Favoured Free-time: Comparing Children's Activity Preferences in the UK and the USA

Laura Merris Griffiths

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study presents a comparative study of the free-time activity preferences of 9- to 11-year-old children in the UK and USA, as drawn by them in art workshops. Six themes emerged relating to sport, outdoor play, family/peers, media, special occasions and other (indefinable) activities. The children’s talk about their drawings revealed additional preferences for ‘obsessive hobbies’, ‘doing nothing’, relationships with others, and the local environment. Whilst the emergent patterns displayed strong cross-cultural similarities in free-time activity choices and participation, as well as compliance with the conventional construction of ‘childhood’, the findings were context-specific and locally inflected.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)190-201
Number of pages12
JournalChildren & Society
Volume25
Issue number3
Early online date12 Nov 2009
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2011

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