“You don't want to hurt his feelings…”: Family Leisure as a Context for Intergenerational Ambivalence

Abstract

AbstractFamily leisure has been found to be both consensual and conflictual. Research on family leisure has focused mainly on heterosexual married couples with young children and has excluded the voices of older adults. Framed by the model of intergenerational ambivalence (Luscher & Pillemer, 1998), this interpretive study developed an understanding of the role of intergenerational ambivalence in the experience of intergenerational family leisure for grandparents and their adult grandchildren. Fourteen dyads of grandparents and adult grandchildren were interviewed individually and were asked to describe their experience of intergenerational family leisure. Using grounded theory methods, the interviews provided valuable insight into the role that intergenerational ambivalence plays in the experience of family leisure. We suggest that the intergenerational ambivalence model is a useful framework for the study of intergenerational family leisure.KEYWORDS: Family leisureintergenerational ambivalencegrandparentsgrandchildren