ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the many characteristics and meanings of leisure for the different stages of the life cycle. It looks at the role of leisure in the lives of individuals at various ages and in different family circumstances. The chapter examines the ways in which children experience play as leisure, paying particular attention to sex, age, social class, and cultural differences. Psychological explanations of children’s play are mostly associated with Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget. Some of the major variables which help to explain differences in children’s play are those of sex, age, social class, and culture. Working-class children, as compared with middle-class children, generally have less play space inside the home and poorer facilities in their neighborhood, so they more often play in the streets. In practice, the play and leisure of pre-adolescent children amount to much the same set of activities, since such children generally play in their leisure time.
