Balancing leisure, community and cultural traditions, south Asian adolescents in Canada

Abstract

As young people enter their teen years, attitudes and behaviours are shaped by the variety and complexity of their daily lives. For teens from families in which the parents did not originate in Canada, the complexities of life are further complicated. Leisure researchers have not focused their efforts on the leisure of minority ethnic populations in Canada and have yet to develop an understanding of how the notion of leisure impacts on their lives. The purpose of this study was to explore leisure in the lives of teens and young adults who live in families that have their ethnic roots outside of Canada, specifically in South Asia. It explored the ways in which leisure as it is known in the dominant culture, impacted the lives of the participants. It also explored how aspects of life such as religion, family and cultural traditions impacted their leisure. Critical social theory, the structural-functional perspective of Van Dyke (1972) and social-psychological perspectives often used to define leisure all contributed to the analysis and interpretation of the data. Purposive sampling was used to identify 15 study participants. Reflexivity on the part of the researcher and study participants allowed for the collective and individual reflection and reconsideration of the interpretation of the results. The results of this study indicate that as individuals within the minority ethnic culture move from their traditional "small community" toward the "greater society" of the dominant culture, dissonance and conflict emerge. While family remained a valued and central aspect of their lives, conflict often resulted within families as the participants attempted to balance their involvement in aspects of their traditional community with leisure that is typically important to young adults within the mainstream, greater society. This study contributes to the development of theory related to the significance of leisure for this group. It also provides practitioners with a deeper understanding of the transition and additional challenges faced by teens of minority cultures, as they seek to establish their individuality and self-identity in the context of the greater society while valuing the continuity afforded by leisure of the small community.