Assessing Hierarchical Leisure Constraints Theory after Two Decades

This article assesses the status of hierarchical leisure constraints theory (Crawford St Godbey, 1987; Crawford, Jackson, & Godbey, 1991) regarding many issues. Such issues include clarification and elaboration of some aspects of the original model, a review of studies which have used or examined the model and the extent to which they are confirmatory, critiques of the original model by various authors, and avenues for further research. Conclusions drawn include that the model is cross culturally relevant, that the model may examine forms of behavior other than leisure, and that, while research to date has been largely confirmatory, there is a high potential for the theory to be expanded in order to advance leisure constraints research to the next level.