Leisure and Single Mothers - Report Example

leisure and single mothers by The of the The of the School The and where itis located The Date Leisure and Single Mothers Section 1 Introduction The question that is essential to the current research is the following: Do mothers who do not have a husband and are raising children on their own have any time that they spend on what they consider to be leisure? It may be rather interesting to analyze the way the author arrived at it. Thus, single mothers may be regarded as an important social phenomenon which should be taken into account while considering the state of social affairs; however, leisure is also important for a person; knowing that single mothers are busy, it is interesting to know if they have time to leisure. In other to answer this question, one should analyze the available data on the topic. To begin with, one may note that it has been reported that the amount of time that single mothers spend on their leisure had decreased significantly over last several decades: a quarter century ago, single mother spent two hours more on their leisure compared to their modern counterparts (Bianchi & Robinson 2006, p. 106). This is particularly important as it shows the negative tendency on the development of life of this social group and holds unpleasant implications for the people who comprise it (Jacobs & Gerson 2004, p. 31). In addition to that, one of the most essential parts of living as a single mother is securing a stable source of income (Garfinkel 1994, p. 290). There is no doubt that in this kind of families women have to work hard in order to earn for a living which is inevitably reflected in the way they structure their time (McQuillan 2006, p. 96). It is quite obvious that whenever there is a choice to make between work and leisure any mother who is responsible is likely to choose the former as this will be rational (Probert, Gilmore & Herring 2009, p. 303). That is why the amount of time that they are able to devote to leisure is reduced by the external factors. What is more important is that the work that is performed by a single mother is rarely done at home, so the issue of work schedule plays an important role when it comes to managing one’s time (Cabrera 2013, p. 135). It has been found that the kind of shifts that a woman is working is able to have a tremendous impact on the way she can control her time. For example, if a single mother works night shift, the possible of her having leisure time is virtually minimized (Epstein 2004, p. 62). Finally, there is one interesting aspect of leisure of single mothers: they are found to spend more time on it in terms of proportion to working time than married women who live with their husbands (Michelson 1985, p. 94). The key point to focus here is proportionally. Indeed, regular housewives can hardly have any time for them as they may have to do chores for their husbands as well, while single mother have to take care of themselves and their children only (Knox & Schacht 2002, p. 341). Though the amount of time devoted to leisure in the latter case may be smaller, if compared to the time they spend at work and at home it is bigger than their married counterparts do. Discussion of the interview process Emily Oman was chosen for the interview because she appeared to be open and sincere in her communication and was willing to share her experience with the others which made her a great interviewee. Prior to talking to her, the researcher devised some questions in a manner that should allow one to gather data about the role leisure plays in her life, how much time she devotes to it. Simultaneously, the questions were designed in such a way that would not make the interviewee offended in any way (“Statement of Ethical Practice for the British Sociological Association” n.d.). Nevertheless, the interviewee was encouraged to give answers that would feature a lot of factual information (ORourke 2010, p. 55). Speaking of the ethical issues that were involved in the process, one should point out that the researcher should have maintained a perfect balance between being tactful, respective of the private life of a person and effective in gathering information (Sharma 1997, p. 45). Since the information that was gathered during the interview was rather private, the interviewee was asked to give an informed consent to participate in it. Speaking of reflexivity, I acknowledge that there has been some influence on the research from my side. There is no doubt that the way I asked questions and the way I maintained the conversation had a crucial impact on the way the interviewee shared information. That is the reason I tried to be as supportive and cooperative as possible. In the course of the interview there were no major problems that could have influenced it negatively. There may have been some misunderstanding when it came to answering certain questions which were rather broad, but in the majority of the cases the interviewer and the interviewee were able to find a common ground and have a fruitful conversation that would reveal important information about the question if single mothers have any leisure in their life (Keller & Warrack 2000, p. 161). As for the improvements that might be suggested in order to cope with the problems that were mentioned before, one might propose to devise question with narrower meaning which means that it may be better to ask several concrete question about different aspects of the same issue instead of one which can be interpreted in different ways which might generate misunderstanding (Flick 2004, p. 205). Summary of analysis findings It may be quite suitable to analyse the findings that were obtained in the course of the research. First of all, it is found out that single mothers have little amount of time that they can devote exclusively for leisure (Bowden & Greenberg 2010, p. 22). This can be easily explained by the fact that the majority of their time is occupied by securing a stable income for their family; so, work plays an extremely important part in their lives. Thirdly, the work schedule has a crucial impact on the way in which they are able to manage their time. In case it is flexible, there is a possibility that single mothers will be able to find some time for leisure (Reece & Brandt 2002, p. 11). What is quite surprising, that living as a single mother allows these women to spend more time for their leisure in regard to working time if compared to married women. Thus, from statistical point of view this is interesting as it presents a new aspect of this social group. Finally, it is clear that single mothers may find advantages and disadvantages in their status; that is why it is would not be correct to develop a one dimensional understanding of it (Nelson 2005, p. 8). Conclusion As one can easily see, there is surely some amount of time that is devoted to leisure in life of a single mother. While it may be somewhat difficult to allocate it while earning money for a decent living, if a woman is able to manage her time well and if work schedule permits it, she will be able to find some time that she can devote to leisure. The evidence that was obtained by the interview proves this. All this results in the fact that being a single mother should be regarded as a rather complex phenomenon. Section 2 Considering the issue of triangulating methods, one should note that the use of them is particularly important as it allows the researcher to cope with different problems that might emerge when it comes to utilizing a single theory only. Thus, the basis idea focuses on the fact that the research would incorporate different approaches towards the issue; so, the point should be taken in account when it is backed up by at least two different and independent investigations which contributes towards the validity of the results. Speaking of the value that is has for the research in general, one might point out that it makes the findings more reliable as they will be verified by different points of view (Browne 2002, p. 453). What is more important is that the researcher should only take into consideration the data that was evident in all the methods that were used. In this case, this kind of information is likely to be to most trustworthy and objective about the issue as it was gathered through with the help of different methods. It may be quite important to analyse the way the questions that were asked reflected the desire of the researcher to increase validity of the results. For example, there was a question that was formulated in the following way: Do you think that leisure is an important part of you daily life? As one can easily see, this question allows the researcher to learn the personal opinion of the subject about the role of leisure. Based on this, one might assume if the interviewee is likely to devote time to leisure (in case of a positive response) or not (in case of negative response). There was another question: How many hours did you devote to leisure last week? In spite of the fact that I may be rather difficult for a person to calculate exact amount of time that was devoted to leisure, this question provided factual information which can later be used in different calculations contributing to numerical interpretation of the interview. Finally, there was one more question which was articulated in this way: Describe the desirable leisure time that you would like to have each week? It is quite obvious that this kind of questions allows the researcher to learn what the subject is willing to accomplish. For example, if the expectations of a person are realistic and are mostly satisfied, this might be regarded as a sign of good time management; on the other hand, in case if a person is not able to organize time to have even the simplest leisure. There is no doubt that in the course of piloting, the researcher was able to learn a lot about the questionnaire that was designed. Thus, one of the advantages of it lies in the fact that the majority of the questions were easy to understand and the subject did not think about the hidden sociological context while answering them. This means that the quality of results that were obtained with the help of it is quite high. Section 3 There is no doubt that the study which is titled Why older people do not participate in leisure time physical activity: a survey of activity levels, beliefs and deterrents and that was carried by a group of scientists headed by Iain K. Crombie possesses a considerable amount of numerical data that can be later used in the quantitative research by the future scientists. Nevertheless, it is important to analyze some advantages and disadvantages in the way the above mentioned researchers used quantitative methods in the course of their study. Speaking of the formed, one should point out that the final state of investigation featured great detalisation. Thus the researchers were able to identify as much as fifty one factor that might influence the degree of involvement of the older people in physical activity; in addition to that, those fifty one factors were latter grouped into eight categories, which allowed the researchers to develop a broader view on the issue (Crombie et al 2004, p. 288). However, it must be noted that there also have been some negative aspects that should be noted in particular. For example, the original sample of the study consisted of slightly more that one thousand people, but in the later stages the researchers had to exclude some of the participants due to various objective as well as subjective reasons. Thus, some of them had an illness on the terminal stage; others were unsuitable for different reasons (lack of desire to participate, language and so on). In the end, slightly less than a half of the people who were initially recruited participated in the study. There is no doubt that exclusion of more than half of the people took up time, so the researcher should have designed their sampling method more precisely. Speaking of the latter one should note several important points. First of all, the initial stage of sampling was random: the researchers were able to acquire data from registers in Dundee in Scotland and identified 1064 patients which were later stratified by sex, age as well as level of deprivation. However, after the above mentioned exclusions, only four hundred and nine patients were chosen for the future participation in the research. As for the descriptive statistical data that was used in the research, one should note that the researchers were able to develop a rather objective assessment of the population that they were working with that also included a considerable number of different details. It is quite important that the scientists in question paid attention towards factors that might be insignificant at first sight, but are able to provide a valuable insight into the group of people under observation. Thus, the participants were stratified in several aspects in order to make sure that the study would not rely too much on a particular point of view. The inferential statistics that was used is also rather important when it comes to evaluating the quantitative aspect of it. Thus, it would not be a mistake to point out that the authors included people from different levels of deprivation into the research for a particular reason. Thus, it is inferred that those who have a better access towards the resources are able to spend more time doing what they want. In addition to that, the participant were asked about their attitude towards physical activity and almost everyone showed the awareness that the latter is able to have a positive effect on the body of a person. In other words, the researchers tried to analyze the gap between the knowledge of the people about benefits of physical activity and their daily routine. Finally, one should pay attention towards the relevancy of the quantitative data that was obtained by the research. The group of scientists pointed out that the rate of responses was quite low which does not contribute a lot towards calling this research a reliable one. Nevertheless, if one adopts a broader perspective on the issue, one will be able to see that there are researches which were operating with even smaller response rate, such as 13%. Keeping this in mind, one should note that such a big response rate of the original research makes it quite relevant if compared to similar studies. Section 4 As for alternative choices of triangulation that might be used in the research, it would be quite advantageous to pay attention to the one that it called time use diaries. Indeed, this is a rather interesting triangulation choice as it requires a person to keep a little diary of the use of time and categorize it according to the purpose. There is no doubt that if one considers the process of analysis of the issue in question, one will have to note that it is a crucial moment for the study to know the approximate amount of time that a person devotes to leisure activities. Since collective quantitative data may be distorted by different subjective factors, it may be quite useful to allow the subject to do it as it will contribute to the reliability of the information (Matthews & Ross 2010, p. 312). Thus, it may be rather useful to analyze the reasons why this method may be valuable. To begin with, one should point out that keeping a time use diary provides the researcher with an important kind of data – the quantitative one. Indeed, the subject will be asked to record amount of time that was devoted to leisure which is likely to reflect the actual state of affairs in the daily routine. In other words, it may be considered to be a reliable source of data that was designed provide the very data that is needed for the research. Secondly, a time use diary may feature a special box where the subject might put in personal observations. In other words, in this case the researcher will also be able to get a hold of some qualitative data. It is quite understandable that an ordinary person is not likely to use scientific terms in order to record subjective observations. Nevertheless, a researcher will be able to analyze it through the prism of science and make valid conclusions. In addition to that, the attitude of the subject towards the issue may be quite insightful. Thirdly, the need to keep a time use diary is likely to organize a person. For example, people rarely think about the amount of time that they spend on different activities; in other words, this information exists, but it is rather difficult to identify. Contrary to that, in case a person uses time use diary, one will have to put down every instance of how a person spent the time. After several entries this will develop a new habit and a person will collect data with great precision which is particularly important for quantitative type of research. What is more important is that if there is a predetermined format of time use diary that is distributed among different participants of the research, it will be quite convenient for the researcher to process that data that was collected in the end of it as the information will be arranged in the similar way. Contrary to that, if the participants are simply asked to keep a diary, the researchers might face different problems of organization, while the use of a standard time use diary that was devised prior to the research will save time on the final stages. Finally, one should also a rather peculiar psychological fact: while keeping time use diary, a participant will be able to develop a responsible attitude towards the activity as filling a certain document contributes to the seriousness as well as validity of the practice. In other words, the result of the research will be more reliable because of the commitment that is shown by the person who participates. References Bianchi & Robinson 2006, Changing rhythms of American family life, Russell Sage Foundation, New York. Bowden V & Greenberg C 2010, Children and their families: The continuum of nursing care, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, New York. Browne K 2002, Introducing sociology: For AS level, Polity, Cambridge. 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Matthews B & Ross L 2010, Research methods: A practical guide for the social sciences, Pearson Longman, New York. McQuillan K 2006, Canadas changing families implications for individuals and society, University of Toronto Press, Toronto. Michelson W 1985, From sun to sun: Daily obligations and community structure in the lives of employed women and their families, Rowman & Allanheld, Totowa NJ. Nelson M 2005, The social economy of single motherhood, Routledge, New York. ORourke L 2010, Recording in Social Work: Not Just an Administrative Task, Policy Press, New York. Probert R, Gilmore & Herring, J 2009, Responsible Parents and Parental Responsibility, Bloomsbury Publishing, New York. Reece B & Brandt R 2002, Effective human relations: Personal and organizational applications, Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Sharma R 1997, Sociological methods and techniques, Atlantic and Distributors, New Delhi. Statement of Ethical Practice for the British Sociological Association. (n.d.). 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