The social shaping of family and recreation
The dawning of a new era. In 1970, families on average had four children, employment was high and home ownership was the ambition of most. Urbanisation was increasing, particularly in the 1960s, which saw a swing to more than 50% of the population living in towns and cities.
Many of the ‘‘Baby Boomers’’ were now starting families of their own. By the late 1960s that baby boom of post-World War II was now causing what the Government Statistician called ‘‘a marriage boom’’.
Palmerston North was a typical provincial town, with a population that had reached just over 51,000.
Growth had been fairly uniform from the 1950s, described by the council as a ‘‘relatively sedate but sustained rate of population increase’’. As well, the community was becoming increasingly affluent.
The council needed to consider how best to meet the needs of its changing community. Steady growth called for providing opportunities for ‘‘an enjoyable family life’’.
Importantly, social and cultural goals should be set by the council. If the ‘‘range of cultural opportunities was insufficient to meet the people’s social requirements a fall in population growth could also be expected’’.
In the Ian Matheson City Archives is a little-known study into ‘‘The Family and Recreation’’ written by Peter Crawford, a research planner, and published in 1970.
This study provides an interesting snapshot into Palmerston North at the time.
Crawford stated that, ‘‘The main problem appears to be in gaining a perspective of the overall situation of recreation activities in our modern society. This study is, in part, an attempt to gain this perspective.”
The study considered the primary task of the family was the ‘‘process of socialisation’’. Participation in sport, organised and random recreation, and leisure-time activities were a means of providing this, in order to make the town a community rather than one full of individuals.
A survey was undertaken involving 200 families and 674 people, about 1.3% of population. Participants were chosen randomly to represent all households across all ages and sampling across the whole city.
The average ‘‘family’’ was 3.42 persons per household. The survey concluded that the typical household was a nuclear family and one that was becoming increasingly isolated.
The definition of recreation in the survey was relatively narrow, focusing on those activities that ‘‘occurred outside of the family home and generally involved contact with other members of the community’’. For example, it did not include play, walking or reading.
Limitations of the survey were identified as the low sample size and participants’ interpretation of recreational activities, although attempts were made to reduce any variations that occurred.
Findings for under 5-year-olds were largely disregarded but the survey found children typically fell into certain ages and stages for recreation.
Five-10-year-olds were branching out beyond the family. Ten-15-year-olds were indicating their keenness and interest in exploring new forms of recreation. Fifteen-20-year-olds were increasingly specialising in one form of recreation.
Up to the age of 20, results showed that while there were differences in the participation rates of girls and boys, they were relatively similar.
However, with age this changed. Typically, males were more likely to continue to take part in recreation. Female participation declined markedly from age 25. Instead, they tended to move to more inactive forms of leisure associated with places like churches and schools.
This could be explained by the early age of marriage and more limited time available, particularly for women as the main carers of children, but it also indicated that they did not return to recreation once this responsibility diminished.
Overall, the survey found just over a third of people indicated they did not participate in recreation as defined.
The survey allowed for school activities but, still, a third of boys indicated they did not participate. Girls, however, were involved in a greater number and variety, with only about 20% of them in the category of having no recreation.
Seemingly, the lack of female role models in the home did not affect participation by girls.
Ten to 20-year-olds were the largest group involved in leisure and recreation activities. This age group coincided with the finding that greater participation was evident when the family was ‘‘complete’’.
In all, the survey identified 142 types of recreational interests, although participation was mainly concentrated in a few.
Swimming was far and away the most popular form of recreation, with just over 13% participating. All other forms of recreation involved only 7% or less.
Completing the top 10 in order of popularity were netball, rugby union, golf, tennis, cricket, soccer, church recreation groups, YMCA/YWCA and squash.
Rugby accounted for the greatest involvement by males across all age bands, and netball by females.
Crawford determined that there were relatively low levels of recreational participation in Palmerston North. If this continued, planning for the future would require more emphasis on passive recreation areas for people.
Recreation was not just the responsibility of local government but the community as a whole. “There must be the demand from the community for forms of recreation and this demand must be expressed in terms of participation and involvement of the public.’’
Palmerston North was not alone in seeing falling membership in organised sport and involvement in traditional forms of recreation.
However, in an age where there was more leisure time because of time-saving devices and declining family sizes, it was interpreted that this lack of involvement in recreation was a problem.
While most families made a conscious effort for their children to be recreationally involved, parents’ participation declined with age. It was noted the community was destined to become part of a “nation of spectators”.
To conclude, Crawford returned to his theme of ‘‘family and recreation’’.
“Finally, there is the mainstay of our society and the subject of this study – the family. The study points to the need of all members of the family to be involved in recreation activities.
“The process of socialisation is a continuing one involving a person’s lifetime and not just the important formative years. This problem is, however, a sociological one involving the question of education.”
Recreation participation was not a problem that could be easily solved, and certainly not by the council alone.
Lesley Courtney is an archivist and local historian.
K9 Search Detection Dogs is opening its doors to the public tomorrow to show the community a little bit about what they do and its upcoming projects.
The open day is from 10.30am to 3pm. It’s being held in collaboration with Cheltenham Country Kennels and Nightrave Greyhounds.
Members of the community can have a look at the centre’s upcoming scent imprinting rooms, the new Working Dogs Educational Centre and, of course, meet some talented furry friends. The event will be held at 312 Cheltenham Cross Rd.
K9 Search Detection Dogs founder Pete Gifford has been a dog trainer and veterinarian for 45 years – it’s his “forte”.
He said anyone is “more than welcome” to come along tomorrow. “We’re going to have some games for the kiddies and there will be some food and drinks and such later on ... it’s just about showing where the dogs are and meet some dogs and just have a look at our future plans.”
It was also a chance to get people who might be interested in sponsoring the centre involved in the work it does.
Gifford has participated in research projects, including training dogs to detect American foulbrood, a highly infectious bee disease, when it is in its spore form and before it becomes dangerous to bees.
With Massey University and Plant & Food in Waikato, using funding from the Ministry of Primary Industries, he conducted an independent trial that has now been peer reviewed and published in the international journal Animals.
From that research, Gifford said he wanted to “go further”. In the last 12 months, he has been working with vets and pathologists to train dogs to identify the biomarkers of cancer in a canine’s urine.
This would mean dogs could pick up the “pre-clinical signs” before [the cancer] became clinical.
Gifford said he’s just built a “state of the art” research centre with four new training rooms. A laboratory will go in too.
His centre has a “massive” training facility, in which he plans to allocate rooms for a working dog educational centre. This will provide a platform for anyone who wants to learn about working dogs, from community members to school groups.
“What I’m going to do is put in some TV screens and some little booths ... anyone that has an interest can just come along, press an interactive button to see which dogs work and how they’re trained.”
All of these projects will be available to see at the open day.
Nightrave Greyhounds re-home centre will also be in attendance with some greyhounds who need a home.