Leisure attitudes: A comparison between Chinese in Canada and Anglo‐Canadians

Leisure attitudes have rarely been examined cross‐culturally. Researchers need to examine how people with diverse cultural backgrounds perceive the role and importance of leisure so as to understand not only what they do but also what they think. Using a shortened version of the Leisure Attitude Scale (Ragheb & Beard, 1982), this study examined similarities and differences in attitudes toward the cognitive, affective, and behavioural dimensions of leisure attitudes between Chinese (N= 178) in Canada and Anglo‐Canadians (N= 160) as well as the possible change in leisure attitudes held by Chinese in Canada as a result of acculturation. In addition, the relationship between leisure attitudes and a specific leisure activity—national park visitation—was examined. Results suggest that: (a) Chinese were significantly different from Anglo‐Canadians in their affective leisure attitudes, with Chinese being less positive; (b) for the cognitive and affective dimensions, high‐acculturated Chinese were more significantly different from Anglo‐Canadians than were Iow‐acculturated Chinese, while no acculturation differences were found for the behavioural dimension of leisure; and (c) contrary to the widely accepted belief that immigrants, especially first generation immigrants, tend to be less likely to participate in leisure activities because they are more likely to be exposed to a broad range of leisure constraints, Chinese and Anglo‐Canadians’ responses to the behavioural dimension of leisure attitudes were not significantly different and, at least in terms of one specific type of leisure activity (i.e., national park visitation), they were quite similar. This last finding supports the proposition that immigrants tend to adopt physical acculturation initially and then cognitive or belief acculturation (Berry & Sam, 1997) thereafter.