The Socialization of Families Away from Home: Group Dynamics and Family Functioning on Holiday

The focus on individuals in tourism research has led to limited and fragmented research on family groups and their leisure experiences away from home. This article extends conceptual and theoretical understandings within family tourism research by offering a three-dimensional framework inclusive of group perspectives. A whole-family methodology was used with 10 families (10 fathers, 10 mothers, and 20 children) in New Zealand as a more critical and holistic approach to tourism concepts. Empirical findings illustrate group dynamics along with the underrepresented generational perspectives of children and gender perspectives of fathers to provide insights into family functioning. This resulted in a three-layered model of family holiday experiences inclusive of group sociality. The collective intentionality of family togetherness on holiday is contrasted with more balanced modes in own time, highlighting the complexity of socialization within tourism theory and practice.

[1]  J. Jenkins.  Nonresident Fathers' Leisure with Their Children , 2009 .

[2]  L. Irigaray,et al.  An Ethics of Sexual Difference , 1993 .

[3]  Kerry J. Daly,et al.  Families & Time: Keeping Pace in a Hurried Culture , 1996 .

[4]  T. Kay.  Fathering Through Sport and Leisure , 2009 .

[5]  Jonas Larsen,et al.  Performing Tourist Places , 2004 .

[6]  Neil Carr,et al.  A Comparison of Adolescents' and Parents' Holiday Motivations and Desires , 2006 .

[7]  R. Zabriskie,et al.  The Influences of Family Leisure Patterns on Perceptions of Family Functioning , 2001 .

[8]  A. Morrison,et al.  Hospitality: A Social Lens , 2001 .

[9]  Jonas Larsen,et al.  De‐exoticizing Tourist Travel: Everyday Life and Sociality on the Move , 2008 .

[10]  Stephen Wearing,et al.  Tourist Cultures: Identity, Place and the Traveller , 2009 .

[11]  T. Jamal,et al.  Tourism and the forbidden zone: the underserved power of qualitative inquiry , 2001 .

[12]  Soile Eeva Johanna Veijola,et al.  The Body in Tourism , 1994 .

[13]  Deborah L. Kerstetter,et al.  Casting Off , 2005 .

[14]  A nice vacation: Variations in experience aspirations and travel careers , 2007 .

[15]  Walter Podilchak,et al.  Distinctions of fun, enjoyment and leisure , 1991 .

[16]  Kay W. Axhausen,et al.  Networks and tourism. Mobile social life , 2007 .

[17]  L. Rehman,et al.  Factors Influencing the Physically Active Leisure of Children and Youth: A Qualitative Study , 2005 .

[18]  S. Illum.  Family tourism: multidisciplinary perspectives , 2013 .

[19]  S. Shaw.  Diversity and ideology: Changes in Canadian family life and implications for leisure , 2010 .

[20]  A. Stewart,et al.  Gender in psychology. , 2002, Annual review of psychology.

[21]  Bonnie C. Hallman,et al.  Family leisure, family photography and zoos: exploring the emotional geographies of families , 2007 .

[22]  H. Schänzel,et al.  Photography and Children: Auto-driven Photo-elicitation , 2011 .

[23]  J. Suvantola.  Tourist's Experience of Place , 2002 .

[24]  P. Davidson.  The holiday and work experiences of women with young children , 1996 .

[25]  J. Morse.  The Significance of Saturation , 1995 .

[26]  B. Blichfeldt,et al.  Tweens on Holidays. In-Situ Decision-making from Children's Perspective , 2011 .

[27]  Natan Uriely.  The tourist experience: Conceptual Developments , 2005 .

[28]  Robert de Hoog,et al.  Agreement and disagreement in family vacation decision-making , 2008 .

[29]  J. Small.  Holiday experiences of women and girls over the life-course , 2005 .

[30]  S. Wearing,et al.  Refocussing the tourist experience: the flaneur and the choraster , 1996 .

[31]  J. Small.  The absence of childhood in tourism studies , 2008 .

[32]  Jonas Larsen,et al.  The Family Gaze , 2003 .

[33]  J. Jenkins,et al.  Non‐resident Fathers' Leisure with their Children , 2006 .

[34]  R. Deem.  Women, the city and holidays. , 1996 .

[35]  Sophie K. Turley.  Children and the demand for recreational experiences: the case of zoos , 2001 .

[36]  Maureen Harrington.  Sport and Leisure as Contexts for Fathering in Australian Families , 2006 .

[37]  A. J. Hawkins,et al.  The Relationship Between Father Involvement in Family Leisure and Family Functioning: The Importance of Daily Family Leisure , 2012 .

[38]  D. Olson.  Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems , 2000 .

[39]  Karen A. Smith,et al.  Family Holidays: A Research Review and Application to New Zealand , 2005 .

[40]  J. Urry.  The Tourist Gaze , 2002 .

[41]  Sally McNamee.  Foucault's Heterotopia and Children's Everyday Lives , 2000 .

[42]  N. Carr.  Children's and Families' Holiday Experience , 2011 .

[43]  Gareth Shaw,et al.  Tourist group holiday decision-making and behaviour: the influence of children. , 1997 .

[44]  S. Shaw,et al.  Experiences, perspectives, and meanings of family vacations for children , 2008 .

[45]  N. Denzin,et al.  Handbook of Qualitative Research , 1994 .

[46]  Nick Johns,et al.  Mythologies of a theme park: An icon of modern family life , 2002 .

[47]  Froma Walsh,et al.  Normal family processes : growing diversity and complexity , 2003 .

[48]  S. Wearing,et al.  Conceptualizing the selves of tourism , 2001 .

[49]  Adolescent Perceptions of Cohesion, Adaptability, and Communication: Revisiting the Circumplex Model , 2001 .

[50]  J. Crompton.  Motivations for pleasure vacation , 1979 .

[51]  S. Shaw,et al.  Purposive Leisure: Examining Parental Discourses on Family Activities , 2001 .

[52]  N. Morgan,et al.  Tourism and Gender; embodiment, sensuality and experience , 2007 .

[53]  C. Aitchison.  Gender and Leisure Research: The "Codification of Knowledge" , 2001 .

[54]  Kerry Daly,et al.  Qualitative Methods in Family Research , 1992 .

[55]  Leena Alanen,et al.  Theorizing childhood , 2014 .

[56]  N. Morgan,et al.  Privileging the male gaze , 2000 .

[57]  A. Reis,et al.  Parks and families: addressing management facilitators and constraints to outdoor recreation participation , 2012 .

[58]  P. Obrador.  The Place of the Family in Tourism Research: Domesticity and thick sociality by the pool , 2012 .

[59]  Malene Gram.  Children as co‐decision makers in the family? The case of family holidays , 2007 .

[60]  R. Hess,et al.  Family Worlds. A Psychosocial Approach to Family Life , 1959 .

[61]  H. Matthews,et al.  The geography of children: some ethical and methodological considerations for project and dissertation work , 1998 .

[62]  A. Strauss,et al.  The Discovery of Grounded Theory , 1967 .

[63]  J. Crompton.  Dimensions of the social group role in pleasure vacations , 1981 .

[64]  Joanne Connell.  Children's and Families' Holiday Experiences, N. Carr. Routledge, London (2011), 201 pp., (hbk), ISBN: 978-0-415-54543-3. £95 , 2013 .

[65]  S. Shaw,et al.  "I decided to invest in my kids' memories": family vacations, memories, and the social construction of the family. , 2008 .

[66]  Lauren M. Rich.  Researching Children’s Experience: Approaches and Methods, , 2005 .

[67]  Malene Gram.  Family Holidays. A Qualitative Analysis of Family Holiday Experiences , 2005 .

[68]  H. Hughes,et al.  Disadvantaged families and the meaning of the holiday , 1999 .

[69]  J. Small.  Women's holidays: disruption of the motherhood myth , 2005 .

[70]  Xinran Y. Lehto,et al.  VACATION AND FAMILY FUNCTIONING , 2009 .

[71]  A. Farrell.  Ethics and Research with Children , 2018 .

[72]  S. Fullagar.  Narratives of travel: desire and the movement of feminine subjectivity , 2002 .

[73]  R. Tuomela.  The Philosophy of Sociality , 2007 .

[74]  D. Pearce.  Frameworks for Tourism Research , 2012 .

[75]  D. Snepenger,et al.  Family Decision Making And Tourism Behavior And Attitudes , 1988 .

[76]  Karen A. Smith,et al.  The absence of fatherhood: achieving true gender scholarship in family tourism research , 2011 .

[77]  M. Swain,et al.  Gender in tourism , 1995 .

[78]  N. Nickerson,et al.  The influence of children on vacation travel patterns , 2001 .

[79]  R. Jeanes,et al.  Come on my son! Examining fathers, masculinity and ‘fathering through football’ , 2011 .

[80]  N. Morgan,et al.  Editors' introduction: tourism, gender, embodiment and experience. , 2007 .

[81]  M. D. B. Wrangsjö,et al.  The Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems , 1986 .

[82]  N. Chesworth.  The family vacation: a double‐edged sword , 2003 .

[83]  G. Miller,et al.  Tourism and social policy: the value of social tourism , 2009 .