Structural changes in the workplace can sometimes lead to a mismatch between parents’ work arrangements and family routines. Furthermore, work schedules may affect mothers and fathers differently since responsibility for caregiving and access to leisure are linked to gender role expectations. Research suggests that leisure can enhance feelings of work-life balance and may provide other health benefits to those experiencing time pressure and stress. But, for parents who have little control over the timing of their work day, the amount of leisure time and nature of leisure experiences may be different from those whose schedules follow a regular, weekday pattern. This study explores how work schedules affect mothers’ and fathers’ leisure time, with whom it is spent, and the relationship of work schedules to perceptions of time pressure, work-life balance and subjective well-being. Using a subsample of the 2005 Canadian General Social Survey, 2,062 employed parents of school-age children (ages 5-17) were interviewed about their use of time and perceptions of subjective well-being including time pressure, stress, and health. Work schedules were categorized as: traditional (daytime, no weekends), non-standard (evening, weekend and rotating shifts) and irregular (“on call”, or other irregular patterns). Regardless of work schedule, mothers reported significantly less leisure and experienced more time pressure, less job satisfaction, and lower levels of overall life satisfaction than fathers. These findings were strongest during the school year. In the summer, mothers’ leisure time increased significantly while fathers’ remained unaffected for all work schedules. Other subjective measures of well-being differed by work schedule and gender. Fathers with non-standard schedules had the most leisure and least time pressure, but expressed greater dissatisfaction with work-life balance. Non standard work schedules for mothers were associated with the highest stress levels, lowest levels of health, and least satisfaction with work-life balance. Irregular schedules decreased stress for mothers, but resulted in heightened stress for fathers. Volunteering, which is often linked to community involvement, was highest among parents with irregular schedules and lowest for fathers with nonstandard work schedules. Understanding the complex interplay between work timing, gender, leisure and wellbeing has implications for parents’ health and community involvement.

Access to document: A19_Margo_Hilbrecht.pdf

“You don’t want to hurt his feelings”: Family leisure among grandparents and adult grandchildren
Shannon Hebblethwaite, Concordia University (Montreal, Canada)

Leisure activities play an important role in the lives of families and in grandparent-grandchild relations (Mancini & Sandifer, 1995). Researchers have found that leisure has a positive influence on family relationships by enhancing communication and cohesion among family members (Orthner & Mancini, 1990). Others have shown that family leisure may not be mutually satisfying for all family members and may cause substantial stress among mothers in particular (Shaw & Dawson, 2003). Research focusing on family leisure, however, has largely excluded the voices of older adults. The purpose of this interpretive study, therefore, was to develop an understanding of the experience of intergenerational family leisure for grandparents and their adult grandchildren. Fourteen dyads of grandparents and adult grandchildren were interviewed individually and described their experience of intergenerational family leisure. Using grounded theory methods to analyze the interview data, the stories of the grandparents and grandchildren provided valuable insight into the role that leisure plays in the intergenerational relationship. The theorizing undertaken in the current study advances our understanding of grandparent-grandchild relationships and suggests conceptual connections between three important theoretical concepts: intergenerational ambivalence, intergenerational stake, and generativity. Family leisure is a critical context for the development and expression of these three concepts. Generativity appears to develop across the life course and plays a central role in the family leisure experiences for both grandparents and their adult grandchildren. Generativity also appears to influence the experience of intergenerational stake and suggests that grandparents who have tronger generative commitments may experience greater stake in their relationship than their grandchildren. This perception of intergenerational stake, in turn, is linked to the experience of intergenerational ambivalence. When grandchildren perceive that their grandparents have a stronger investment in their relationship than they do, they experience greater ambivalence. This ambivalence results from the grandchildren’s inability to reconcile the normative, structural expectations related to the need to spend time with their grandparents with their need to participate in a variety of other social relationships e.g., peers, romantic partners. Family leisure, therefore, is a crucial lens for the study of intergenerational relations and the interconnections among these three concepts.

Access to document: A19_Shannon_Hebblethwaite.pdf

Home is where my family is: Intergenerational Differences in Constructions of Belongingness in the Chinese Diaspora in Australia
Raymond Hibbins, Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia)

This paper will address in part, one of the central questions of the Congress, viz., how does leisure promote affirmation and identity development as well as the sense of belonging within a community? It will do this by reporting on two studies comparing the migration experiences of Chinese male migrants to Australia and those of a younger sample of Taiwanese male and female migrants. The studies use qualitative methodology and are influenced by social constructionism and the method of constant comparisons. Both samples are part of the Chinese and/or Taiwanese diasporic communities in Australia but are linked through transnational experiences to communities in their respective countries of birth. Memories of games played with friends on apartment block rooftops, of times spent with family members and other kin, of the Cultural Revolution and its effects particularly on families, of sexual encounters and marriage, of workplace experiences in overseas postings and of times spent in overseas universities infuse the identities of the sample of 40 Chinese male migrants to Australia. Such memories especially typical of leisure experiences help migrant men locate themselves in space and time. The younger Taiwanese migrants also use leisure to locate themselves. Members of both samples have had prior migration experiences. The paper will test and explore the proposition that ‘home’ is a constantly negotiated place for migrants (Baldassar, 2001). The memories relating to the proposed importance of ties to, and commitments to people and places in each of these spaces will be discussed. Where applicable, the influence of age, social class, gender and sexuality will be introduced to the discussion of intergenerational differences on identity construction among transnational subjects in these studies. In the acculturation process the influences of the broader Australian culture, the Chinese diaspora are evident as the migrants develop their social, cultural and symbolic capital under conditions of marginalisation, segregation, assimilation and integration.