The pleasures of youth: Parent and peer compliance toward discretionary time

In the past, research into an adolescent's leisure time has almost exclusively focused on furnishing a record or checklist of activities. This investigation evaluates attitudinal dimensions of leisure, peer identification, and parental accommodation as it relates to patterns of leisure present in an affluent adolescent subculture. Two factors emerged from the attitudinal study, representing achievement and egalitarian dispositions. Patterns of peer and parental compliance were measured against these dispositions. Parental and peer influences were found to affect the outcome of an adolescent's attitudes. Differences between sexes and between early and late adolescence were also discovered to influence levels of compliance with parents and peers, thereby affecting an adolescent's leisure attitudes.Received Ph.D. in sociology from State University of New York at Buffalo, where he specialized in the study of leisure and recreation. Currently, as a research sociologist, pursues studies in attitudes toward wilderness among youth and investigates patterns of association in leisure and outdoor recreation. A monograph on the adolescent and leisure is planned which will have a cross-cultural and comparative perspective.Received Ph.D. in sociology from Vanderbilt University. Current interests include the study of relationships between religious attitudes and drug usage among adolescents and is currently completing a monograph on serpenthandling religions.