Children's View on Leisure

Abstract

This study aimed at knowing the concept of leisure in children, their leisure practices, their company during these activities, whether they learn something from leisure, which activities they prefer to do more and which they would like to cease. Forty-one 9 to 10 years old children were individually interviewed, all enrolled in public or private schools in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Transcribed answers went through content analysis in order to generate categories with similar thematic units. For these children, leisure involves having fun and doing all sort of activities with their parents. Watching television, resting, practicing physical activities and playing are what compose leisure for these children, mainly with parents, friends, and siblings. Leisure also teaches all sort of novelties, according to the participants' view. They also would like to have more physical activities and sports as leisure, and little were said about what they would prefer to abandon. There is still much to be studied on leisure during childhood. It is an important dimension of subjective well-being and life satisfaction in children. Positive psychology needs to direct interest to the field of leisure studies, and this, in turn, could be enriched by the subjective perspective of studying well-being and happiness, especially focusing on how children understand rest, pleasure, and positive development and learning opportunities.