Traveling with children: Chinese parents’ parenting-leisure conflicts and resolution behaviors

Abstract

ABSTRACT Family travel often involves conflicts and compromises between parents and children, as parents balance their parental role expectations with their own desire for leisure. Based on role theory, we collected cross-sectional data on parenting-to-leisure conflict and resolution behaviors to identify clusters of family travel experience patterns of parents using latent class analysis. The analysis identified four classes: “conflicting journey: active solvers,” “conflicting journey: self-repression solvers,” “harmonious journey: child-centered solvers” and “harmonious journey: self-neglect solvers.” Each cohort has distinct family travel behaviors and demographics, as well as distal outcomes, i.e. intention to separate from children and intention to purchase childcare services.