A Vacation Within a Vacation: An Examination of How Child Participation in Day Programs During Family Vacations Influences Parental Satisfaction With The Vacation

摘要

Family vacations are an important part of life for many families. This paper will give an overview of family recreation and family vacations. Family recreation has many positive effects that influence family life and can lead to a better overall satisfaction for parents and children. This leads to certain advantages that many families experience while on vacation. Lastly, leisure constraints theory and family systems theory are described. These two theories serve as the theoretical framework of this study. In order to collect data a questionnaire was e-mailed to parents whose children attended a childrenu27s program while on family vacations. A qualitative approach was used to analyze the data from the structured electronic interview. The overall theme that emerged during this study is that stressful experiences that parents experience during family vacations can be eased through the childrenu27s program. Findings indicated that parents were very satisfied with the offered programs, childrenu27s participation in such programs provided opportunity for parental time alone, parents experienced positive emotions while their children were at the program, and the childrenu27s program eased general difficulties families may experience during family vacations. Future research needs to explore these findings more in-depth in order to better understand the benefits of such programs and to better explore what makes a successful youth program.