Measurement for Leisure Service and Leisure Studies

Measurement for Leisure Services and Leisure Studies Mounir G. Ragheb Idyll Arbor, 2012The goal of Mounir Ragheb's Measurement for Leisure Services and Leisure Studies is to compile all of the leisure and recreation measurements (primarily structured surveys) available. This collection is complemented with general information on the development and use of measurements in leisure research. This gathering of measurements in one place is a first step toward resolving a problem highlighted by Bocarro, Greenwood, and Henderson (2008): "The dearth of research focused on methodological elements like scale and model development may be reflective of the recreation fields' historical reliance on theory and measurement from other disciplines" (p. 19). As a new leisure graduate student studying psychometrics, I remember looking for a book of all of the leisure measurements and only finding compilations of measurements in the more general fields of sociology, psychology and education. Ragheb's book is a key resource to help academics and practitioners build on the foundations provided by other academics and professionals to promote theory and measurement development in leisure research.Dr. Mounir G. Ragheb is a professor emeritus from Florida State University, Tallahassee. He is an expert in the measurement of leisure constructs and is known for developing scales measuring leisure motivation, leisure attitudes, leisure interests, and leisure satisfaction.The book is accessible and relevant to both a practitioner and an academic audience. Practitioners in therapeutic recreation, rehabilitation, leisure programming, management, parks, and other leisure services may find the book a good resource to understand important constructs integral to their work and to communicate results to potential customers or funders. For current and future academics, this resource offers a compilation of measurements that they can be used in their own research projects (contingent on author permission), be used to help develop new measurements, or be used to further understand the art and science of survey development. Personally, I believe the audiences that will most benefit from this resource are leisure professors and graduate students grounded in a post-positivistic research paradigm who rely on surveys to gather data.The 421 pages of the book are organized into three parts preceded by an enlightening introduction. Although there was a general introduction to the whole book, the particular section I enjoyed most was the discussion of the term measurement. Ragheb (2012) identifies this as the most general of related terms (e.g., assessment, evaluation, test, instrument, scale) and defines measurement as the "process of documenting observed actions, observed behaviors, or reported attitudes" (p. 1). Although a majority of the measurements in this collection could be considered to be some form of a survey, and Ragheb uses the term "scales" as a synonym for "measurements" in some cases, I follow Ragheb's lead and use the term "measurement" to describe the collection in the first part of the book.The first part of the book, Classification of Leisure and Recreation Scales, contains 96 measurements organized into eight categories. The eight categories are leisure involvement, leisure attitudes, leisure motivations, leisure and free time boredom, leisure interests, leisure satisfaction, playfulness and humor, and leisure administration and supervision measurements. Beyond simply providing a useful organizational strategy, the eight subjects provide an educational structure to help practitioners and academics understand how these leisure constructs compare to one another. Although the latter two sections are important, this collection is perhaps the most important contribution this book makes to leisure research. All of the presented measurements include more than just a list of survey items. An image of the actual measurements is almost always given rather than just listing the directions and items. …