Original scientific paper
FAMILY LEISURE AS A FACTOR OF FAMILY COHESION AND SATISFACTION WITH FAMILY LIFE
Gordana Berc
orcid.org/0000-0002-4429-9652
; Studijski centar socijalnog rada, Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Slavica Blažeka Kokorić
orcid.org/0000-0002-3846-8384
; Studijski centar socijalnog rada, Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
The goal of research is to examine how families with preschool children spend free time together, the level of fathers’ and mothers’ satisfaction with it and what they need to improve the quality of their family leisure. The aim is to determine whether there are differences in this respect between the fathers and mothers assessments and to determine correlations between satisfaction with family leisure and family cohesion and family life in general. The study was conducted by surveying 399 mothers and 104 fathers of preschool children from Zagreb. It was found that the most common family leisure activities are: watching television, walks, going to the guests together, going out to social and public events, tourist trips and social games. Parents are generally pleased with the participation in joint activities, except with participation in recreational, sports and adventure activities, when express the ambivalent attitude. The results show that the gender perspective significantly shapes the level of satisfaction with individual aspects of the leisure family. Fathers daily spend significantly less time with the children in various activities, but despite that there is no difference between fathers and mothers satisfaction with the amount of time they spend with children and with their family life in general. On the other hand, mothers were significantly less satisfied with family cohesion. There is a positive correlation between satisfaction with family leisure and satisfaction with family cohesion and family life in general. To improve the quality of family free time parents need more money (51.5%), time (38.5%), personal involvement (17%) and help in the house (8.8%) where in mothers more often report need for help in housekeeping. The results indicate that family leisure is an important aspect of family life. Therefore, in designing and implementing programs on empowering parents for quality parenting it is necessary to consider differences in the perception of fathers and mothers on family leisure and family cohesion as well as to encourage them for involvement into planning and implementation family free time.
Keywords
family leisure; parents’ and children’s’ joint activities; family cohesion; family life satisfaction
Hrčak ID:
98953
URI
Publication date:
18.3.2013.
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