Issues in the measurement of leisure: A comparison of theoretical and connotative meanings

Abstract Research on the subjective experiencing of leisure faces the inescapable problem of operational measurement. Subjective experiences can be verified only by asking the respondent directly (e.g., “Was that leisure?"); yet, reliance on that operational assessment assumes that the respondents’ connotative meaning of the word leisure is the same as the conceptual meaning as understood by the researcher. Some evidence of the correspondence between the connotative and theoretical meanings of leisure has been presented in the literature. This article reviews that work and presents a complementary analysis based on LISREL. LISREL offers the unique advantage of isolating and testing the association between theoretical leisure (drawn from determinants such as perceived freedom) and connotative leisure (based on traditional operational measures). Results show a strong association between these two concepts. It appears that leisure theories do address the salient dimensions of leisure as it is experienced in daily life, and that the connotative measure ("Would you call this leisure?") is an acceptable operational measure of leisure.