Abstract
Results from a Canadian questionnaire survey that investigated constraints to leisure provide empirical evidence of the relative importance of various criterion variables (such as the desire but inability to participate, and ceasing participation) against which to measure the impact of constraints to leisure. The findings show how people themselves believe their leisure to be compromised, as opposed to how researchers and practitioners may assume constraints to affect leisure. The study also provides support for the conceptualization of constrained leisure as a non-homogeneous phenomenon, and generates a new proposition about the sequential experience and negotiation of leisure constraints.