormick, 2001

Core & Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning Systems theory…balance between cohesion & adaptability is key element for healthy families Similarly… relatively equal involvement in both Core & Balance family leisure Examples … no Core, no Balance – Both

Core & Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning Identifying some…. (quiz for you!) – Home front clips Core or Balance family leisure?

Studies (many diff. types of families) consistently support… Related variables: Family communication, Satisfaction with family life, Core & Balance family Leisure satisfaction, etc… Research! Broad national samples of Families in US Canada UK Australia New Zealand Turkey Russia Single Parent families Intact families Bi-racial adoptive families Families w/child w/ disabilities Families w/adolescent in mental health Tx. Mexican-American Families Samoan Families Parent perspective Adolescent perspective Family perspective Father perspective Divorced non-resident father perspective Young adult perspective

Core & Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning Intuitively… (early teens) ? Core family leisure … single most significant factor …. Family functioning & Family Satisfaction!

Core Family Leisure “Findings from both the father and youth perspective indicated core family leisure satisfaction as the single greatest contributor to all aspects of family functioning (cohesion, adaptability, and total family functioning), even after controlling for sociodemographic variables such as annual income, family size, history of divorce, level of education, and unemployment.” “In other words, rather than the occasional expensive family vacation alone, the satisfaction with regularly occurring home-based family activities such as eating dinner together, participating in hobbies and informal sports and yard activities together, watching television together, or playing board games and video games together with the father present was the single strongest predictor of all aspects of family functioning, particularly from the youth perspective.” Buswell, Zabriskie, Lundberg, & Hawkins, 2012

Family Leisure So what does this mean for you? Make family recreation goals! Intentionally plan... Is family recreation important… for you? Example (father son) Go play more with your family!!! And plan both Core & Balance!

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