Indicator: 46 - Family Time for Leisure and Recreation

Why This Is Important

Part of a healthy lifestyle for families and children is the opportunity to play and relax. Especially for those families in which both parents are working, there is a concern that family time for leisure and recreation may get pushed aside by the demands of daily activities. This Mark recognizes that all families need opportunities to play.

Where We Stand

Parents who had children under the age of 18 were asked “How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement: I believe that our family has adequate time for leisure and recreation?” About seven-tenths of the respondents “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with that statement in the last two years, with the percentage in agreement apparently dropping slightly from 2000 to 2001.

Data Sources and Context

Maine data for this indicator comes from the Maine Development Foundation 2000 and 2001 Surveys of Maine Citizens. The 2000 Survey was conducted in September 2000 by Market Decisions, Inc.; the 2001 Survey was done between August 20 and September 6, 2001, by Strategic Marketing Services. In both years a randomly selected statewide sample of 601 households was interviewed by telephone. Special effort was made to include an adequate number of parents with children living primarily at home (401 in 2000, and 425 in 2001), so their responses are representative of all parents in Maine. However, because the number of parents in each of the income groups in the chart is comparatively small (especially for households with income below $15,000), those results are not necessarily representative of all parents in those income groups in Maine. The Survey was not conducted in 2002; the Foundation intends to administer the next Survey in time for results to be included in the Maine Economic Growth Council’s publication of Measures of Growth 2004.