Informant-Provided Leisure Constraints in Six Taiwanese Cities

Abstract

Lists of leisure activities and/or constraints used in research in non-Western settings are typically imported from studies executed in North America or Europe despite the possible influence of cultural context. To avoid this problem, we asked 182 informants from six cities in Taiwan to free list leisure constraints. While our primary purpose was to develop a culture-appropriate list of constraints for use in future research, we also illustrate how free lists can be analyzed in terms of item salience and the frequency with which groups that varied in terms of gender and age listed particular items. Results indicated that older informants listed constraints related to age and health more frequently than younger informants while younger informants were more concerned with resources, such as money. This study takes culture into account in research on leisure constraints by using an approach based on informant-provided items rather than standardized lists taken from other contexts and imposed by researchers.