Fortifying Leisure

Abstract

This study examined family leisure patterns and meanings of family leisure from the perspective of adolescents living in the Mukono District of Uganda. Sixty-eight secondary students were interviewed. Results indicate Ugandan adolescent definitions of leisure reflect leisure as free time and leisure as a means to an end. Students mentioned three primary family leisure outcomes (enjoyment/fun, personal development, and family development) that point toward a core theme. Fortifying describes the importance Ugandan youth place upon family leisure outcomes that strengthen the individual to overcome inevitable challenges they will face throughout their lives and enable them to succeed, especially through family socializing activities, such as discussion and storytelling.

Keywords

Africans education/school family relationships positive youth development family leisure Uganda fortifying field study

The family unit, in its many varieties of composition and purposes, is a concept recognized by all ethnicities. While each family is unique, the family unit has been found to be an important component of the greater network of society (Orthner, 1998; Zabriskie & McCormick, 2003), and the research consistently finds families become stronger and more cohesive as individual members interact with one another through work and leisure activities (Zabriskie & McCormick, 2003). Researchers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of family recreation to family functioning and quality of life in developed nations (Orthner, 1998; Zabriskie & McCormick, 2001) and suggest more research needs to examine adolescent experiences with leisure worldwide (Iwasaki, 2007, 2008; Iwasaki, Nishino, Onda, & Bowling, 2007).

According to Nsamenang (2002), the sub-Saharan African family continually struggles to adapt to exogenous influences by maintaining meaningful patterns of everyday life and imparting moral lessons and values of generosity, cooperation, and nurturance. In the East African nation of Uganda, entire families and communities are affected by daily struggles with disease, war, and poverty, threatening to tear apart the basic structures holding families together (Ntozi & Zirimenya, 1999). These variables especially affect youth, whose social supports have been weakened by displacement and/or loss of families due to poverty, war, and the HIV/AIDS endemic (Johnson et al., 2012). Family functioning plays an important role in contributing to the welfare of children and adolescents (Nsamenang) as youth must struggle to make sense of their world and develop a positive sense of self, allowing them to make meaningful contributions to their homes and communities (Honwana & De Boeck, 2005).

The purpose of this study was to examine the role and meaning of family leisure from the perspective of adolescents in the Mukono District of Uganda. The study sought to answer the following questions:

Research Question 1: What do Ugandan adolescents from the Mukono District think leisure is?

Research Question 2: How is family leisure, in their terms, happening?

Research Question 3: Why do they think family leisure is important?

Literature Review

The purpose of this study was to identify and examine family leisure meanings among a community of Ugandan adolescents; therefore an overview of current thoughts and research concerning families, youth, and leisure is presented as a reference point for comparison with our findings.

Family Leisure

According to Orthner (1998), the family is the basic unit of a society. Orthner contends it is critical to examine and promote those activities and patterns of behavior that strengthen families. Research has consistently found a positive relationship between family leisure and critical aspects of family functioning, quality of family life, marital satisfaction, and positive youth development (Holman & Epperson, 1984; Orthner & Mancini, 1990; Ward & Zabriskie, 2011; Zabriskie & McCormick, 2001). Unlike social-psychological definitions of leisure that focus on individual motivations and outcomes, family leisure is a unique field that emphasizes the social and interactional contexts affecting overall family life (Shaw & Dawson, 2001).

Zabriskie and McCormick (2001) suggest “leisure is the single most important force developing cohesive, healthy relationships between husbands and wives and between parents and their children” (p. 281) and Ward and Zabriskie (2011) argue “it is quite possible that family leisure involvement may provide the first and most essential context for positive youth development in society today” (pp. 30-31). In other words, family leisure is essential to the development of healthy, functioning families and the study of family leisure aims to identify and promote those behaviors that contribute to positive youth outcomes.

Youth Perspectives

Globally, adolescents represent a growing portion of the population, making enormous contributions to the changes that occur in society. Youth participation in leisure is commonly correlated with positive developmental experiences, such as the development of autonomy and motivation, identity development, skill development and competence, positive physical and emotional experiences, and preparation for adulthood (Caldwell, 2008).

Piggott (2010) recognizes the growing importance of including youth perspectives in leisure research, and Freysinger (1997) claims the voices of our youth need to be heard, especially as they relate to understanding leisure interaction between parent and child. One line of research specifically examines both youth and parent perspectives in family recreation as it relates to family functioning (Agate, Zabriskie, Agate, & Poff, 2009; Aslan, 2009; Dodd, Zabriskie, Widmer, & Eggett, 2009; Poff, Zabriskie, & Townsend, 2010; Zabriskie & McCormick, 2003), and other research has examined youth perspectives on leisure in general (Robertson, 1999; Shannon, 2006; Wegner, Flisher, Muller, & Lombard, 2006). Little is known, however, about the role of family leisure for youth in developing countries. Caldwell (2008) recommends further global research is needed to understand adolescent development within the leisure context, explaining “all youth globally have hours in the day that can be considered discretionary or free, and how the world’s youth spend that time has a major impact on their development, identity, socialization, and future life” (p. 4). Nsamenang claims “adolescent voices should be central to the discourse” in any research involving youth contributions or outcomes. An understanding of how Ugandan adolescents spend their discretionary family time would therefore give us greater insight into the ways these youth function and develop within a potentially dysfunctional family context.

Uganda

The Republic of Uganda, with a population of 31.4 million people, encompasses an area of 241,040 sq. km, approximately the size of Great Britain. English, Luganda, and Swahili are the primary languages spoken in Uganda. Although English is spoken in the schools and at work, Luganda is the most prevalent tribal language. With a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$11.23 billion, compared with the U.S. GDP of US$13.84 trillion, Uganda is one of the poorest nations in the world, relying on agricultural exports and tourism for its primary source of income (Uganda, 2013). Since gaining its independence from Great Britain in 1962, Ugandans have experienced political disorder and economic crisis, especially after Idi Amin seized power in 1971 (Superintendent of Documents, 2009). Amin’s reign led to economic decline, social disintegration, and massive human rights violations. Now, 30 years after Idi Amin was overthrown, Uganda is a relatively stable African country with a multiparty republic (Chappell, 2008).

In a land once torn by turmoil and confusion, Ugandans suffer from low literacy rates (73.2%), the pervasive HIV/AIDS epidemic, poverty, and disease (Uganda, 2013). Homeless children work on the streets (van Blerk, 2006), women lack sufficient health and family planning education (Albin, Rademacher, Malani, Wafula, & Dalton, 2013; Paek, Lee, Salmon, & Witte, 2008), hundreds of children are enlisted in the military (Chappell, 2008), and survival is a daily struggle. However, African families are resilient and it’s important to not overlook their ability to come to terms with these setbacks and maintain their institutional frameworks, knowledge systems, and values (Nsamenang, 2002).

Ugandan Families and Adolescents

In order to examine Ugandan families, we must first define family in this context. Whereas in Western society the family refers most typically to the united pair who run a household with their offspring or adopted children, a Ugandan household extends to a wider circle of people (Siqwana-Ndulu, 1998). For the purposes of this research, family refers to a “collectivity of people who live together . . . who consider themselves family” (Siqwana-Ndulu, 1998, p. 415). While the extended family once dominated African family structures (Njue, Rombo, & Ngige, 2007), Ugandan society has shown a tendency toward the typical nuclear family structure (Ntozi & Zirimenya, 1999).

Young people in Africa, and Uganda specifically, make up the majority of the population, yet the challenging situations they face make them particularly vulnerable (Honwana & De Boeck, 2005). To illustrate the context in which Ugandan youths live, Honwana and De Boeck explain,

Children and youth are pushed, pulled, and coerced into various actions by encompassing structures and processes over which they have little or no control: kin, family, community, education, media, technology, the state and its decay, war, religion, tradition and the weight of the past, and the rules of the global market. In the process they are frequently broken, put at risk, and destroyed by unemployment, exploitation, war, famine, rape, physical mutilation, poverty, homelessness, lack of access to education and medical facilities, and HIV/AIDS . . . Many are expected to work and assume social responsibilities at an early age. They participate actively in productive tasks, paid labor, household chores, and taking care of younger siblings. (pp. 3-4)

On the other hand, Nsamenang (2002) describes a cultural braid of secular, religious, economic, and other experiences that shape adolescent life and that to focus entirely on the negative forces influencing adolescents is to ignore the African worldview of youth as agents who construct their own social identities. Furthermore, as adolescents participate in social acts and relationships, they gain more opportunities to maximize their opportunities and their potentials.

Research has hardly tapped into the potential of family leisure involvement and its contribution to the adolescent experience, especially from youth perspectives. According to Iwasaki (2008), such an examination of leisure in non-Western cultures “has implications for the enhancement of life quality among people in various cultural contexts” (p. 9) and should therefore be acknowledged and brought forward in the field of leisure research.

Method

For the present study, we interviewed Ugandan secondary students to address three questions. First, we needed to understand their basic definitions of leisure in order to reduce if not entirely eliminate our own biases about leisure definitions and to have a context from which to examine our more meaningful questions. Second, we wanted to understand how family leisure was happening among these youth; in other words, what were the activities taking place in the homes of these youth. Third, and most important to our study, we sought to understand why family leisure was meaningful for them and how it contributed, if at all, to their well-being. Because of the exploratory nature of this study, we used field research design to gather the data and a combination of qualitative data analysis (QDA) and classical grounded theory approach to analyze the data. Using QDA strategies (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) allowed us to gain a more theoretically sound understanding of family leisure patterns in this geographical area and develop a theory of family leisure that may be applicable to adolescent populations within developing areas similar to Uganda.

Instrumentation

During a pilot study conducted prior to this research, we interviewed Ugandan students studying in the United States. During this pilot study, we also developed a list of several interview questions regarding Ugandan leisure attitudes and behaviors. These questions were altered and improved upon for the current research in order to accurately capture leisure attitudes and behaviors within Ugandan families. Interview questions were designed to achieve within-method triangulation based on Flick’s (2008) criteria of collecting at least three of the following five types of information in each question: (a) situation narratives, which are personal descriptions of focused events; (b) repisodes, which are regularly reoccurring situations; (c) examples, which include metaphors and actual experiences; (d) subjective definitions, which are personal perceptions and/or explanations of specific terms or constructs; and/or (e) argumentative-theoretical statements, which are explanations of concepts and their relations.

The following sample of interview questions illustrates the criteria discussed by Flick (2008). The questions included here were critical to our findings and have therefore been included:

When I say the word leisure, what does that word mean to you? (Subjective definition).

Can you describe activities you participate in with your family? (Example).

What are some of the stories your parents tell you? (Situation narrative).

What are some of the traditions or rituals in your family? (Repisode).

Why is it important for you to spend time with your family in leisure activities? (Argumentative-theoretical statements).

In the actual research, the interviewer used a standard interview format for each participant though a degree of flexibility allowed the researchers to ask follow-up questions for obtaining further insight.

Selection of Schools

Participants for this study were selected from eight secondary schools in the Mukono District of Uganda. As researchers from a western U.S. university, we came from two different departments, one focused on recreation management and youth leadership (RMYL) and the other focused on educational leadership and foundations (EDLF). Those researchers from education had accumulated 8 years of experience conducting research in Uganda, and they assisted in the selection of subjects and the data collection process. Using the Mukono District school census of 225 secondary schools, created by the EDLF team, eight schools were selected for inclusion in this study. The schools were chosen based on the following inclusion criteria: (a) Each school had an active “O” and “A” level secondary program that includes students at the S4 and S6 grade levels (“O” and “A” levels refer to the first 4 years and the last 2 years of secondary schooling, respectively), (b) each school was among the census of 225 schools identified as an active secondary school, and (c) national examination data for the school were available from the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports.

In addition, to create a maximum variety sample (Patton, 2002), the researchers designed a stratified sampling strategy based on the following three school categories: (a) rural/urban, (b) government/private, and (c) large/small. One school was selected from each of the resulting eight categories. Any school located within the political boundaries of the selected cities and towns, or within 6 km (Mukono Town Council and Njeru) or 5 km (Lugazi) of the geo-center of the city or town was considered urban. All others towns and villages were considered rural. Public schools are substantially funded by the government for physical buildings and teacher salaries, while private schools receive no government funding. Any school with a total enrollment of over 350 students was considered large. Schools were selected based upon their willingness to participate, rather than according to any probability sampling techniques.

Sample

Table 1 displays the demographics for student participants in the study. Participants included 33 males and 35 females (n = 68) ranging in age from 14 years to 21 years.

Table 1.

Student Participants.

Student type			No. of students interviewed
Male	S4	Day	8
Male	S4	Boarding	8
Male	S6	Day	8
Male	S6	Boarding	9
Female	S4	Day	9
Female	S4	Boarding	8
Female	S6	Day	10
Female	S6	Boarding	8
Total			68

While day students lived at home, boarding students lived at the school and returned home for school holidays. Whether day or boarding, the following distribution identifies their home status: 31 students stayed with two parents, 21 stayed with only one parent, and 16 stayed with nonparent guardians.

Selection of Student Participants

Student participants were chosen from the S4 and S6 grade levels (equivalent to American 10th and 12th grades). The rationale for selecting these participants from these grade levels was based on several issues. The S4 and S6 years are when students prepare for their national exit exams, and at this level of schooling, they are best prepared to communicate in English their perceptions of family leisure. These sampling criteria gave us the best sources for thick description because students could better articulate their attitudes and perceptions. These students are located at the highest quality school possible based on their prior academic performance and their family’s financial ability to keep them enrolled. Therefore, S4 and S6 students tend to be more stable at their school than in other grades. Many (if not most) Ugandan S1-S3 and S5 students often tend to be nomadic in order to avoid payment of school fees and to search for the best academic environment possible for the least cost.

All students in the S4 and S6 grades in the selected schools were invited by the schools’ headboy and headgirl to participate in the research. The headboy and headgirl are at the top of their class, as determined by school administrators, and these two students have specific responsibilities among the student body and with the teachers and administrators. The students who were invited to participate went to a school classroom, which served as the research room and filled out a brief demographic survey. Based on the responses to the demographic survey, eight students were then purposefully selected at each school to fill a sampling distribution based on gender, grade level, and whether they were a day or boarding student. These students were selected based on their ability to communicate in English in order to ensure a quality interview. Thus, the eight students at each school included an S4 male boarding student, an S4 male day student, an S6 male boarding student, an S6 male day student, an S4 female boarding student, an S4 female day student, an S6 female boarding student, and an S6 female day student.

Data Collection

Each willing participant engaged in an interview with the primary researcher lasting approximately 20 to 30 minutes. On a few occasions, the primary researcher recognized the participants lacked the ability to understand the interview questions or to articulate their answers in English. These interviews were not included in the study and, in these situations, the researcher concluded her interview, replacing the participant with another student who met the same demographic criteria. Conversely, on four occasions when the primary researcher had reached the participant quota for a particular school, additional students were selected for their ability to articulate clearly and provide rich data for analysis. Interview questions focused on participants’ leisure behaviors from both their individual context and their family context. During the interviews, the investigator audio recorded the interviews and also took notes to provide documentation for observations. Students received no incentive to participate.

In addition to formal interviews with secondary students, the researchers met formally and informally with other families and educators within the Mukono district to understand their perspectives of family leisure. The purposeful selection of families was based on whether the families included children currently in secondary-level grades, and the selection of other educators was based on their ability to give us meaningful information on the topic of family leisure and its influence on student performance. Three families and three educators were formally interviewed and recorded, though their responses will only be referenced to provide additional perspectives and support conclusions drawn from student responses.

Data Analysis

Preliminary data scrubbing and analysis took place each evening of data collection by the RMYL researchers. Researchers continued data analysis through the next 8 months using QSR International’s (2008) NVivo software package, which facilitated the organization, cataloging, and storage of the qualitative data and outcomes. To maintain anonymity, pseudonyms were assigned to each student, though male and female names were kept in order to determine any correlations between gender and interview responses. Open, axial, and selective coding were used to analyze the guiding research questions. Emerging themes and conceptual categories were identified through open coding. Next, axial coding was used to identify developing patterns and relationships that offered insights into the research questions. Text and matrix queries were conducted during this stage in order to identify patterns, and text tables and numerical data tables were also constructed to make further analyses and comparisons. Finally, selective coding focused more narrowly on the relationships and patterns that emerged during axial coding. During this stage of coding, models were created and tested in order to find negative cases and resolve any contradicting analysis of the focus question. Data clarification was accomplished in communication with a school director residing in Mukono Town Council and a Ugandan graduate student attending Ohio University.

Validity Plan for Establishing Trustworthiness

In an effort to establish credibility in the research, peer debriefing occurred on a daily basis during data collection. RMYL researchers met to discuss the day’s research process and to discuss emerging themes and ideas. Peer debriefing allowed the researcher to “step out of the context being studied to review perceptions, insights, and analyses with professionals outside the context” (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, & Allen, 1993, p. 31). These debriefings also allowed the researcher to refine and clarify themes throughout the data analysis process. Member checks throughout the data collection and analysis process allowed research participants to validate interpretations and conclusions made by the research team.

To establish dependability, an external auditor, who was not a part of the data collection process but had a thorough knowledge of the topic and our methods, met with the primary researcher every month following the data collection period to review and discuss findings of the QDA. A running account of the research process through interview notes, memos, and a daily journal were kept. The formulation of emerging themes and theory was documented in the NVivo computer software project file and research journal.

A confirmability audit (Erlandson et al., 1993) allowed internal auditors to examine the research methods and evaluate if the researcher’s findings accurately represented the initial data. The primary researcher met with each member of the research team at various times throughout the analysis process. This team audit allowed a collaborative opportunity to compare and contrast research findings and thus establish validity in the research procedure and discussion.

Results

Definitions of Leisure

In order to first understand how Ugandan adolescents from the Mukono District understand leisure, we asked them to define the term in their own words. Forty-seven students were asked specifically for a definition of leisure. In all, while 52 different definitions of leisure were identified in the analysis, two core themes emerged as predominant (see Table 2): free time (also defined as time free from work) and leisure as the means to an end. For example, Charles explained free time leisure as “time to be alone or to be with your family and have fun or enjoy life,” and Joseph defined means to an end leisure as the time when one is “resting to get some energy which has been used for doing other work.” Five students included both elements of free time and means to an end in their definition.

Table 2.

Leisure Definition Responses (n = 47).

	Free time (n = 30, 64%)	Means to an end (n = 22, 47%)
Gender
Male	16	11
Female	14	11
Grade
S4	16	9
S6	14	13
Student type
Day	14	13
Boarding	16	9

No difference was indicated for definitions of leisure as free time by gender, grade level, or student type (boarding vs. day). However, a potential pattern is suggested in which older day students (living at home; 60%) were more likely to define leisure as means to an end.

Family Leisure

The second question this study explored was how family leisure for students in the Mukono District is happening. Students named activities in which they participate with other family members, and a matrix was created to display how frequently each activity was mentioned (see Table 3). The most frequently mentioned activities in which multiple family members participated included the following: family socializing, which includes the overlap of discussion and storytelling (69%); religious activities (51%); culture and traditional activities (49%); and entertainment, such as watching TV or films and listening to music (40%). Male students (52%) mentioned sports as a family leisure activity more frequently than they mentioned either culture and tradition (36%) or entertainment (42%). We noted that no student mentioned participating in adverse or taboo leisure activities either with friends, family members, or alone. In fact, some students discussed their aversion to taboo leisure activities. As Joel (M6D)¹ explains, “Idleness is the devil’s workshop.” And one school headmaster explained even Internet surfing was a negative behavior because it distracted from more beneficial activities students should participate in.

Table 3.

Family Leisure Activities Mentioned by Participants (n = 68).

Family leisure activities	Total	Male (n = 33)	Female (n = 35)	S4 (n = 33)	S6 (n = 35)	Day students (n = 35)	Boarding students (n = 33)
Discussion and storytelling	45 (66%)^a	20 (61%)^a	25 (71%)^a	20 (61%)^a	25 (71%)^a	25 (71%)^a	20 (61%)^a
Religion	35 (51%)^a	18 (55%)^a	17 (49%)	17 (52%)^a	18 (51%)^a	18 (51%)^a	17 (52%)^a
Culture and tradition	33 (49%)	12 (36%)	21 (60%)^a	15 (45%)	18 (51%)^a	11 (31%)	22 (67%)^a
Entertainment	27 (40%)	14 (42%)	13 (37%)	13 (39%)	14 (40%)	11 (31%)	16 (48%)
Sport	23 (34%)	17 (52%)^a	6 (17%)	9 (27%)	14 (40%)	12 (34%)	11 (33%)
Celebrations	22 (32%)	12 (36%)	10 (29%)	10 (30%)	12 (34%)	10 (29%)	12 (36%)
Travel	17 (25%)	9 (27%)	8 (23%)	8 (24%)	9 (26%)	9 (26%)	8 (24%)
Music and dancing	15 (22%)	7 (21%)	8 (28%)	7 (21%)	8 (23%)	8 (23%)	7 (21%)
Games	14 (21%)	5 (15%)	9 (26%)	6 (18%)	8 (23%)	7 (2%)	7 (21%)
Visiting extended family	12 (18%)	5 (15%)	7 (2%)	8 (24%)	4 (11%)	7 (2%)	5 (15%)
Beach	6 (9%)	4 (12%)	2 (6%)	3 (9%)	3 (9%)	3 (9%)	3 (9%)
Supervising siblings	6 (9%)	3 (9%)	3 (9%)	4 (12%)	2 (6%)	1 (3%)	5 (15%)
Crafts	2 (3%)	0 (0%)	2 (6%)	2 (3%)	0 (0%)	2 (6%)	0 (0%)
Holidays	2 (3%)	2 (6%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	2 (6%)	1 (3%)	1 (3%)
Service	2 (3%)	1 (3%)	1 (3%)	1 (3%)	1 (3%)	2 (6%)	0 (0%)

Activities mentioned by at least 50% of student participants.

Because we are more interested in family leisure meanings than the specific types of activities youth participated in with their families, our analysis and discussion focus primarily on the third question guiding our research. The primary purpose of this question was to determine the context on which students based their responses to the final question.

Importance of Family Leisure

When asked whether they thought family leisure was important, every respondent answered in the affirmative, allowing us to address the third question this study investigated: Why do Ugandan adolescents think family leisure is important? Students’ responses were divided into three main outcomes of family leisure: enjoyment/fun, personal development, and family development, and these outcomes were categorized into two key themes—enjoyment/fun and fortifying—representing why family leisure is important to Ugandan adolescents.

Enjoyment and fun

Eighteen students (27%) discussed enjoyment or fun as a family leisure outcome. Several students mentioned listening to music or watching television to entertain themselves. Specioza (F6B) explained preparing meals with her mother was an important time for leisure because “it’s time for enjoyment. You can enjoy with your mom while she is teaching you. You can enjoy the food as well.” Other family leisure activities related to enjoyment or fun included crafts, music and dancing, football (soccer) and other sports, television and movies, discussion, mealtimes, reading, beach outings, celebrations, cultural activities, games, religion, and travel.

Fortifying

Two key family leisure outcome themes were demonstrated in the data as fortifying or reinforcing participants’ resilience and resolution to achieve and overcome obstacles: (a) personal development and (b) family development. Gender, grade level, and student type (day/boarding) did not appear to be related to fortifying outcomes.

Personal development

Forty-nine students (72%) expressed family leisure as a means to personal development. Family leisure was important to Faridah (F4D) “because I benefit, I can learn how to do certain things which I don’t know. To become a successful woman in life.” Kelvin (M4B) explained leisure was important to him “because it adds more talents,” and Rajab (M6D) valued family leisure because “I get something which can help my life.” Students valued family leisure opportunities that supplied them with the skills, abilities, and determination to succeed. Andrew (M4D) explained his desire to provide leisure opportunities for his future children that would help them “improve on their talent so that they can achieve in the future.”

A close examination of the activities contributing to personal development revealed family socializing was mentioned most frequently (70%). Family socializing included storytelling between parents and their children, grandparents, and grandchildren, or older siblings and younger siblings. Family socializing also included family discussions, whether structured or impromptu.

Andrew (M4D) explained it was important to receive counsel from his parents because “they tend to tell me or to give me the guidelines, what me as a youth, what I’m supposed to do and how I’m supposed to live, to behave . . . in such and such a way.” Francis (M6B) discussed the value of telling stories and the lessons he has learned from his elders. He remarked,

It encourages the children, like me, it has encouraged me. If I listen to such stories, eh, they encourage me also to be hard working because those stories, okay, the world is . . . developing our days. So if you still want to live a miserable life then the world would leave you behind. So such stories encourage me. That’s why I’m hard working, even at school.

Joshua (M6B) also profited from the stories his elders told, commenting

What I learn from those stories, that whenever you are in a big problem, don’t think that that’s the end of life. God has a plan for you in the future. That’s what I learn and it gives me confidence when I ever pass through some difficult situations. It gives me confidence that at least one time, at any given time, I’ll overcome this situation and also be happy as my dad.

Through a conversation with her mother, Faith (F4B) learned “the advantages and disadvantages of marriage” and received advice to “have discipline to succeed in this world.” Embedded in this conversation is the value of discipline and marriage, tools that Faith will need to secure a successful future. Alex (M6D) remarked during the time he spends with his family that “they guide you [in] a lot of things which you don’t know, like how to dig, how to care for your brothers, and so on.” Augustine (M6B) commented on the importance of learning from the stories of his elders, explaining, “I learn very many things from them, especially the grandfather and parents. So they teach me and even they can tell me their experiences. So even me, I learn how to live and how to be responsible.” One father, confirming comments from the students, explained the traditional purpose of family leisure: “Leisure was used really to teach. In the evening they would be around the fireplace and then they would sing, they would say proverbs . . . then after that word of counsel.”

The next most frequently mentioned family activities contributing to personal development included mealtimes (4%) and religion (4%). Other family leisure activities related to personal development outcomes included reading, cultural activities, discussion, watching television together, games, sports, storytelling, supervising younger siblings, and travel.

Family development

Thirty-seven students (55%) talked about developing or strengthening family relationships as an outcome of family leisure. When asked about his family leisure activities, Daniel (M4B) responded, “We eat and do other things which can develop us in our family.” Isaac (M4B) explained, “It gives us courage to face our parents. And maybe our problems . . . we can discuss with our parents. And also it makes it known whom your parents are, whom they really are.” Another student (M6B), indicating the value of family development to his success, explained, “if you are in a good way with your family members they can guide you . . . then they give some sort of advice because they are your family members.” For Mercy (F4D), success meant finding a good husband and having a good marriage. In order to achieve that, it was important for Mercy to spend her leisure time learning from her mother “to do domestic work at home, fetching water, digging, like that.” She clarified,

If you go and you get a husband, eh, you can know how to do everything. But if you go to, in the marriage, when you cannot do anything, you cannot stay with that man . . . But if I know everything, it can be good for me.

In interactions between Mercy and her mother, Mercy learned how such skills would sustain her in her marriage. In addition, Christine (F4B) added, “when I’m with my mom, she teaches me how to peel food, to cook, how to behave in public, table manners . . . and how to treat others.”

Students mentioned family leisure encouraged discussion and problem solving by providing a safe, loving environment where family members could counsel and advise one another. Students indicated the value of the family unit to cultivate courage and perseverance against daily struggles.

Family leisure activities related to family development outcomes included visiting the beach, celebrations, discussion, watching television together, games, holidays, sport, storytelling, and travel.

Discussion

The research and analysis led to the emergence of a core theme we call “fortifying.” This core variable underlies the importance of two key outcomes (personal and family development) and has been identified as the motivational factor that deepens the importance of family leisure opportunities. Fortifying describes the level of importance students place upon family leisure outcomes that strengthen the individual to overcome inevitable challenges they will face throughout their lives and enable them to succeed.

During data analysis, we struggled with the idea that perhaps family socializing in the form of discussion and storytelling represented the core variable because it stood out as the primary activity mentioned by the respondents. It became evident, however, that family socializing was really the medium through which the core variable of fortifying occurred. Participation in family discussions and storytelling were the most common means of family socializing and provided clear benefits for the students and families interviewed.

When students discussed the importance of family leisure, responses regularly indicated family leisure was important for them because they learned valuable skills, knowledge, and discipline from their elders (often parents or older family members) that would help them achieve now and in the future. For these adolescents, the primary function of family leisure was to cultivate fortitude and resilience through the skills and encouragement taught primarily via oral activities. Students recognized leisure’s worth in reinforcing the individual’s motivation to work hard and achieve in school and other endeavors. The ultimate purpose of family leisure activities was not simply to achieve personal and family development, but to use these outcomes to fortify family members against disappointment and adversity.

Essentially, Ugandan families use family leisure to fortify their youth by transferring values of hard work and struggle from generation to generation. Family leisure itself is not the primary focus, rather it is the medium by which knowledge and counsel, resilience and determination can be passed on to children and adolescents. The fortifying function of family leisure for Ugandan adolescents indicates a greater degree of commitment to family leisure among all family members—not only the parents. Although parents were primarily responsible for providing family leisure opportunities, the data we obtained from Ugandan students also indicate they had a greater degree of appreciation for family leisure. These students discussed the importance of seeking out functional family leisure opportunities, understanding for themselves those opportunities would strengthen them to face life’s realities and equip them with the skills and tools necessary to overcome inevitable struggles.

Although their living conditions may appear grim, Ugandans are typically optimistic and realize that in order for their families to survive and overcome their challenges they must fortify their youth with a sense of hardiness and resolve. Through leisure they teach their youth the importance of struggle and achievement.

Ugandan youths and their families recognize education is the key to overcome the suffering and injustices they face. Success is the avenue to a better life. As one female student, Shamim (F6B), explained,

As you see future, to be bright, eh, you have to struggle. Those people who never gone to school, they face many problems. They can’t keep their children in school. Even if he or she’s sick he’s just there, dormant, doesn’t know what is taking place. But someone who is educated, he knows how to overcome problems and that’s why I want to struggle, to see that I can achieve my goals. That’s what I want.

The findings from this study are consistent with Honwana and De Boeck’s (2005) argument suggesting “young people in Africa are not merely passive victims of the societal crisis that pervades the worlds in which they grow up . . . They are searching for their own ways out of a life they feel to be without a future” (p. 6). Fortifying describes the process whereby Ugandan adolescents purposively participate in leisure activities that foster the development of valuable skills, strength, and knowledge essential to helping family members overcome their struggles and succeed.

As Ugandan children cultivate those skills and learn why such skills are important, they become equipped with the capacity to adapt to difficult situations and thrive in the future, even when their parents and elders are not around to teach them.

In order to help earn a living and provide for their families, typical Ugandan youth cannot afford to waste their time participating in activities lacking purpose or beneficial outcomes. Therefore, the value of the activities in which they do participate must equate with the value they place on education and work as tools to secure a better life. The findings demonstrate the majority of leisure activities in which students participated with their families were those yielding the greatest benefit to the students’ personal development and success. Students placed the greatest amount of value on activities contributing to personal development, followed by family development. Enjoyment and relaxation were less valuable outcomes of family leisure and health was the least valuable. Therefore, students more frequently mentioned participating in activities that provided personal and family development outcomes, with family socializing activities mentioned most frequently.

Limitations, Implications, and Recommendations

Not all 68 participants in this study were asked for a definition because of interviewer error, resulting in a minor limitation to results addressing the question “what do Ugandan adolescents from the Mukono District think leisure is?” But because we still obtained 52 different definitions from 47 students, the researchers feel this is till sufficient data to support the claims made about the data.

The core variable fortifying gives us a sense family leisure can have purpose for adolescents beyond typical outcomes such as relaxation, entertainment, and fun. Results from this study may have implications for other cultures, including developed Western cultures among families where poverty and illiteracy exist. In cultures similar to Uganda, fortifying leisure activities such as discussion and storytelling may be important to the development of individuals and families and therefore society. Fortifying leisure gives youth the tenacity to succeed despite difficult obstacles. Based on family leisure activities mentioned by these students, family socializing strengthens the endurance and resilience of youth and families. Through telling stories of the past and discussing important values, parents and guardians can teach their children, despite all of their suffering, that education and struggle are the realistic vehicles for them to create a better life. Family socializing is a valuable tool for families to produce educated citizens able to achieve and therefore contribute to a developing society.

More specifically, these findings have implications for secondary school curriculum and teacher training in the Mukono District and in areas similar to Uganda where disease, poverty, and illiteracy hinder progress and quality of life. Because Ugandan students are required to pay a fee for grades Primary 1 through Secondary 6, enrollment rates in Ugandan schools are volatile. Educators in Mukono and similar areas can use this information to influence students’ and families’ attitudes toward education and quality of life.

Given that findings from this study cannot be generalized beyond this sample of students, similar research in other non-Western areas of the world would give researchers greater insight into adolescent perspectives of family leisure patterns in developing countries. It would also be beneficial to diversify the sample population within each area studied. Future studies could also help researchers understand specific leisure patterns among Ugandan families and eventually families from other populations and lead to further theory development about the role of family leisure in positive youth development.

Conclusion

Because of the challenging life conditions that Ugandan youth and families face, leisure is generally not an intrinsically motivating experience used to explore and create an identity. Rather, family leisure is the vehicle through which Ugandan youths receive the guidance and instruction that will fortify them against challenging experiences. Family leisure is another opportunity for youth to continue their development outside of school and attain valuable skills and knowledge crucial to their achievement. With a deep-rooted respect for parents and elders, adolescents value family leisure experiences as opportunities to learn from their families and gain precious insight that will benefit them as they struggle to transcend the challenges that inhibited their own parents’ success.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by a Mary Lou Fulton Grant.

Notes

Author Biographies

Rachel A. McGovern earned her graduate degree in youth and family recreation from Brigham Young University, Utah, United States. She teaches undergraduate courses in leisure theory, program and experience management, and experiential education.

Stacy Taniguchi is an associate professor in the Department of Recreation Management at Brigham Young University, Utah, United States. He teaches courses in graduate-level research, risk management, and principles of leisure studies. His research focuses on leisure attitudes of different cultures and the attributes of meaningful experiences. He also studies the effectiveness of therapeutic recreation modalities in experiential educational settings, especially applied to business issues such as innovation, change, and performance management.

Julie M. Hite is a professor of strategic and organizational leadership in the Department of Educational Leadership and Foundations at Brigham Young University, Utah, United States. Her research focuses on strategic organizational networks, resource acquisition, and performance of U.S. and Ugandan schools, using quantitative, qualitative, and network methods.

Steven J. Hite is a professor of educational research theory and methodology at Brigham Young University, Utah, United States. His current research endeavors focus on the field-based use of quantitative and qualitative research, evaluation and analysis systems to explore factors leading to improvement of the quality, efficiency, effectiveness, and equality of educational opportunities for all individuals, families, and communities. For more than a decade, he has worked with the International Institute of Education Planning and the Division for Education Strategies and Capacity Building of UNESCO.

Mark Widmer is a professor in the Department of Recreation Management at Brigham Young University, Utah, United States. He teaches courses in graduate-level theory and application, research and consulting, therapeutic recreation, and work-life balance. He also studies the effectiveness of therapeutic recreation modalities in experiential educational settings, especially applied to business issues such as innovation, change, and performance management.

Christopher B. Mugimu earned a PhD in education from Brigham Young University, Utah, United States, and is currently serving as an associate professor and chair in the Department of Foundations and Curriculum Studies, School of Education at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. His research interests include the use of alternative education resource provisions to enhance educational quality and international development education.

Yusuf K. Nsubuga is the director of Basic and Secondary Education in Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports.

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