Seen but not heard? Examining children's voices in leisure and family research

Traditionally family leisure research has been dominated by adult perspectives and particularly the individual experiences of mothers and more latterly fathers. There is a growing body of research that is beginning to develop knowledge of young people's views of family leisure but to date the importance of capturing children's views in this research area has not been strongly advocated. This article seeks to examine how young people's views could be better incorporated into family leisure research and what would be the value of such an approach. Through a systematic literature review, the article outlines what is known about young people and family leisure and considers how visible their voices have been in producing this research. From this, potential areas to develop research that considers young people more centrally are provided. Finally the article examines some of the methodological and theoretical considerations of gathering more in-depth data from both children and parents.