Facilitators to Leisure

Abstract

Samdahl and Jekubovich (1997) suggested that the constraints paradigm has shaped leisure research in such a way that it is now difficult to adopt alternative explanations of participation. One major problem with the constraints approach, however, is that the absence of constraints does not necessarily lead to participation. The purpose of this paper is to develop a basic framework for understanding what facilitates leisure participation. Using the term “facilitators” provides theoretical consistency with an extensive body of constraints literature. Facilitators are proposed to be separate from, but interact with, constraints on leisure to produce participation. A preliminary model of the relationship between facilitators and constraints incorporating an ecological perspective is presented.

KEYWORDS:

• Facilitators and constraints to leisure
• ecological perspective
• leisure participation