Structural Restrictions to Involvement to Leisure Activity - Assignment Example

Name : xxxxxx Tutor : xxxxxxx Title : Personal Critique Institution : xxxxxxx @2012 Personal critique (week 6) Structural constraints to leisure Despite the fact that leisure is termed as freely selected, enjoyable as well as motivating doubts arises whether leisure is really freely chosen. The work of Jackson, Crawford and Godbey (1991) identifies three distinct types of constraints that aid in explaining how leisure can be constrained. Leisure constraints are therefore termed as the various limitations as well as difficulties that affect an individual active participation in and also affect the satisfaction level when involved in the leisure activities. Based on authors such as Jackson 1988, leisure constraints are the major aspects that confines individual’s participation in most leisure activities. According to Crawford and Godbey leisure constraints are not the only causes of non participation in leisure activities but an individual’s negotiation with leisure constraints also affects their participation. According to Crawford and Godbey there exist three distinct types of constraints includes interpersonal constraints, intrapersonal constraints and structural constraints. The above stated authors have played a major role in enabling the understanding of the barriers which are said to play a dominant role in determining the preference of the leisure activity as well as participation in them (p.119). When an individual is able to overcome all the three distinct levels of constraints that exist, then they will be able to participate actively in leisure activities. Structural constraints represent those constraints that more often than not tend to stand in the way of leisure preference as well as leisure participation in most individuals. The aspects that are commonly grouped in this category include aspects such as family life cycle stage, the available opportunity as well as the season (Jackson 1988, pp 209). Aspects which are considered under structural constraints include aspects such as lack of enough time, associated monetary cost, insufficient transport, inadequate infrastructure and rules and regulations. The most common and major structural constraint is income, a large number of individuals in the common day struggle to have a leisure lifestyle this is mainly attributed to the fact that a large number of them to do not have a high level of disposable income (Barbara, Joanne, Chih-Mou and Susan 1999, pp. 180). Disposable income is termed as the amount of money that a family or an individual have left for leisure activities after catering for the bills, rents and any other daily expenses. Thus with a low level of disposable income an individual is not able to perform his/ her desired leisure activities or in instances where he engages in some leisure activity, the leisure activity ends up been in the level that he can afford. This is based on the fact that most leisure activities requires individual to be contributing towards the leisure this is in terms of the registration fees, clothing’s as well as equipments to use when under taking the leisure activity. An active participant to certain types of leisure will also try to keep in touch through purchasing the monthly magazines related to the leisure, travelling to different locations so as to have an experience of the leisure activity at a new level. All the above stated activities rely on the income generated by the individual. When in one way the individual will participate but full participation as well as satisfaction will not be achieved. The other major constraint that is grouped in this category is transport. Most leisure activities in the common day world require a lot of travelling for one to participate in them. This is mainly based on the fact that not all areas are suitable for certain leisure activities thus individuals have to travel to certain locations for them to participate in the leisure activities. Based on these aspects, not everyone will be able to afford the petrol or the fare since at time they are expected to travel for long distances for a short holiday so as to perform the leisure activity they are involved in. also at times certain leisure activities take place at different locations each time (Goodale & Witt 1989, pp 423). The other supporting evidence of transport as been major constraint is the fact that with the ever rising cost in fuel the fares tends to increase thus in the end one will end upon spending more. For example when planning football matches the team players are expected to travel to different locations at times so as to meet with other teams. Transportation activities are also influenced by security issues especially terrorism. People sometimes will not travel if there are threats of terrorism which may also mean airports are shut down until threats are subdued. They may find it difficult to cater for the cost associated with the travelling. Since not every owns a car, some people will face a lot of difficulties when travelling since certain locations requires or are restricted to bus timetables and they may at times bother others to take them to the required destinations. Another aspect that is grouped under the structural constraint is the lack of adequate infrastructure (Raymore et al 1993, pp. 112). Most leisure activities are performed in areas with certain kind of infrastructures. The availability of proper structures will propel individual to undertaking or taking part in such kind of leisure activities as compared to other leisure activities with poor infrastructure. The availability of an opportunity plays a major role in deterring whether an individual will engage in a leisure activity or not. Opportunity is also termed as another structural constraint, though when compared to the others in the same category it does not have a major impact on the leisure activity. Most individuals do not engage in certain leisure activities since the activities are not available. In places where the leisure activities are present a higher number of individuals living in that place as well as in the neighboring localities tend to participate more in the leisure activity. Another constraint is the rules and regulations that are imposed in certain locations. Each and every location has certain outlines rules and regulations that those participating in leisure activities must adhere to and lack of adherence can lead to punishment (Goodale& Witt 1989, pp 124). Thus most individuals tend to shun away from certain leisure due to the laws and regulations governing them, also in some areas it is forbidden for individuals to engage in certain leisure activities and thus individuals residing in such places are expected to adhere to such laws. For example certain areas have the rule that limits the areas where a person can skateboard, in such areas a person with that as his leisure activity will have to adhere to it and thus may end up forgoing his leisure activity because of the rule. The other aspect that is associated with this kind of constraint is the lack of enough time (Goodale& Witt 1989, pp. 424). As one grows olds one tend to engage more in leisure activities but upon been employed the level time one have for leisure activities tend to decrease. This is based on the fact that a considerable amount of the time is spent when working and thus one has no much time left for leisure activities. The last aspect is the season (climate). The climate that is been experienced in a certain area also play a greater role on determining whether individuals will take part in certain leisure activities. For example it is not possible to ice skate if there is no ice thus it is evident that certain leisure activities are attributed to certain weather conditions (Crawford, Jackson& G. Godbey 1991, pp.123). The climatical conditions play an important role in determining whether certain leisure activities can take place. Most leisure activities requires condusive environment. Inclement as well as uncomfortable weather conditions and especially those related to for example high thermal temperature as well as mechanical support, posses a number of barriers to the activeness to engage in leisure activity. Thus in most cases the weather conditions mainly influences the type, frequency, duration as well as the participation rate of individuals to leisure activities. However, the constraints are mostly interrelated and it may be hard to separate one from another. If one is given a holiday to spend with his family but instead chooses to take a holiday job this aspect can be identified as both an economic and a lack of opportunity constraint on leisure. Additionally, the rules and regulation constraint can is closely associated with the economic resources of a person; if a person holidays in a resort town where it is illegal to take photographs but you are granted permission when you pay for rights to photograph, both economic and rules and regulations constraints apply. All in all the questions of what encompasses structural restrictions to involvement to leisure activity have been answered. And based on the various authors it is evident that the factors really have a great impact on the participation of individuals in leisure activities. References Barbara, A.H., P. Joanne, H. Chih-Mou and J.E. Susan, 1999. Leisure constraints: A replication and extension of construct development. Leisure Sci., vol 21, pp. 179-192. Crawford, D.W. and G. Godbey, 1987. Reconceptualizing barriers to family. Leisure Sci., vol 9, pp. 119-127. Crawford, D.W., E.L. Jackson and G. Godbey, 1991. A hierarchical model of leisure constraints. Leisure Sci., vol 13, pp 309-320. Goodale, L. and A. Witt, 1989. Recreation Non-Participation and Barriers to Leisure. In: Understanding Leisure and Recreation: Mapping the Past, Charting the Future, Jackson, E.L. and T.L. Burton (Eds.). State Collage, PA: Venture, pp.421-449. Jackson, E.L., 1988. Leisure constraints: A survey of past research. Leisure Sci., vol 10, pp. 203-215. Raymore, L., G. Godbey, D.W. Crawford and A. Von Eye, 1993. Nature and process of leisure constraints: An empirical test. Leisure Sci., vol 15, pp. 99-113. Read More