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LEISURE AND LIFE-STYLE
ROBERT J. HAVIGHURST and KENNETH FEIGENBAUM
ABSTRACT
The Kansas City Study of Adult Life, studying the social role performance of people aged forty to
seventy, gave ratings of performance on various social roles. When leisure activity was related to the pat-
tern of social role performance (called "life-style"), four general life-styles were found: community-cen-
tered, home-centered high, home-centered medium, and low level, the adjectives for altitude referring to
level of social role performance. The most successful life-styles, judged by the level of role performance,
involved patterns of leisure which were active and similar rather than contrasting with the other social
roles. Middle-class people may be community-centered or home-centered in life-style and in leisure, but
working-class people are either home-centered or generally low in social role and leisure performance.
Leisure has generally but vaguely been about his favorite leisure activities, what
seen as a source of satisfaction and even of they meant to him, why he liked them, whom
delight. In a society in which most people he did them with, as well as a number of
had to work, and to work hard and long, questions about vacations, reading, televi-
leisure was scarce and was regarded either sion, radio, and movies, and what he did
as a reward to be earned by work and to around the house.
be enjoyed because one had worked so hard On the basis of this interview, ratings
for it or as a good thing conferred by in- were made of the competenceof the individ-
herited wealth or by marriageto wealth. ual in his social roles. Rating scales were
With the coming of more leisure in the devised to represent the general American
lives of the common people, not all the rosy expectations or definitions of these roles.'
promises have been realized. Some people The rating scale for user of leisure time
have found themselves with more leisure follows:
than they really wanted. The values of in- a) High (8-9).-Spends enoughtimeat some
creased leisure to welfare and the quality leisureactivity to be ratherwell knownamong
of living of society as a whole have been his associatesin this respect. But it is not so
seriously questioned. It is clear that modern muchthe amountof leisureactivityas its qual-
leisure is not an unmixed blessing. This sug- ity whichgives him a high rating.He has one
gests the desirability of studying the uses or morepursuitsfor whichhe gets publicrecog-
that people make of their leisure, what sat- nition and appreciationand which give him a
isfactions they get out of it, and how it fits realsenseof accomplishment.
Chooseshis leisure activities autonomously,
into the rest of their lives. not merelyto be in style. Gets fromleisurethe
Using the concept of "life-style" to de- feelingof being creative,of novel and interest-
scribe a person'scharacteristicway of filling ing experience,sheerpleasure,prestige,friend-
and combining the various social roles he is ship,andof beingof service.
called on to play, we may see how leisure fits b) Above average (6-7).-Has four to five
into it. To do so, the Kansas City Study leisureactivities.Leisuretime is somewhatpat-
of Adult Life interviewed a sample of men terned,indicatingthat he has plannedhis life
and women aged f-;om forty to seventy to to providefor the satisfactionof the needsmet
get an account of the way the person spent throughthese activities.
his time and the significance to him of his Leisureinterestsshowsomevariety.Displays
real enthusiasmfor one or two-talks about
major social roles-those of parent, spouse,
homemaker,worker, citizen, friend, club or 1 For the other role-performance scales and for
associationmember,and user of leisure time. the pattern analysis mentioned later see Robert J.
Havighurst, "The Social Competence of Middle-
About a quarter of the interview was de- aged People," Genetic Psychology Monographs,
voted to leisure. The individual was asked LVI (1957), 297-395.
396
LEISURE AND LIFE-STYLE 397
them in such a way as to indicate that he has ment of talent; instrumentation or expres-
put considerable energy into acquiring profi- siveness; relation of leisure to work; gre-
ciency or the requisite understanding and skills gariousnessor solitude; service or pleasure;
and prides himself on it. status and prestige; relaxation; ego integra-
c) Medium (4-5).-Has two or three leisure
tion or role diffusion; new experience or
activities which he does habitually and enjoys
mildly-reading, television, radio, watching repetition; vitality or apathy; and expan-
sports, handwork, etc. May do one of these sion or constriction of interests.
things well or quite enthusiastically, but not The results of the several methods of
more than one. Gets definite sense of well-being studying leisure were related to one another
and is seldom bored with leisure. and to a set of social and personal variables,
TABLE 1
LEISURE, PERSONALITY, AND SOCIAL VARIABLES*
Personal Manifest Social
Social Adjust- Complex- Mo- Con- Signifi- Mean-
Sex Age Class ment ity bility tent cance ing
Content........+++ +++ +++ + ++ + ...... +++ +++
Objective signifi-
cance......... + + ++ +++ +++ ++ +++ . ++
Subjectivemean-
ing ........... + - + + + + + +++ +++ + ......
* + = a smaUdegree of relationship (not more than two or three of the content or significanceor meaning variables are
reliably related to a social or personalvariable)
+ + = a fair degree of relationship
+++ = a high degreeof relationship(morethan half of the leisurevariablesare reliablyrelatedto a social or personalvariable)
Leisure activities are somewhat stereotyped; including age, sex, social class, personal ad-
they do not have a great deal of variety. justment, and manifest complexity of life.
d) Below average (2-3).- The interrelationsare summarizedin Table
(1) Tends to take the line of least resistance 1.
in leisure time. Needs to be stimulated. Looks
for time-fillers. The procedure in studying life-style was
May have one fairly strong interest but is
based upon the use of the scores for per-
content with this one which brings him some
sense of enjoyment. Leisure time is usually formancein the eight social roles previously
spent in passive spectatorship. Or: mentioned.A life-style was defined as a pat-
(2) May have very little spare time. What tern of role-performancescores shared by
time he has is taken up with activities related a group of people.
to his job or profession or with work around Life-styles in this sense were discovered
the house viewed as obligatory and not as a among the 234 persons in the Social Role
pastime. Sample of the Kansas City Study of Adult
e) Low (0-1).- Life. There were actually twenty-seven
(1) Apathetic. Does nothing and makes no
2 In addition, two other aspects of the person's
attempt to find outside interests. Or:
favorite leisure activities were studied: (1) the
(2) Tries anxiously to find interesting things content of the favorite leisure activities (eleven
to do and fails to find them. Is bored by leisure categories of content) and (2) the subjective mean-
and hurries back to work. Dislikes vacations ings of the favorite leisure aetivities (a set of twelve
and cannot relax. statements of the kinds of satisfaction a person
might get from a leisure activity, from which the
Not only was the person's use of leisure respondent picked the meanings most applicable
time rated according to the foregoing scale to his favorite activities). For details concerning
but the objective significance of his favorite the significance, content, and meaning studies see
activities was evaluated according to a set Robert J. Havighurst, "The Leisure Activities of
the Middle-aged," American Journal of Sociology,
of nineteen variables,2 of which the most
LXIII (September, 1957), 152-62; Marjorie N.
useful appear to be: autonomy or other- Donald and Robert J. Havighurst, "The Meanings
direction; creativity; enjoyment; develop- of Leisure" (MS).
398 THE AMERICANJOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
specific patterns, or life-styles, each char- A. Community-centered.-This is a pattern
acterizing from 8 to 34 members,with some of uniformly high performance scores in all
people belongingto two or more. The specific eight social roles. It is called "community-cen-
patterns were grouped into four major tered" for the sake of contrast with the follow-
groups, using broader criteria for member- ing group, though the performance scores in the
community roles of citizen, club or association
ship in a group than in a pattern, and these member, and friend are not higher than those
four groups may be regarded provisionally in the family areas but about the same. The
as life-style groups.Their characteristicrole- social class distribution of these people in the
performance scores are shown in Figure 1. Kansas City Metropolitan Area is shown in
The names given to the life-style groups,and Table 2.
a brief description of each, follow: B. Home-centered high.-These people have
C-)
ROL E AREA
FIG. 1.-Life-styles of middle-aged people: A, community-centered; B, home-centered high; C, home-
centered medium; D, low level.
LEISURE AND LIFE-STYLE 399
and work roles somewhatabove the external ganizations where they interact with each
roles. This grouphas very low scores on per- other to formwider circles of social and busi-
sonaladjustmentand on complexity. ness contacts. Membership in the country
We shall first answer the question, "What club is part of their proper and accepted
are the 'leisure styles' of the four life- style of living. The community-centeredin-
styles?" By "leisure style" we mean the dividuals also tend not to have young chil-
Gestalt formed when one observes an in- dren at home, which allows freedomfor out-
dividual's kinds and number of activities. side activity.
The community-centeredstyle of leisure In contrast, the people who enjoy the
emphasizes activities engaged in away from home-centered style of leisure engage in
home. The individual uses entertainment most of it around their residence.This style
institutions, such as the theater or the con- is strongest in lower-middle-and upper-low-
cert, or social institutions, such as the coun- er-class individualsand falls off in the lower-
try club, Rotary, chamber of commerce, lower class, where family values lose some
Red Cross, etc., as the context for a major importance and the few pastimes become
part of it, either jointly by the members of sex-differentiated, the men going fishing
a family or individually. On the basis of the alone or to the bar or poolroom with the
significance ratings people employing the "boys."
400 THE AMERICANJOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
Leisure activities are engaged in jointly usually no broader than the kind of ac-
by the membersof the family for the major- tivities listed in circle 6. In graphic form
ity of the home-centered, whether it be a this illustrates the socially and spatially re-
church outing, a fishing trip, or watching stricted nature of the leisure of the home-
television. Sex-differentiatedactivities, such centered.
as sewing and embroideringfor the women Two examples, one of a community-cen-
and carpentryand "fixingaroundthe house" tered man with a high rating as a user of
for the men, still allow for conversationand leisure and the other of a high leisure home-
interaction between spouses. Friendship centered man, may further the reader's
and sociability are cultivated by visits from image of the difference between the two
neighborsrather than through any member- styles of leisure.
ship other than in the church or perhaps a Mr. X is a fifty-year-old executive vice-
fraternialorganization.For some people the president of a bank, with a pattern of leisure
family-centered style was not one of choice activities which is the prototype of the com-
but of necessity, owing to the presence of munity-centeredstyle of leisure. He is presi-
young children. dent of one country club, a member of
A numberof activities such as fishing and another, a Shriner, and a member of the
traveling during vacations were common to executive council of a national Boy's Club
both leisure styles, with some differentiation movement and of a number of charity or-
as to the mannerof them. In the community- ganizations. Mr. X's favorite leisure activity
centered style travel consists of going to is to go on trips during his vacation, to
resorts and sightseeing, while for the peo- New York City to see the Broadwaytheater,
ple engaged in home-centeredleisure travel and to see exhibitions of modern art. He is
consists of a car trip to relatives in other active in encouraging the local art museum
cities. For the upper-lower-class members to acquire examples of modern art. He en-
of the home-centered style travel may be joys playing golf once or twice a week at
quite circumscribed; one spoke of "taking the country club, playing cards, painting
a trolley trip to see the city." his garage, and entertaining business peo-
In spite of the relationship between life- ple both at home and at the club. He does
style and social class position, there were not own a television set, preferringthe good
people whose life-styles did not correspond music on the radio. He goes with his wife
with their class positions, as would be ex- to the movies and to all the musicalcomedies
pected in a society with a considerable de- that come to Kansas City. As for friends,
gree of social mobility. From Table 2 it Mr. X calls ten to twelve couples "close."
appears that some 10 per cent of the popu- He met them through various activities:
lation may have patterns above their class "My business connections here at the bank,
level and 5 per cent below it. civic clubs, church, etc." With his wife he
This scheme of leisure activities can be goes out to eat once a week and entertains
further comprehendedby consulting Figure other couples.
2. Each of the concentric circles contains In contrast to Mr. X, Mr. Y, a fifty-eight-
examples of the type of activities engaged year-old social worker, is an example of an
in by the subjects making up the sample. individual who employs the home-centered
The center of the concentric circles is com- style of leisure. His favorite activity is gar-
mon living in the home, the other radiating dening, in which he spends one-half hour
circles representing the physical and psy- to an hour a day during the growing season.
chological distances of activities from it. Mr. Y's hobby is model railroading,which
The "activity radius" of the community- he engages in with his wife in the basement
centered group is much greater than that of his home. He also does some woodworking
of the home-centered group, whose leisure and woodcarving and manual work around
activities never transcend circle 8, and are the home. Once in a while he reads historical
LEISURE AND LIFE-STYLE 401
fiction.The television set plays for two hours The differences between the home-cen-
an evening, showing sports events, quiz tered high, home-centeredmedium,and low-
shows, and plays. With his wife he reads, level life-styles as far as leisure is concerned
plays cards, does model railroading, and are mainly those between high, medium,
takes walks. Living in a neighborhood of and low ratings on the scale of competence
younger adults, he claims that he has few as a user of leisure. A higher role perform-
friends and that a large part of his time is ance is associated with the following signifi-
spent taking care of the two children of his cance variables: autonomy, creativity, get-
son. Mr. Y's "going out" consists only of ting strong pleasure from the activity, in-
movies (with wife) and American Legion strumental, high energy input, ego integra-
meetings once a month. tion, vitality, and expansion of interests and
From this one can see that both in num- activities.
ber and in kind of activities engaged in out-
side the home the "leisure complexity" of Have those whose leisure is home-cen-
Mr. X is far greater than that of Mr. Y. tered different personalities from the com-
\ 9~~~0\
leisure-role performance scores, those with television, and take care of the children, or
higher leisure scores are more autonomous, in the church. The relationship between the
more creative, more instrumental, and more spouses is good, and there is a general feel-
vital in their use of leisure. ing of contentment and emotional security.
It is this basically which accounts for the
It has been assumed up to this point that high adjustment scores of the group.
there was a close correlation between per- The group of individuals with high leisure
sonal adjustment and performance in the scores and low adjustment tend as a whole
leisure role. The correlation coefficient is to be maladjustedsocially or occupationally
.32 for men and .33 for women, with socio- and attempt to get through leisure what
economicstatus partialed out. Clearly, there they cannot get in the other roles. They use
are some exceptions to this rule. Study of their leisure as a compensation to make up
these exceptions may teach us something for their deficiencies and to give their life
more about the value of leisure. some meaning.
Accordingly, we selected the cases which The men in the group, often alienated
showed most markedly a high adjustment- from work, from spouse, or from the "com-
low leisure performance combination and munity," attempt to adjust to this alienation
those who combined low adjustment with by engaging in leisure activities where they
high leisure performance. There were nine invest a lot of energy and through which
of the former and twelve of the latter in they can enjoy themselves and see them-
the sample of 234 people. The criterion for selves as socially acceptable. One is a fac-
the high adjustment-low leisure combina- tory manager. He finds no satisfaction in
tion was an adjustment score of 6 or above this position but rather pictures himself as
on the ten-point adjustment scale and a an intellectual and therefore spends a great
score of 5 or below on the ten-point leisure deal of time reading. A second, an amateur
performancescale. The criterion for the low pilot, directs his leisure away from a home
adjustment-high leisure group was an ad- where some emotional difficultiesexist. An-
justment score of 4.5 or below and a leisure other man was trained as an engineer and
score of 6 or above. has shifted over the years from one job to
The content of the leisure and the sig- another, finally going into a business with
nificance ratings of the leisure activities of his wife, which he does not enjoy. Like the
the low leisure-high adjustmentpeople were factory manager, he pictures himself as a
similar to the general pattern of people with scholar and spends his leisure time reading
low leisure and low adjustment scores. oriental history. One of the men is a light-
There are low significance ratings as to the skinned Negro, cut off socially from both
autonomy of the leisure activity, the crea- the white and the Negro community, who
tivity expressed in it, some apathy with engages in leisure activities that he can per-
respect to the activity, and either a decline form alone or with his family, such as hunt-
in leisure interests or no expansion of in- ing and fishing-activities which do not put
terests. him in social contact with others.
These are people who get along very well The women in the group have difficulty
with little or no leisure. They show a great in relating to their husbands and are emo-
deal of vitality in the instrumentalactivities tionally insecure; there are degrees of feel-
of life. The men are busy with their jobs ings of unwantedness and not being loved.
and the women with their children, allowing They concentratetheir energiesinto a single
little time for leisure and restricting them activity which they engage in alone and
to leisure activities near home. Six out of where they can achieve a great deal of pro-
the nine in the group are females and follow ficiency, such as sewing, embroidery, or
this pattern. Their leisure activities are cen- petitpoint, or in church activities where
tered either at home, where they sew, watch they can spend time with the "women"and
404 THE AMERICANJOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
achieve the feeling of "doing something dle-class people, but rarely are working-class
worthwhile." people community-centered.An individual
with a large family of childrenis more likely
CONCLUSIONS to be home-centered.However, his place of
1. The most successful life-styles, as residence-whether in a suburb, single-fam-
judged by the level of role-performance ily home, or city apartment-does not seem
scores, have concomitant patterns of leisure to affect his leisure style to any great degree.
activity. The community-centeredlife-style The personality of the individual appears to
includes a leisure pattern which spreads find its own leisure style.
from the home out through a variety of 3. There are a few exceptionalcases where
community circles. On the other hand, a the life-style and the leisure style are not in
successful home-centeredlife-style contains close relation. One group of such cases con-
a home-centeredleisure pattern. These suc- sists of about 5 per cent of adults. They are
cessful leisure patterns tend to be autono- people with little or no leisure activity who
mous, creative, instrumental, vital, and ego have a successful life-style and good per-
integrative, whether they be community- sonal adjustment. These men and women
centered or home-centered. generallyinvest most of their energy in work
The lower-level life-styles are lower in or in home and children,with little time and
performance in roles external to the home inclination for leisure.
than in the home roles. They also have Another group consists of about 6 per
lower-level leisure styles, with lower scores cent of adults. They have a high level of
on the values listed in the preceding para- leisure activity but are dissatisfied or inade-
graph. quate workers or parents or spouses who
2. The two major types of leisure style, attempt to compensate with a high leisure
the community-centeredand the home-cen- performance.
tered, appearto be equally accessibleto mid- UNIVERSITY OF CEICAGO