The role of parents and peers in the leisure activities of young adolescents

Up to now, leisure research on the parent-peer orientation of juveniles pri marily has focussed on adolescents. The purpose of this study is to investi gate the degree to which pre-adolescents as well as adolescents associate w ith parents and peers in their leisure time. Based on recent theoretical co nceptions of childhood sociologists, a questionnaire was designed for child ren and young teens aged ten to fifteen years. A total of 927 Dutch juvenil es from different social classes participated in the current study. A leisu re kids typology was constructed by means of Principal Components Analysis for categorical data (PRIN-CALS). It was found that ten to twelve year old children from higher social classes were family kids. They spend a substant ial part of their leisure time with parents and siblings. Fourteen and fift een year old boys, especially those from higher social classes, strongly fo cussed on peer groups, whereas girls of the same age had a salient preferen ce for dyadic friendships. Questions on parental attitude towards leisure a ctivities and choice of friends showed that ten to twelve year olds, specia lly those from higher social classes, experienced most parental interferenc e in their leisure activities. Teenage girls from lower social classes enco unter-ed most parental attention concerning peer contacts. Our findings par tially support theoretical conceptions regarding the parent-peer orientatio n of children and teens, but add some important nuances to these general pe rspectives.