Children's participation in hobbies: a qualitative study with Chinese children

Abstract

Hobbies have been widely recognised as beneficial to children’s well-being and development, contributing to self-esteem, positive identity, and mental health.

In China, national education reforms have encouraged greater engagement in non-academic activities, including hobbies, as part of broader efforts to support students’ physical and mental health. As a result, families have become increasingly attentive to children’s hobby participation. However, children’s participation in hobby-related decisions is shaped by cultural values, academic pressures, and traditional authority structures. Although China ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1992, how participation is realised in informal family contexts remains underexplored.

Existing research has largely focused on formal settings such as education, remaining a gap in understanding children’s participation in hobby-related activities. This study aimed to explore the experiences and perspectives of Chinese children and their family members regarding children's participation in relation to their hobbies. Participation in this research is understood as children's rights to express their views and have them taken into account in matters affecting them rather than simply joining in activities. This participation is conceptualised as a relational process that emerges through ongoing interactions between children and adults within specific contexts. Three research questions were developed to address this aim: 1. What are Chinese children's understandings of hobbies? 2. What are Chinese children's experiences of their participation in relation to hobbies? 3. How do family members experience and perceive their involvement in their child(ren)'s participation in hobbies? The research employed a qualitative methodology to address the research questions. It was conducted in Shenyang, China, with participants recruited through a public primary school. Eight-year-old children were selected as this represents a key legal threshold in Chinese contexts, occurring just before intensifying academic pressures while children retain relative flexibility in hobby participation. Children were asked to identify the family members most involved in their hobby activities. The study involved 22 individual semi-structured interviews with children, complemented by participatory methods such as drawing activities, and semi-structured interviews with 26 family members.

Data analysis employed Braun and Clarke's (2022) reflexive thematic analysis approach, allowing a detailed exploration of how children understand and participate in hobby-related decisions. Ethical issues were carefully considered at every stage of the research design and implementation, especially because of the participation of children and the cultural sensitivity needed in this research. To ensure ethical practice, the study adopted procedures such as voluntary informed consent, strict protection of confidentiality and anonymity, and awareness of the power relations between the adult researcher and child participants. Ethical approval was granted by the Research Ethics Committee, Moray House School of Education and Sport. The findings show that children's participation in hobby-related decisions is shaped by complex interactions among relational dynamics, cultural values and practical constraints.

Children conceptualise hobbies as emotionally fulfilling, self-chosen activities that offer personal enjoyment and social connection, contrasting with adults’ more instrumental perspective which emphasises academic achievement and future benefits. Participation emerges as a fluid continuum rather than a binary condition, ranging from being merely informed to being meaningfully consulted.

Family involvement extended beyond parent-child relationships to encompass multi-generational support across three dimensions: behavioural involvement (practical support), cognitive-intellectual involvement (knowledge development) and personal involvement (emotional support). The research highlights how broader societal factors, including academic expectations, gender expectations and resource constraints, generate tensions within families around hobby participation. Both families and children actively navigate these tensions, with families negotiating some constraints while accepting others as cultural norms. Children’s autonomy develops through negotiations with family members that balance their preferences with cultural values, prioritising academic achievement and familial cohesion. These negotiations involve contextual judgments about children's evolving capacities, which vary across different hobby domains rather than following fixed age-based criteria. This thesis contributes to childhood studies and children's participation research by demonstrating how Chinese children's hobby understandings differ from established North American “serious leisure” frameworks that emphasise productivity and individual skill development. Instead, Chinese children conceptualise hobbies through emotional satisfaction and social connection, supported by linguistic analysis showing how the Chinese term “爱好(hobby)” (love and fondness) shapes understanding. The research discusses participation as a relational process that operates as a fluid continuum rather than following hierarchical models and adapt Grolnick and colleagues' educational involvement framework to hobby contexts through culturally distinctive multi-generational practices. The thesis concludes by highlighting implications for policy and practice that prioritise structural rather than family-level interventions. Policy implications emphasise addressing systemic educational pressures through comprehensive implementation of existing reforms while developing family education programs that increase participation rights awareness within cultural frameworks. The research shows tensions around digital hobby participation where protective policies may inadvertently limit children's participation, suggesting the need for more nuanced approaches that balance protection with participation.

Practice implications call for supporting professionals in understanding relational and cultural contexts of participation, recognising that valuable family support emerges through emotional engagement and co-learning rather than requiring expertise, and acknowledging multi-generational involvement in children's hobby decisions.