How Rural Low-Income Families Have Fun: A Grounded Theory Study

This study provides unique perspectives of family leisure activities by developing a grounded-theory model of influences on family fun based on qualitative data from 368 low-income rural women with young children from fourteen states. Mothers were asked an open-ended question about what their families do for fun, allowing them to define family fun. The women reported a variety of activities that they viewed as fun for their families, focusing mainly on simple, inexpensive leisure activities. Models based on the mothers' responses and the extant literatures were developed to examine contextual factors affecting family fun. This study provides insight into low-income rural families with implications for advancing family research, policy decisions, and furthering research about fun in leisure activities.