Introduction
The intent of this report is to provide information about A Study of Leisure During Adulthood (ASOLDA). The general purpose of the study is to examine change and continuity of leisure, life perceptions, and values in the lives of middle aged adults over time. ASOLDA began collecting data in 1987 and continued through 1996 using both a Survey Phase and an Interview Phase for data collection. Various analyses of existing data are presently underway.
Key variables under investigation include leisure attitude, valuing leisure, perceived freedom in leisure, life experiences, individual life structure, values, and wants out of life. The study is unique in that it is demonstrating how adults perceive and experience leisure within the context of their lives and personally held values.
This is the only leisure study of its kind to use frequent and consistent means in data collection from study participants year after year. In the majority of longitudinal studies, data is collected less frequently and consistently. Deemed useful when exploring human behavior, the methodology used in ASOLDA has been likened to providing researchers with a photo album of human experience, rather than mere snapshots taken of individual's lives on occasion. When using ASOLDA data to examine change and continuity in leisure and life perceptions, researchers have the advantage of being able to examine mid-life perceptions without interruption for a ten year period of time.
Early profile of respondents. In the initial data collection (1987), 84 middle aged adults, primarily of Euro-American descent, responded to the invitation to participate in the ten year longitudinal study. At that time, respondents were between the ages of 31 and 63. Forty-nine (58%) were women and 33 (39%) were men. Marital status, education, occupation, and income were first collected in 1988. At that time responses indicated that 18 (21%) were single, 44 (52%) were married, one was widowed, four were divorced, and three were cohabiting. Thirty-eight (45%) held university graduate degrees and 27 (32%) had college degrees or had done post graduate studies. Most (63%) held professional positions. Thirty-nine (47%) earned mid-range salaries ($20,000-49,000), 14 (17%) earned less than $10,000, 10 (12%) earned $50,000 to $69,999, and 10 (12%) earned over $70,000 per year.
Survey Phase of Data Collection. One woman and one man died during data collection, and one man asked to be eliminated from continuing his participation in the study. Of the remaining 81 participants in the study, 55 (68%) completed their questionnaire every year. Fourteen percent (n=11) of the respondents completed the 13-page questionnaire for nine of the ten years of data collection. Another five participants responded five years or more, and only thirteen responded four or fewer times over the ten years of data collection.
As a result of these participation patterns which show consistent and fairly consistent responses over time (55 participating for 10 years; 11 participating for 9 years), researchers have continuous data for over 80% of the adults who originally began the study in 1987. This enables researchers to examine variables longitudinally with few, if any interruptions.
Interview Phase of Data Collection. Besides the yearly collection of existing quantitative data obtained in the Survey Phase of the study, additional data was collected from sixty-five adults who agreed to participate in the Interview Phase of the study. Face-to-face interviews conducted by the Principal Investigator (PI) were begun in March 1994 and completed by November 1997. One interview was conducted between October and December 1997 using email capability accessible to the study participant who lived overseas and the PI. Along with the quantitative data gained from the questionnaires, the interview data provides information which is qualitative in nature, thus adds to the depth of existing data available for each person who participated in both phases of the study.
Present Participant Demographic Information
Drawing upon data obtained in the tenth year of the study provided in the Survey Phase of the study, the following descriptive profile of study participants is available. Sixty-nine (85%) responded to the tenth year data collection request (1996). Of these, 23 were men (27% ) and 46 were women (55% ). Thus women outnumbered men by a two-to-one ratio. The average age for all respondents was 52.6 years; 54 years for men and 51.9 years for women.
Income. Income ranged from less than $10,000 per year (n=2) to more than $100,000 (n=9). Three study participants earned between $10,000-19,000; 25 earned between $20,000-49,999; 23 earned between $50,000-79,000; and seven earned between $80,000-99,999.
Marital status. Of those who indicated marital status, 38 were married (45%) and three (4%) were cohabiting. Fifteen (18%) were single, five (6%) were divorced, and one person was widowed.
Education and employment. As a group, study participants were well educated. Sixty-one (73%) held college degrees, of which over half of these (n=36) had post graduate degrees. Most study participants, 41 (49%) worked in jobs which they characterized as professional positions; three (4%) indicated they owned or co-owned a business; two (2%) indicated they were in sales positions; and 20 (24%) designated "other". Position titles given by respondents were quite varied and included homemaker, secretary, child care worker, student, custodial, and retired. The number of study participants who indicated "other" may suggest that many middle aged adults no longer identify with what has been considered traditional employment categories.
Variables Under Investigation
When grouped, study participants shared identifiable characteristics associated with
the variables under investigation. Note that because originally study participants were purposefully drawn, they can not be viewed as a representative sample of middle aged adults.
Leisure variables. Over the ten years of data collection, study participants' mean scores demonstrated the extent to which they, as a group, held positive attitudes toward leisure, valued leisure, perceived freedom in leisure, and wanted to have more time for leisure. Mean scores for leisure attitude ranged from 3.15 to 3.24 and mean scores for the extent to which respondents' value valued leisure ranged from 3.2 to 3.5. Both of these leisure variables were rated on a scale ranging from 1 to 4 with four considered high. Thus data showed study participants held positive attitudes toward leisure and valued leisure. Mean scores for perceived freedom in leisure was gathered on a 5-point scale and findings indicated the extent to which study participants perceived freedom in leisure increased over the ten years. As a group their perceived freedom in leisure scores increased from between 2.12 to 2.30 during the period of 1987 until 1992, then ranged between 3.18 and 3.87 during the period of 1993 through 1996.
An overwhelming majority of study participants indicated that they wanted more free time per week than they presently had available in which to realize leisure. In all but one year, men in the study indicated that they experienced more hours in leisure than was indicated by the women in the study (range 1-12 hours more per week). The average hours available for men ranged from 18 to 32 hours per week for leisure. However they preferred to have between 32 to 40 hours per week. The average hours available for women ranged from 16 to 21 hours per week for leisure, while they preferred to have between 24 to 35 hours per week.
Life values. While study participants demonstrated that they valued leisure, they rarely did so above valuing their family, and infrequently did so above their work. When asked to rank family, leisure, and work each year in order of their importance to them, study participants typically ranked family first; and either leisure or work was ranked second, depending upon the individual.
When leisure was ranked first by study participants, it was done so by only one to six men per year over the ten years of data collection, and by only four to eleven women per year over the ten years.
Each year study participants were asked to indicate the importance of other life values by rating the importance of several items provided in a list of "wants out of life". By designating which "wants" study participants found to be the most important on a yearly basis, patterns of responses can be examined over time. The "wants" most frequently singled out by the middle aged adults participating in ASOLDA were self-respect 17 to 30 percent of the time; warm relationships with others 11 to 21 percent of the time; and self-fulfillment 6 to 18 percent of the time. Often (8 to 10 percent of the time) study participants did not single out their most important "want" from the list. Besides the three above, other "wants" included belonging, excitement, being well-respected, fun and enjoyment in life, security, and a sense of accomplishment.
Life experiences. Over the years the individuals in the study not only documented their life experiences from a listing of 47 typical mid-life events, but also rated the extent to which they viewed these experiences as positive or negative, and the extent of control that they felt they had over each of these experiences. Ongoing and future investigations are being conducted by grouping individuals by common life events, (for example those who experienced divorce, death of parents, job changes, etc.), in order to answer specific research questions.
In addition to noting these "real" life experiences, study participants documented their "perceptions" of life structure. In each of the ten years they would indicate whether they felt they were building or changing their present life structure. The number of changes in life structure perceptions appeared to occur more often than earlier studies suggested. Over the ten years, study participants were more likely to indicate that they felt they were in the process of structure-building more often than structure-changing. Ironically in 1989 and again in 1996 the responses were exactly the same. That is, those who felt themselves to be structure-building numbered the same as those felt to be structure-changing. In the early 1990's, more difference between those who indicated structure-building and those who indicated structure-changing was noted.
Works in Progress
The following projects are in process at the present time. Two projects, verification of the data and transcribing interviews, are ongoing technical tasks. The development of case studies and statistical analyses of the longitudinal data occur as research questions are formed which can be answered by using the existing data. Briefly described, current works in progress include:
Verification of the data. Comparing raw data to that which has been entered into the computer each year for the ten years of collecting quantitative data during the Survey Phase of the study.
Development of case studies. Using case study analysis techniques, unusual circumstances and situations documented by the data as having been experienced or reported by individual study participants are being identified and examined in light of the contemporary literature and other empirical findings.
Statistical analyses of longitudinal data. Research questions which explore change and continuity in perceptions regarding leisure and other life values, and in life experiences and life structure perceptions during middle adulthood are being explored. Various analyses of research instruments used in the Survey Phase of the study are also being conducted in light of the uniqueness of the longitudinal data collected at frequent and consistent points over time.
Transcribing interview data. Only 15 of the 65 interviews have been transcribed to date. Transcribing interviews is costly, thus are performed when particular case studies are being investigated.
Instruments Used in ASOLDA
Leisure Ethic Scale
Crandall, R. & Slivken, K. (1980). Leisure attitudes and their measurement. In S. E. Iso-Ahola (Ed.), Social psychological perspectives on leisure and recreation (pp. 261-284). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Life Experiences Survey
Sarason, I., Johnson, J., & Siegel, J. (1978). Assessing the impact of life changes: Development of the life experiences survey. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, pp. 932-946.
Life Structure Assessment
Carpenter, G. (1988). The relationship between valuing leisure and change during middle adulthood. In D. Gill (Ed.), Abstracts of Research Papers, Reston, VA: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, p. 192.
List of Values
Kahle, L. R. (1983). (Ed.). Social values and social change: Adaptation to life in America. NY: Praeger.
Ranking Leisure
Carpenter, G. (1997). A longitudinal investigation of mid-life men who hold leisure in higher regard than work. Society and Leisure, 20(1), pp. 189-211.
Valuing Leisure Scale
Carpenter, G. (1989). Life change during middle adulthood and valuing leisure. World Leisure and Recreation. 31(1), pp. 29-31.