The impact of leisure coping beliefs and strategies on adaptive outcomes

Despite the recent growth of leisure coping research, it is not entirely clear: what aspects of leisure best contribute to coping with stress, and how the mechanisms that link leisure to adaptive outcomes operate. Another limitation of this research has been a tendency to examine leisure coping independent of general coping - coping not directly associated with leisure (e.g., problem-focused coping). To help overcome these limitations, the purpose of this study was to test two models of leisure and coping: (a) an independent model and (b) a buffer model, when the effects of general coping were taken into account. The findings of the study using police and emergency response service workers suggest that the effects of leisure on adaptive outcomes differ depending on the type of leisure coping used. Situation-specific leisure coping strategies (i.e., actual coping behaviors and cognitions available through leisure) were significantly associated with effectiveness of coping, satisfactory coping outcomes, and stress reduction (i.e., immediate adaptive outcomes), whereas enduring leisure coping beliefs (i.e., personality dispositions and beliefs about the role of leisure as a means of managing stress) significantly predicted better physical health (as a long-term outcome), irrespective of the level of stress experienced. Both types of leisure coping had significant 'main effects' supporting the independent model. Also, evidence of the buffer model was found for the effects of leisure coping strategies on moderating the detrimental impact of stress on physical health. Implications of leisure coping research for health promotion and lifestyle intervention are discussed.     

Serious leisure among older gardeners in Australia

Activities such as gardening are fast becoming acknowledged as a much desired health management strategy in later life. However, few studies have examined gardening as a serious leisure pursuit. The aim of this study was to apply the concept of serious leisure to the context of leisure gardening by older adults in Australia. Casual, participant and devotee gardeners were compared with respect to the relative importance of the characteristics of serious leisure, using self-administered questionnaires (n = 514). Findings indicated that characteristics of serious leisure varied significantly across the three groups. The most powerful discriminating characteristics were Identity, Unique Ethos and Significant Effort; with Identity particularly important for devotee gardeners. The deeper the level of engagement, the more gardening was perceived as contributing to overall life satisfaction. Findings indicated that gardening could be a serious leisure pursuit that assists in the development of a positive leisure identity and contributes to a more mobile and active life for older adults.     

Rethinking Internal Consistency in Cronbach's Alpha

Stress is one byproduct of hectic and busy lives. Therefore, examining active living and leisure in relation to stress and coping offers an important area of study. This paper presents key findings from a multi-year qualitative study of stress and coping. A series of focus groups were conducted with diverse residents of a western Canadian city including: (a) Aboriginal individuals with diabetes, (b) individuals with disabilities, and (c) people who identified as gay or lesbian. The findings emphasized that active leisure is more than physical activity, and that less physical forms of leisure should not be undervalued in the conceptualization of active living and leisure. Coping with stress using active leisure encompassed a wide range of meanings (e.g., spiritual, social, cultural, altruistic, empowerment).     

Leisure and urbanisation in Brazil from the 1950s to the 1970s

There is growing interest in how workers recover and unwind from work during leisure, as poor unwinding has been associated with negative health. This research explores the recovery process to gain a greater understanding of how individuals switch‐off from work‐related thoughts post work. Specifically, we conducted interviews with workers who habitually find it difficult to switch‐off from work (i.e. high ruminators), and workers who find it easy to switch‐off from work (i.e. low ruminators). Three master themes were elicited using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: (1) work philosophy, (2) coping strategies and (3) coping outcomes. The findings revealed differences in core beliefs about work; high ruminators perceive blurred boundaries between work and home life, and they allowed work to mentally predominate during their leisure time, whereas low ruminators viewed their work and leisure as two distinct spheres, and actively developed strategies to switch‐off and disengage from work. Both high and low ruminators acknowledged the health benefits of unwinding post work, yet only low ruminators managed to successfully do so. It was concluded that there is a need for organisations to educate their employees, particularly high ruminators, about the importance of strategic unwinding post work to optimise the quality of leisure time and prevent them from becoming fatigued and burnt out.     

Meanings of leisure for older people: an Australian study of line dancing

In Australia and in many parts of the world, older people participate in line dancing. Our phenomenological study explored whether attending a regular line dancing class might offer a group of older people opportunities for active and successful ageing. Our research investigated the meanings and practices fostered in a community line dancing class in Melbourne. We gathered data via an interview with the teacher of the group, observation of a class and two focus group interviews with 25 members. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis that is reported thematically under headings of: Belief in the efficacy of line dancing, Physical and emotional benefits, YouTube clips as instructional reinforcement and promotion, and Socialising. The findings show that participation in the class offered older student’s opportunities for dance and music engagement, active and successful ageing, health and well-being, social connection and purposeful leisure. The teacher of the class modelled serious and successful leisure and advocates for dance as holistic training for older people. We position our participants on a continuum of leisure engagement that ranges from the casual to the serious. Further research is required to support arguments for the efficacy of dance as a leisure pursuit for older adults.     

Research note: Functions of privacy in Australian wilderness environments

Evidence suggests that leisure activities can be used as a means for coping with stress, but how leisure is used as an effective way to regulate difficult tasks is still unclear. Self-Determination Theory was used as a theoretical framework to propose two distinct approaches to regulatory leisure coping: the Planned-Breather Leisure Coping Style and the Avoidant Leisure Coping Style. The two proposed dimensions were tested and supported using a new scale with a university student population. Findings obtained in these studies suggested that regulatory orientation in a particular context was distinctively associated with the two proposed leisure coping styles and to different affective consequences following the regulation of a difficult task.     

Research note: social leisure engagement,peer support,and depressive symptomology among emerging adults

This research note applied self-determination theory to the study of social leisure and well-being among collegiate emerging adults. Self-determination theory posits that individuals seek out environments that promote basic psychological needs; among these needs is the need for relatedness. We examined the relationship between social leisure engagement (conceptualised as an environment that promotes connections to others) and emerging adults’ depressive symptomology. More specifically, we hypothesised that this need-supportive environment would be related to higher levels of peer support (a form of relatedness) and would promote better mental health. Participants (N = 270) were between the ages of 18 and 25. Using path models, we found that there was a significant negative relationship between social leisure engagement and depressive symptomology. Furthermore, peer support served as a significant linking mechanism between social leisure and depressive symptomology. Results provide evidence for the application of self-determination theory to the study of social leisure engagement as a need-supportive environment that can facilitate relatedness and better mental health among emerging adults.     

Leisure,Stress, and Coping: An Evolving Area of Inquiry

Stress and coping are prevalent and ubiquitous in our everyday lives. The degree and manner in which we experience stress, and ways in which we cope with stress, strongly influence our daily choices and their outcomes, including those related to leisure. Research on leisure, stress, and coping is important within a broad spectrum of leisure research since it can be potentially integrated with leisure research on constraints and negotiations, lifespan development, diversity, and lifestyle. Such integration works to bridge the gap in the leisure research community that is often characterized as isolated entities. One important tangible benefit of such integration is that stress and coping have the potential to be a common language for many researchers with diverse interests, and it thus leads to opportunities for enhanced communication and understanding, as well as for possible collaborations. We hope that this special issue, presenting a diverse collection of papers focused on leisure, stress, and coping, may instill such ambitious, but important, desire. The role of this issue is threefold: (1) to better identify relationships among leisure, stress, and coping, (2) to introduce new theoretical and methodological approaches for such research, and (3) to encourage increased attention to and collaborations related to leisure, stress, and coping research.     

Relationships between leisure activity types and well-being in older adults

This study investigates the relationships between specific types of leisure activities and well-being variables (i.e. health perception, life satisfaction and optimism) in older adults. A convenience sample of 188 participants ranging in age from 60 to 90 years (M = 74.99, SD = 5.49) was recruited from three different senior centres in Korea. Three hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between specific types of leisure activities (outdoor, physical, hobbies and indoor, cultural, home-centred and social and volunteering) and outcome variables. After controlling for covariates, it was revealed that home-centred and social activities were associated with all outcome variables. Volunteer activities were positively related to health perception and life satisfaction. Positive relationships were also observed between life satisfaction and physical activities, optimism and cultural activities and health perception and outdoor activities. These findings suggest that promoting positive social interaction in recreational settings and encouraging participation in volunteer activities are important factors contributing to successful ageing.     

Leisure Diversity as an Indicator of Cultural Capital

The diversity of activities in a repertoire of leisure is a variable shown to have considerable impact on the quality of leisure and beneficial personal outcomes, and it is proposed as one important indicator of cultural capital. Theoretical perspectives on cultural capital indicate the importance of education in preparing individuals for broad patterns of leisure consumption in addition to status attainment. Contemporary advances demonstrate that status attainment cannot be equated with high cultural consumption and that broadly omnivorous leisure pursuits may be more valuable to social actors. Role attachment theory and disengagement theory are additionally explored as possible theoretical explanations that assist in predicting leisure diversity that is highly patterned by employment and one's age. The number of different leisure experiences that constitute an individual's leisure repertoire is expected to change throughout the life-course as needs for cultural capital vary and as demands in paid and domestic work change. Tobit models of leisure diversity are proposed using American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data. Findings indicate that leisure diversity is impacted by ethnicity, recent immigration, age and socio-economic status, and theoretically relevant conditional relationships are explored.     

Leisure and Active Lifestyles: Research Reflections

Leisure researchers have been studying active living for many years. The research, however, has focused more on individual factors than social and environmental determinants that enable physical activity and health. The focus of the introduction to this special issue on “leisure and active lifestyles” is to highlight leisure literature that can be directly tied to active living. These dimensions include outdoor recreation, community recreation areas and facilities, time usage, barriers and constraints, and social interdependence. We provide an overview of the significance of the papers in this special issue and offer some reflections regarding future research related to active living, physical activity, health, and leisure. We underline the value of the holistic approach evident in leisure research and call for broader methods and more collaborative transdisciplinary research.     

Stress,resilience and leisure coping among university students: applying the broaden-and-build theory

Evidence suggests that leisure coping is affiliated with resilience, and that both predict stress-coping and well-being. However, a theoretical explanation of how resilience is associated with the stress-reducing properties of leisure coping is lacking. Using the broaden-and-build theory, a model was developed proposing that resilient individuals proactively use leisure coping to cultivate positive emotions and in turn enhance well-being. Leisure coping and positive affect (PA) were suggested to mediate the relationship between resilience and well-being outcomes (stress and flourishing). The model was tested among 202 U.K undergraduates, a population reported to experience high stress. Structural equation modelling revealed that resilience had a significant positive effect on flourishing. Leisure coping beliefs demonstrated a positive relationship with resilience, PA and flourishing. PA mediated the relationship between resilience and flourishing and between resilience and stress. Leisure coping strategies did not meaningfully contribute to the model. Leisure beliefs may have emerged as more important than leisure strategies because leisure beliefs are relatively stable with more enduring effects on health and well-being, while leisure strategies are transient and situation-based. Future research should examine the relationships longitudinally to explore developmental change. Implications of the findings for undergraduates are discussed.     

Fragility of leisure ties between ethnic minority and majority youth – an empirical case from Finland

This paper explores social integration of ethnic minority youth in the context of micro-level leisure interaction in Finland. The aim of the study is to disentangle the types of ties that are formed between ethnic minority and majority youth. Moreover, the article will examine how these ties build bridges across group boundaries in the form of providing new leisure resources for ethnic minority youth. The qualitative data of the study consists of multi-sited ethnography conducted in the context of youth work and distinct interview data of ethnic minority youth (n = 38). Strong interethnic ties in the form of close friendships are rare in the data. Instead, many weak ties in the form of distant acquaintances are maintained. However, because of manifold micro-level elements, these weak ties are often too fragile to function as bridges accumulating the leisure resources of ethnic minority youth. Strong interethnic ties seem to have more bridging qualities. Thus, the conceptual distinction of weak/bridging and strong/bonding ties originally formulated in the framework of the labour market may not be applicable in the fields of youth leisure.     

Coastal blue space and wellbeing research: looking beyond western tides

ABSTRACT

In this paper we focus on coastal blue spaces and the ways in which they have been advocated as beneficial for health and wellbeing in the context of leisure practices. We offer a reassessment of some of the claims made in this growing body of literature, highlighting the diverse cultural practices at the coast across different geographical contexts, particularly for those communities that have experienced exclusion due to ethnicity, culture, and income. We then discuss conceptions of coastal blue space and wellbeing within the context of Aotearoa New Zealand, a bi-cultural nation in which indigenous knowledges connected to both wellbeing and leisure in the outdoor world are impacting dominant (white, colonial) discourses, policies and practices. We illustrate that a Māori world view embraces different practices and assumptions about what water means and how relationships with water are made including through leisure practices. Aotearoa New Zealand provides a revealing cultural context for re-assessing and indeed challenging Eurocentric assumptions about blue spaces as sites of wellbeing. More widely we suggest that it is timely to anchor blue space and wellbeing research to different ‘worlds’; that looking in to reach out and expanding research agendas is a useful and important enterprise.     

Examining Rival Models of Leisure Coping Mechanisms

The present study examined the role of leisure in coping with stress and promoting good health. Using police and emergency response service workers (n = 132), this study tested a number of theoretically grounded leisure coping models to discover mechanisms by which leisure coping influences the relationship between stressors and adaptational outcomes (i.e., immediate adaptational outcomes such as coping effectiveness and stress reduction, and physical and mental health). Ensel and Lin's (1991) life stress paradigm was adopted to conceptualize these rival models (eight in total), and structural equation modeling was used to compare goodness of fit among the models to identify the best model. The findings suggest that stressors and leisure coping appear to independently influence adaptational outcomes. Leisure coping facilitated positive immediate adaptational outcomes that subsequently had a positive impact on health, irrespective of the level of stress experienced. The potential contribution of leisure to coping with stress and health is highlighted. Results suggest that the development of enduring beliefs about the role of leisure as ways of coping (i.e., leisure coping beliefs) seems essential for the actual and effective use of leisure as a means to manage stress (i.e., leisure coping strategies). Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

New meaning for the emotional state of the elderly,from a leisure standpoint

Continuing developments in science and technology that affect many dimensions of human life, especially those related to longevity, require responses from social policies and programmes to enable quality‐of‐life improvements in every sector, including leisure. To contribute to research in this area, this qualitative study sought to identify the perceptions of and meanings attached to participation in (active outdoor) leisure by a group of elderly citizens of Araras, São Paulo State, Brazil. Data were collected via questionnaires administered to a mixed‐gender sample of 100 persons, aged between 60 and 80 years, after they had participated in an outdoor adventure/leisure programme. The data were subjected to thematic content analysis. The study revealed that the participants identified positive emotional effects as a result of their participation, relating to their sense of belonging to a group, to their increased quality of life and to their ability to remain physically active.     

The Effects of Depression on Leisure: Varying Relationships Between Enjoyment,Sociability, Participation,and Desired Outcomes in College Students

Depression leads to negative mood and affect, difficulty experiencing enjoyment in chosen activities (anhedonia), and a reduced desire for social interaction. This study compared 974 college students with different levels of depression (minimal, mild, and moderate to severe) relative to their desired outcomes for leisure, and their enjoyment of, participation and sociability in, different types of chosen leisure activities. Findings indicated consistency in their desired outcomes students, yet there were differences in how social they chose to be, the extent to which they partook, and how much enjoyment they perceived during their leisure participation. In addition, in several activities only a mild state of depression was sufficient to produce differences in leisure involvement. The results question whether depressed individuals experience “leisure” in the same manner as nondepressed individuals and whether elements of “leisure” experiences stressing enjoyment and sociability are applicable for individuals with differing levels of nonclinical depression.     

A comparison of the enactment and consequences of emotional labor between frontline hotel workers in two contrasting societal cultures

ABSTRACT

Emotional labor is compared between hotel workers in the Philippines and Australia based on idiocentrism and allocentrism dimensions. Employees were surveyed using the Individualism-Collectivism Scale (INDCOL), the Emotional Labor Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Filipino employees reported significantly greater allocentrism and idiocentrism than the Australian sample, presenting a distinctive cultural pattern and highlighting dangers in making generalizations about societal culture. Idiocentrics in both countries reported using more surface acting and experiencing greater burnout than others. Therefore, coping and support mechanisms may be beneficially adapted to the Filipino sample's distinctive cultural orientation, to maximize benefits and minimize the harm of enacting emotional labor.