A Man for All Seasons

Introduction

A women's leisure style changes abruptly upon the arrival of children because she is no longer only responsible for her personal needs, but the needs of other human beings. Her time is no longer her own; she coordinates eating, sleeping, school, and homework schedules. In addition to juggling these activities, she has a marriage to sustain, as well as her own personal matters. This can be a lot for one person to handle and leaves little time for personal leisure pursuits for any mother. Mothers tend to be hard-workers, as they spread themselves thin amongst all of the children who are dependent upon them for life. This sense of duty a mother feels towards her children is so strong, many mothers may have a hard time feeling justified in taking time out of family life for leisure.

McCombs' (1991) research tells us that the concept of "locus of control" can be referred to as "self as agent". In other words, it is up to the individual to decide on his/her own personal endeavors; this is internal locus of control. McCombs (1991) states that "The self as agent can consciously or unconsciously direct, select, and regulate the use of all knowledge structures and intellectual processes in support of personal goals, intentions, and choices" (p. 6). He continues to say, "the degree to which one chooses to be self-determining is a function of one's realization of the source of agency and personal control" (McCombs, 1991, p. 7). A mother, while running a household, probably does not have the benefit of feeling this locus of control that McCombs' research explores.

Problem

We want to know if the leisure satisfaction of a woman is dependent

on the number of children she has. We believe that as a woman has more children, her level of leisure satisfaction decreases.

Working hypothesis. There is a negative correlation between the number of children a stay-at-home mother has living in the home and her level of leisure satisfaction.

Null hypothesis. There is no correlation between the number of children a stay-at-home mother has and her level of leisure satisfaction.

Dependent variable. The level of stay-at-home mothers' leisure satisfaction.

Independent variable. Stay-at-home mothers.

Definition of Terms

Stay-at-home mothers. Mothers who do not work or go to school.

Mothers. Those who have children currently living in their household under their

care.

Free-time. Time that is free from any other obligations and familial responsibilities.

Constraint. Anything that hinders a mothers' ability to participate in intrinsic leisure.

Satisfaction. "The fulfillment of drives, motives, needs, or expectations" (Siegenthaler & O'Dell, 2000, p.285).

Leisure. The freedom to perform activities in life, not done by obligation, but by free will.

Delimitations

The delimitations in our study are as follows:

1. By design, the study is delimited to stay-at-home mothers with children still living in

the home. To minimize lurking variables we have chosen not to survey working mothers or mothers who are currently enrolled and attending school at a university.

2. Our group of study will include only women who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints.

3. All of the women we are studying are married.

4. All women participating in the study must have the adapted IQ of 80 or above, due to

specifications stated on the Leisure Satisfaction Measure.

Limitations

The limitations of our study are as follows:

1. A weakness in our study is location. Perhaps a mother's leisure satisfaction is

dependent

on the town in which she lives or the recreational opportunities and services around her. Leisure is viewed differently by someone living on a farm in Nebraska than it is by someone who lives in New York City. The person who lives in the city has countless options of things to go and do which are close by, while the person living in a rural setting might need more time for travel, and may not have the same programs and services available to her. This could all play a factor into a mothers' leisure satisfaction.

Importance of the Study

This study is very important for many reasons. A study conducted by Brown, Brown, Miller, & Hansen (2001), found that "the vast majority of mothers would like to be more active," however, "they are inhibited in their ability to act out their leisure preferences by a combination of structural (e.g., lack of time, money, energy) and ideological (e.g., sense of commitment to others) influences" (p. 139). This tells us that there are a certain number of variables that interfere with a mother finding free time to satisfy her leisure appetite, one of which very well could be the number of children that she has. Of all the people in society who need this free time, a mother should be able to fit leisure into her schedule. The balance found in a healthy leisure lifestyle is important to mothers since there are so many children in our society who are dependent upon them. If we could help pinpoint certain variables, such as the number of children a mother has, maybe mothers would be able to understand how to make more free time for themselves, and feel more in control of their personal lives.

Literature Review

In exploring the correlation between the number of children a mother has and her level of leisure satisfaction, one needs to understand the following concepts: leisure, leisure constraints, implications of gender in leisure satisfaction, and the transition of leisure throughout parenthood. These concepts will be covered in this chapter.

Leisure

Leisure is difficult to define because it is an abstract