Children's Leisure Pursuits: A Test of the “Homology” Versus “Omnivore-Univore” Hypotheses Debate -- CANCELLED

Recently in the UK academic milieu, there has been a debate as to whether the link between socio-economic status (SES) and adults’ participation in cultural activities conform to a “structural homology” rule (Bourdieu, 1984), or present a pattern best characterised as an “omnivore-univore” distinction (Peterson, 1992). The dispute surrounded the issue of whether in contemporary British society, cultural participation (and consumption) still signifies social-class, and in what ways. However, researchers have yet to analyse class-based patterns of cultural participation and leisure pursuits in children.

The present paper addresses this gap in knowledge by exploring the associations between SES (measured by parental education and occupation levels and by familial incomes) and children’s participation in three leisure domains: social-group activities, commercial-public activities, and home-centred activities. Within each of these domains, activities from across the “highbrow-lowbrow” cultural capital spectrum are examined.

The results are used to discuss the debate on the “homology” vs. “omnivore-univore” hypotheses in the context of cultural socialisation and cultural capital acquisition in the middle childhood years.

The paper relies on quantitative analyses of data drawn from the British “Millennium Cohort Study” (MCS), a survey of around 19,000 babies, all born between 2000-2002. The current analyses focus on data taken from the third and fourth sweeps of the MCS when the children were aged around 5 and 7 (respectively).

The findings indicate that children’s leisure pursuits are stratified by SES: children in high-SES groups are more likely than peers in low-SES groups to participate in a range of leisure activities across the highbrow-lowbrow spectrum. This pattern of leisure participation is consistent with the “omnivore-univore” hypothesis. Yet, the results also show that the associations between SES and children’s leisure pursuits are stronger for highbrow and midbrow activities than for lowbrow activities, a finding that lends support to the “homology” argument.