Abstract: Leisure research in the western countries is one of the oldest domains of social science research, which has a long history of more than 100 years. The research involves leisure motivation, leisure attitude, leisure behavior, leisure experiences, leisure satisfaction, leisure consumption, leisure education, leisure constraints, leisure service, and so on. Leisure constraint research can be dated back to more than 20 years ago, which has nowadays become a clear and unique sub-field. This paper summarizes the recent status of international leisure constraint studies, from 109 pieces of literatures published in Journal of Leisure Research (1992-2010), Leisure Sciences (1998-2010), and Journal of Park and Recreation Administration (2001-2010), and reveals some research features. Some conclusions can be drawn as follows. The focus of researches has been changed, from superficial phenomenon to mechanism. At present, many scholars conduct studies by combining the quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as theoretical and empirical analyses, and the subjects and topics of research are in a wide range. Besides, this paper proposes some suggestions on the future development of the leisure constraint research. These researches in the West are of great significance to the theoretical and practical studies of China's leisure constraints.

Key words: enlightenments, leisure constraints, research progress