Does dispositional mindfulness moderate how individuals engage in their passions? An investigation into video games

ABSTRACT

The Dualistic Model of Passion (DMP) is an emerging framework in social psychology that assesses individuals’ passion for an activity. Although a passion parallels the definition for a serious leisure activity, the DMP further differentiates between a harmonious (HP) versus an obsessive (OP) passion, which are associated with adaptive versus maladaptive outcomes, respectively. Building on recent research in the area of mindfulness and the growing interest in problem video gaming, the present study explores the effect of dispositional mindfulness on reports of HP and OP. An online sample of adult video game users (N = 1,124; 68.95% male) completed assessments of their passion for video gaming as well as their dispositional mindfulness. Results revealed a negative association between dispositional mindfulness and OP for video gaming, but no association between dispositional mindfulness and HP for video gaming. Further, a moderation effect was found such that high dispositional mindfulness appears to protect against internalizing an OP for video gaming. Finally, results from a latent profile generally supported the role dispositional mindfulness plays in reducing the severity of OP for video gaming. The implications for theory and positive video game engagement are discussed.     

“I Like My Peeps”: Diversifying the Net Generation's Digital Leisure

ABSTRACT

The current generation of adolescents is the first to have grown up with the widespread use of the internet as part of their everyday lives; they are the Net Generation. To diversify existing research on this generation's digital practices, this study explored the intersectional experiences of diverse immigrant adolescent girls' digital leisure. Conversational interviews with nine girls revealed that they encountered numerous interpersonal leisure constraints following their immigration to Canada. Within their digital leisure, girls were able to negotiate these constraints through online connections with family and friends back home, Canadian friends, and the global village. These online connections facilitated an expansion of social boundaries and communication with both familiar and broad networks to maintain and develop relationships, pursue interests, share culture, and resist limiting gendered norms with the unparalleled interactivity and sociability of digital leisure.     

Accessing leisure in an unfamiliar society via mobile instant messaging: A case study of academic sojourners visiting South Korea

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how academic sojourners, unfamiliar with the local language and culture, accessed casual leisure through mobile instant messaging during a short stay of one or two semesters in South Korea. Ninety-six English-speaking academic sojourners on Korean government scholarships covering tuition, room and board in exchange for contact with local university students seeking informal English language practice took part in this study. They represent a shift in academic sojourner mobility from outbound Asian students seeking language study in English-speaking countries to inbound English-speakers providing language support within Asia. Qualitative analysis revealed how casual leisure, the features of South Korea’s advanced digital environment and mobile instant messaging chat rooms coalesced. The findings show how local digital practices complement casual leisure access and how digital practices can become casual leisure despite limits in language ability and cultural understanding. It recommends further exploration of links between leisure, digital environments and mobile instant messaging in other research settings that are experiencing flows of globally mobile populations.     

Digital Gaming,Sport and Gender

ABSTRACT

This paper has developed out of ongoing research into the associated patterns of sport and digital gaming interests and participation. Specifically, this paper presents the major findings of a questionnaire based survey distributed to undergraduate students at Sheffield's two universities, and a number of follow up interviews. Contrary to popular perceptions, this research finds no evidence to suggest that participating in digital gaming can have a negative effect on levels of sports participation. Moreover, the paper argues that, for some, digital gaming may increase their interest and knowledge of sport, and can prove for many a popular source of conversation that can cross‐cut and inform conversations on sport. However, contrary to many previous studies, this research indicates that there continues to be distinct gender differences in gaming patterns.     

Narratives,identity and community in esports

ABSTRACT

The commercial and social ascendance of esports has become a source of considerable organisational, industrial, experiential and identity-based concern for those inside and outside the digital gaming field. Indeed, one major concern for self-identifying ‘gamers’ around the world is the extent to which the logics of professionalisation, spectacularisation and rationalisation that pervade contemporary esports will unsettle existing identities within the gaming community. In this study, we draw upon the theories of Paul Ricoeur to provide a narratological analysis of the stories gamers tell themselves about themselves on the social media platform Reddit—and in so doing explicate the politics of inclusion and exclusion imbedded in these stories. We investigate how story-narrative is utilised to mark boundaries in rhythm with, or in opposition to, the commercial, cultural and identity politics which gamers perceive are infiltrating the online gaming field. Based on our analysis, it becomes clear that Reddit users actively use the medium to promote a dominant politics of gender- and investment-based inclusion/exclusion. We conclude with a discussion on the complexities of digital community identity and the challenges seemingly democratic media technologies such as Reddit present for those seeking to promote egalitarian and inclusive spaces of digital play.     

Identity,Politics, and the Beach: Environmental Activism in Surfers Against Sewage

Abstract

Academic accounts of leisure activities like surfing tend to emphasise their individualistic, hedonistic and commercialised qualities, seeing this as characteristic of leisure consumption in late capitalism; that culture is increasingly dominated by the market and attention is diverted from collective and political issues. Yet empirical research in such lifestyle sport cultures reveals a more complex and contradictory picture of leisure consumption. This paper examines the pressure group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), founded by surfers in Cornwall, England. It draws on subcultural media discourses about SAS and interviews with SAS members and personnel. Whilst acknowledging the limitations in the political significance and impact of SAS’s activism, the paper argues that through their sport consumption, participants from a range of minority water sports cultures have formed a politicised trans‐local collectivity based around a concern with their own localised environment, one which has become articulated into broader trans‐national political issues. It is argued further that SAS is part of a broader wave of new social movements and direct action protest groups that gathered momentum in Britain in the mid to late 1990s. In such groups the politics of identity take centre stage. The paper therefore challenges us to rethink the meaning of political activism, and the capacity of leisure and sport to contribute to the politics of identity.     

Self-Transformation in Go Games: An Autoethnographic Study of a Serious Leisure Pursuit

ABSTRACT

This article combines both analytical and evocative autoethnographic study of Go to illuminate Confucian self-transformation and to contribute to Robert Stebbins's conceptions of serious leisure. As an analytical autoethnographic study, this article interweaves the author's personal experiences of playing Go with theoretical discussions. The author argues that whereas Stebbins's analysis of durable benefits from serious leisure is individualist, Confucian self-transformation encourages a relationalist approach and that the latter approach could be a remedy for the shortcomings of the former one. As for the evocative part of this article, the author uses some devices of fictional writing to tell a lifelike story of an unforgettable Go game. This story invites readers to put themselves in the author's situations, to taste the sweet fruit of the author's serious leisure pursuit, and to reflect on their own leisure experiences.     

Impact of Tourism Openness Across the Taiwan Strait: Perspective of Mainland Chinese Tourists

ABSTRACT

Millennials, who are different from the older generations in leisure and consumption propensities, constitute more than 30% of the global population. The increase in the proportion of millennials in the population has motivated national museums in Korea to implement a new operational strategy for attracting this generation. Using data envelopment analysis, this study reveals that Korean millennials are more interested in special exhibitions and participatory events compared to the earlier generations. The results also indicate that enhancing the overall revisit rate significantly improves the overall performance of national museums. This study is expected to help museums and event organizers to establish differentiated operational strategies according to visitor types for “what service should be provided for whom.”     

Strategic Management of External Change in NSW Registered Clubs

ABSTRACT

This research examines how clubs strategically manage change resulting from alterations in their external environment. Specifically, this paper aims to investigate the marketing implications of recent legislative change arising from restrictions imposed on advertising and promotion of club gaming in one Australian state, the most populous state of New South Wales (NSW). Managers of three northern NSW clubs situated adjacent to the southern Queensland (QLD) border were interviewed to obtain primary data for this investigation. Results show that legislation restricting gaming advertising, promotion and external signage has caused difficulties in marketing these three clubs whose core product is gaming machines. Short-term results of revised marketing strategies indicate that club member numbers are steady but spending is unpredictable. Visitors are harder to attract, particularly new visitors.     

Book reviews

Abstract

This article examines the cultural field of fitness as a network of producers, consumers, products and practices that has developed around the care of the body through physical exercise. Drawing on a thematic text analysis of US exercise manuals, the paper focuses on how the commercial fitness field naturalizes associations between physical exercise and leisure, and between leisure and self‐work. In particular, the analysis examines three themes and their relevance to our broader understanding of leisure in contemporary consumer society: the management of leisure time; the use of leisure for self‐investment strategies; and the promotion of consumption as the framework for leisure and an accompanying notion of pleasure. The fitness field casts light on how leisure more generally is constructed as a sphere of obligations to make productive use of one’s time, to improve one’s body and self, and to do so through the wares of the consumer marketplace. The cultural imaginary of leisure as a time of freedom from work and responsibility is thus recast, in an age of individualization, as a time of freedom to accomplish the work of self‐production.     

The (In)Visibility of Grandparents in Family Leisure Research: A Call for Expanded Conceptualizations of “Family”

ABSTRACT

The continued focus on the individual as a unit of analysis, along with the privileging of the nuclear family over the past two decades of family leisure scholarship, has rendered grandparents virtually invisible in family leisure scholarship. In this commentary, I examine the position of grandparents in leisure research and suggest that the implicit acceptance of the status quo has been detrimental to the state of family leisure research. Drawing on literature from both leisure studies and family relations, I assert a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of diverse family forms is vital to the progression of family leisure scholarship.     

Body image as a leisure constraint: Examining the experience of aerobic exercise classes for young women

Abstract

Previous research has shown that women, and especially young women, in this culture experience pressure to be thin. Although considerable research has been directed toward the investigation of body image and its relationship to psychological health and self‐image, the impact of body image on leisure behavior has not been adequately addressed, nor has body image received much attention as a potential leisure constraint. The purpose of this study was to investigate ways in which body image might function as a constraint to young women's participation in aerobic exercise classes. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods, including a survey of 190 women undergraduate students and in‐depth interviews with a sub‐sample of 11 students. The qualitative data are the main focus of this analysis. The data indicated that body image did not seem to prevent participation or constrain levels of participation in aerobics. Nevertheless, body image concerns were shown to constrain the enjoyment of aerobics as a leisure activity, and this reduction of enjoyment was related to the clothing worn for aerobics and to competition over appearance and body weight among participants. The findings also showed that body image functioned as a constraint into participation in that body‐image‐related concerns were a major motivating factor exerting pressure on young women to participate in aerobics. In sum, the study suggested that body image can constrain leisure in some situations, although it is not a constraint in the traditional sense of preventing participation. The implications of these findings for the conceptualization of leisure constraints were discussed. Furthermore, some practical implications for the provision of aerobics classes were provided.     

Casinos and Conventions

ABSTRACT

The casino industry has always relied on the leisure traveler whose primary motivation is to gamble. Thus, one would expect the casino and convention industries to operate in totally different arenas. This was the case until the mid-1990s. Today, the casino industry is embracing the convention industry and constructing facilities to meet the needs of the convention and meeting attendee. This article starts by setting up the framework for this dichotomy between the two industries by tracing the history of casino gaming in the U.S. Discussion leads to a review of how and why there was a lack of conventions/meetings business in both Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The article then goes on to review specific development of the conventions/meetings business in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and other jurisdictions. It concludes with a prognosis about the future along with opportunities for future research.     

Immigrants' Adaptation and Interracial/Interethnic Interactions in Natural Environments

ABSTRACT

This study examined the role of leisure in natural environments in immigrants' adaptation, with a particular emphasis on facilitating interracial/interethnic interactions. Berry's adaptation framework was used as a theoretical framework. The project used in-depth individual interviews with 70 immigrants from China, Latin America, Morocco, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam residing in the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland. The findings showed that recreation in natural environments promoted immigrants' psychological adaptation by helping to improve psychological and emotional well-being, develop feelings of attachment, strengthen social ties, and build memories and family traditions. The sociocultural adaptation was increased when immigrants learned about the culture of the host countries. The natural environments were not particularly conducive to establishing interactions with strangers but were convenient settings for interacting with families and members of the ethnic community.     

Leisure pursuits: uncovering the ‘selective tradition’ in culture and well-being evidence for policy

ABSTRACT

This article reconsiders the value of leisure studies to well-being evidence for policy-making. It presents secondary analyses of Office for National Statistics data from the Measuring National Well-being (MNW) debate (2010). It finds that leisure is more important to the nation than accounted for in official reports. Using Raymond Williams’ framework of ‘lived culture’ and ‘recorded culture’, the article interprets this analytical discrepancy as demonstrating the culture of ‘selective tradition’.

Raymond Williams’ work is used to understand the sidelining of leisure in the MNW programme in two ways. Firstly, the article addresses survey design and analysis. It finds a methodological bias against free text data as evidence, affecting which aspects of cultural and social life appear central to well-being. Secondly, the article takes a discourse approach to cultural sector advocacy, which, in arguing the value of arts-related activity, relegates aspects of ‘culture as ordinary’ by default. These two selective traditions mean that ‘everyday participation’ is not valued in discussions of well-being evidence, advocacy or in the final MNW measures, despite its value to the public. This article prioritises everyday understandings of well-being over those of experts, offering an ethical and practical contribution to leisure studies and policy-making for well-being.     

A Cross-Cultural/National Study of Canadian,Chinese, and Japanese University Students' Leisure Satisfaction and Subjective Well-Being

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine whether Canadian, Chinese, and Japanese university students' leisure satisfaction affected their subjective well-being (SWB) and, if so, how this process was similar and different cross-culturally/nationally. A series of stepwise multiple regressions indicated that, in general, satisfying leisure significantly and positively impacted SWB across all three cultures, but there were also differences between (a) Canada and both China and Japan in terms of aesthetic leisure satisfaction and (b) China and Japan in terms of psychological and physiological leisure satisfaction. Overall, our results suggest that while satisfying leisure significantly, positively, and substantively impacts SWB in both Western and East Asian cultural contexts, culture frequently influences which specific elements are pertinent. This cross-cultural/national study has important theoretical and practical implications for the currently Western-centric leisure literature and for the understanding of the different roles leisure plays in enhancing SWB across cultures, respectively.     

Exploring Prenatal Physical Activity at the “Postgenomic Turn”: A Transdisciplinary Journey

Abstract

Within the life sciences, there has been a move away from genetic determinism toward an awareness of how the environment (from cellular to social) can impact gene expression and health outcomes. Significantly, exercise scientists are looking to this “postgenomic turn” to explore how prenatal physical activity and leisure might affect the fetal metabolic environment by altering offspring gene expression and preventing future obesity. In this article, we draw upon insights from feminist new materialist scholars to explore how and if the entanglement of the social and material promised by the postgenomic turn is realized in prenatal exercise interventions. After outlining how this is not the case, we reflect upon our attempt to promote a transdisciplinary dialogue that facilitates a social justice ethos and nonreductionist version of maternal-fetal health and physical culture. Our transdisciplinary journey contributes to the feminist physical cultural studies agenda of equity development in the realm of exercise and leisure.     

Editor's note

The relationship between work and leisure has most often been described in terms of three basic models. First, the spillover model suggests that one's choice of leisure is affected by interests and attitudes developed during work. Second, the compensation model holds that leisure choices are the opposite of one's work activities, thus providing satisfaction not realized in the work context. Third, according to the segmentation model, work and leisure are distinct life domains and do not interact. Occasionally, a fourth perspective is added: Work and leisure are mutually influential. Evidence for the first three perspectives is mixed. Moreover, there is a units‐of‐analysis problem in studying work and leisure; that is, what about work and leisure is comparable? A patterned socialization model of work and leisure that encompasses and augments these perspectives is presented in this article. Evidence from the outdoor recreation activities of a sample of workers in the machining and tooling industries of western Pennsylvania is consistent with the position that work and leisure influence each other and that both are the result of prior socialization. The units‐of‐analysis problem is solved to some extent for this group of informants by comparing their work with machines and their leisure experiences with machines. Finally, machinists who engage in more outdoor recreation activities using machines are more satisfied with their leisure, in general.     

The role of cultural context in the development of low‐capital ocean leisure activities

Abstract

The ocean beaches of the United States are an economically important resource. As American culture has become increasingly more preoccupied with leisure activities, however, traditional commercial interests along the beach have been replaced by expressive activities. In terms of the number of participants, the vast majority of beach users have performed their leisure activities without the benefit of sophisticated equipment or infrastructure, and without high‐capital expenditure; that is, they have been engaged in low‐capital beach uses. With particular reference to these low‐capital beach uses, this paper examines the role of culture in determining leisure beach activities using the example of the differential development of marine recreational fishing and surfing on the East and West Coasts of the United States. Based on participant observation, legal histories, and popular and academic literature one location on each coast was chosen, and the development of these two leisure activities compared and contrasted. Variations and changes in cultural contexts at the local and national levels were found to be important factors in explaining the observed differential development of these activities in the two locations.     

The correlation coefficient and problems of inference in recreation research

Correlation analysis frequently has been used for the investigation of leisure research questions. This paper illustrates the problem of “unequal weighting of cases” which is present in the use of correlation analysis. It further illustrates how this problem can mislead researchers when they make substantive inferences about leisure.