ABSTRACT
Leisure is seen as central to all processes of 'social bonding' and it is for this reason that the most 'constrained' type of leisure activity, with family members and friends, is often valued most by participants. This chapter reviews two approaches to the study of leisure behaviour: first, the influential work of the Rapports, Kelly, and Young and Willmott on the importance of life-cycle stage for leisure activity; and second, the more recent work by feminist leisure researchers on the relationship between gender and leisure activity. It provides an assessment in the light of a secondary analysis of the leisure data made available by the 1980 General Household Survey (GHS). In doing this, the chapter also presents an evaluation of the GHS data from the point of view of the leisure researcher. Research that emphasises the importance of family life-cycle in determining leisure behaviour poses problems particularly for those theoretical approaches that stress the 'self-actualising' nature of leisure.
