'The Family, Leisure and Recreation'

The New Zealand Ministry of Recreation and Sport defines "leisure" as "an attitude and an experience encompassing a myriad of feelings which contribute to well-being" while "recreation" is defined as "a freely chosen activity done in free time". Those studies which have distinguished between the two terms have tended to use "leisure" when writing about time spent in informal relaxing at home, and "recreation" for time spent outside the home engaged in activities.

Research on family leisure and recreation falls broadly into the following categories: the family life cycle, social class, socialisation, family authority, and family cohesiveness. The first four of these deal mainly with the effect on the family on leisure while the last is concerned with the effect of leisure on the family.

There are three amin influences on an individual:
Work, Family, Leisure

Among young single people the greatest emphasis is given to physical recreation. For women this generally changes swiftly at marriage to an interest in home based crafts, hobbies, television watching and social life. The change for men, from physical recreation to television watching is more gradual but is accelerated by the birth of the first chikd. Children appear to have a much greater influence on their mothers' recreation than on their fathers'.