The Role of Physically Active Leisure for Enhancing Quality of Life

Drawing upon bottom-up theory of life satisfaction, this study develops and tests a model that links physically active leisure to people's quality of life. Results from a sample of 827 running event participants revealed that satisfaction with event participation and psychological involvement in running were significant predictors of participants’ life domain satisfaction and overall life satisfaction, both of which are common subjective indicators of quality of life. Conversely, behavioral involvement in running was a non-significant predictor of life domain satisfaction and overall life satisfaction. These findings suggest that physically active leisure may enhance participants’ quality of life by providing positive experiences through event participation and contributing to psychological involvement in physical activity.     

Theoretical linkages between well-being and tourism: The case of self-determination theory and spiritual tourism

Self-determination theory (SDT) offers a robust and globally adopted evidence-based foundation from which explorations of increasingly popular forms of travel, like spiritual tourism, can be analyzed for their potential contributions to well-being. This paper draws on SDT to examine outcomes of well-being within spiritual tourism. It draws on autoethnography, a thick data approach to qualitative inquiry, which allows for the emergence of experiential and self-reflective processes engendered by forms of travel like spiritual tourism. The autoethnographic narrative is based on the author's spiritual tourism experience at a yoga/meditation retreat in Rishikesh, India. The narrative is transcended through theory-based linkages to broader social phenomena (i.e., well-being, SDT), by so doing, the legacy of theoretical development, characteristic of interpretive inquiry, is sustained.     

Well-being and leisure-time physical activity psychosocial factors predict physical activity among university students

ABSTRACT

Drawing from literature supporting top-down (i.e., well-being impacting leisure) and bottom-up (i.e., leisure impacting well-being) models explaining the bi-directional relationship between leisure and well-being, this study examines the complex relationship of well-being, leisure constraints, and leisure negotiation factors in predicting leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) rates among university students. Six hundred sixty-one university students completed an online questionnaire assessing psychological well-being (PWB), LTPA constraints, LTPA negotiation strategies, and LTPA rates. A multiple regression analysis indicated bottom-up and top-down variables jointly predict LTPA. In regards to bottom-up psychological LTPA variables, LTPA was positively predicted by LTPA planning and prioritisation skills and negatively predicted by constraints to recreation facility spaces, lack of time, and utilising financial strategies. In regards to top-down well-being, influences on LTPA, LTPA rates were negatively predicted by personal growth and positively predicted by autonomy. We highlight how the study findings might inform intentional university health promotion policies and programming, leading to a culture of student well-being through LTPA.     

Efficacy of co-creation and mastering on perceived value and satisfaction in tourists' consumption

This study explores effects of participation, namely co-creation and mastering, on the perceived value of consumers' experience and satisfaction. Co-creation comprises both physical and psychological (mental) participation, and mastering represents consumers' self-perceived knowledge and skills in taking part in experiential activities. Adventure tourism is chosen as the setting. A logit model is used to test the hypothesis. The study results reveal that tourists' mastering and psychological co-creation are significant for value perception. Further, value perception is found to mediate the relation between participation and satisfaction. Consequently, tourists' participation augments satisfaction by creating value in the experience. This study contributes to the theory in two ways. First, it reveals the importance of including the mastering and co-creation dimensions in acknowledging tourists' as resource integrators for value creation in experiences. Second, satisfaction in tourism consumption evolves through tourists' participation in creating value of the experience.     

Dischord and Dissonance in the Leisure Studies Polyphony: A Response to Fox and Klaiber

This study examines females' participation in the male-dominated sport of motorcycling. Group interviews with female motorcyclists explore the meaning of this leisure activity in their lives and various factors that facilitate their participation. A grounded-theory approach reveals five sources of empowerment that women gain by participating in motorcycling. This study demonstrates the role facilitators play in creating and cultivating sources of empowerment. It also exposes how feelings of guilt, vulnerability, and concern about societal images can undermine women's feelings of empowerment. “Girl power” represents women's attempts to redefine femininity in a way that embraces the positive aspects of both femininity and masculinity and resists negative stereotypes that restrict women's choices of leisure pursuits.     

Adventure recreation and subjective well-being: a conceptual framework

ABSTRACT

Despite the documented positive outcomes of adventure experiences, subjective well-being (SWB) frameworks have been largely absent from discourse and analyses in adventure studies. This conceptual paper proposes a framework for understanding how adventure recreation experiences promote eudaemonic SWB. In our framework, we propose that adventure recreation fosters eudaemonic aspects of SWB by supporting the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, relatedness and beneficence. The framework also integrates ‘contact with nature’ as an important mechanism through which adventure recreation fosters eudaemonic SWB. Analysis of research and practice across diverse aspects of adventure recreation (leisure, tourism, and education contexts) is used to support the proposed framework and to critically evaluate how psychological models, such as self-determination theory (SDT) and SWB, can advance theory and practice in adventure recreation. We conclude by offering a number of suggestions for future research directions and practical implications.     

Determinants of Leisure Time Physical Activity Participation Among Latina Women

The goal of this study was to examine leisure time physical activity (LTPA) among Latina women and to determine factors influencing their LTPA participation. The ecological model was employed as a theoretical framework in order to examine attitudes, social support, and constraints affecting physical activity. Surveys and in-depth interviews were used to collect data. Results showed that although women's LTPA participation was low, they had positive attitudes toward LTPA, and they believed they had high levels of support for LTPA. The most often mentioned constraints included lack of child-care and lack of time. Attitudes toward LTPA, social support for LTPA, and certain constraints were significant predictors of LTPA participation. Results of the in-depth interviews complemented the survey data.     

Children's engagement in leisure time physical activity: exploring family structure as a determinant

This paper draws on Bourdieu's key concepts in an effort to understand particular social practices and the effect of family as a social environment and determinant for participation in leisure time physical activity. As an exploratory study, the aim was to elicit children's subjective views of their engagement in leisure time physical activity settings. Adopting an interpretive perspective, six 11‐ to 14‐year‐old children from intact couple families and single parent families were interviewed in small groups, exploring lived experiences of their participation in physical activity in relation to their family structure. The study suggests that family structure plays a vital role in helping to shape children's dispositions towards physical activity. All children were subject to the transmission of parental beliefs and values towards physical activity though this was further reinforced in intact couple families through joint participation. Moreover, children from single parent families were seen to exhibit more sedentary dispositions that reflected the environment in which they reside. We argue that children's individual habitus, as bearing the experiences of their familial backgrounds, provided them with certain desires to participate in physical activity which are mediated by their family circumstance. The study suggests that family structure is becoming a more prominent issue within society, and thus, children's leisure activity from this perspective requires further research that explores this phenomenon in greater detail.     

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.     

The Influence of Psychological Needs in Mexican Older Adults' Leisure Motivations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to understand if and how the three elements of the basic needs theory play a role in Mexican older adults' leisure motivations. A case study research strategy was chosen. Data were collected using individual interviews with 18 participants (6 men and 12 women). After the data were analyzed, three core themes emerged: the fulfillment of psychological needs is not always a precondition for leisure engagement, traditional ways of conceptualizing the need for relatedness and the need for competence need to be reconsidered, and gender inequality and gender roles affect women's need for autonomy in their leisure engagement.     

Women's leisure: divergence,reconceptualization and change — the case of the Netherlands

This paper consists of two sections. In the first, theoretical, section I explore the questions of divergence and reconceptualization of women's leisure with notions derived from Giddens's structuration theory. In the second section these theoretical notions are used to structure empirical findings from the Netherlands. This results in three different types of women's leisure. The traditional family type has a long history, while the modern family type and the individualistic type are rather new. Each type can be characterised by a specific division of leisure into own time, leisured caring time and leisured labour time and by a specific time-space behaviour. Both the modern family type and the individualistic type are strongly related to women's growing participation in the labour market, which for the former type goes hand-in-hand with an unequal gender division of work. The expectation is that, rather than the individualistic type, the modern family type will become most widespread in the Netherlands and that therefore unequal gender relations in the labour, caring and leisure domain will endure.     

Questioning policy,youth participation and lifestyle sports

Young people have been identified as a key target group for whom participation in sport and physical activity could have important benefits to health and well-being and consequently have been the focus of several government policies to increase participation in the UK. Lifestyle sports represent one such strategy for encouraging and sustaining new engagements in sport and physical activity in youth groups, however, there is at present a lack of understanding of the use of these activities within policy contexts. This paper presents findings from a government initiative which sought to increase participation in sport for young people through provision of facilities for mountain biking in a forest in south-east England. Findings from qualitative research with 40 young people who participated in mountain biking at the case study location highlight the importance of non-traditional sports as a means to experience the natural environments through forms of consumption which are healthy, active and appeal to their identities. In addition, however, the paper raises questions over the accessibility of schemes for some individuals and social groups, and the ability to incorporate sports which are inherently participant-led into state-managed schemes. Lifestyle sports such as mountain biking involve distinct forms of participation which present a challenge for policy-makers who seek to create and maintain sustainable communities of youth participants.     

Weekly Fluctuations in College Student Leisure Activities and Well-Being

College students’ well-being is declining. Differences in students’ leisure activity participation have been linked to their psychological well-being. This study examined how weekly fluctuations in leisure allocation (i.e., frequency of volunteer, cognitive, social, club, religious, and physical activities) related to well-being in college students. Students completed weekly leisure time allocation assessments. Generalized linear multilevel analyses showed that time allocation and well-being varied within-people. Fluctuations in leisure time allocation were related to fluctuations in well-being. Findings extend understanding of leisure and well-being by highlighting the unique contributions of within-person fluctuations beyond between-person differences.     

Holidays with aging parents: pleasures,duties and constraints

I explore filial duty in the holidays from a feminist perspective through the lens of the experiences that Norwegian midlife single women have of how this duty shapes intergenerational holidays and singlehood. Data was collected through interviews, diaries and autoethnograpical reflections. Filial duty is embedded with the simultaneity of love and respect, and the women's needs and desire for agency and ‘me-time’. It is also shaped by parental age, health, personalities and roles, as well as siblings' involvement, which not only direct the family's expectations towards the women, but in turn can affect the women's sense of agency. The women's filial duty during the holidays is imbued with singlism and heteronormativity, yet is also a demonstration of love and care.     

Cultural determination,diversity, and coalition in leisure research: A commentary on coalter and mommaas

What factors motivate individuals to participate in sport or fitness activities? This question has been of great interest to researchers. However, most studies on motives have considered only a single or a few variables in their investigation. The purpose of this research is to explore the wide range of factors that motivate people to participate in a fitness activity, namely aerobics. To take into account the broad range of individual and social factors that influence participation in a fitness activity, social identity theory is the basis for a qualitative investigation. The findings that show motives for participation are divergent across groups of similar individuals. The motives that emerged were (a) the atmosphere of an aerobics class, (b) the physical and psychological benefits, (c) social ties related to aerobics, (d) social comparisons, (e) obsession with aerobics, and (f) the feelings participants associate with doing aerobics. A proposed framework of fitness participation is developed based on the findings that could serve as a foundation for future empirical studies.     

Facilitating well-being at the second home: the role of architectural design

Many studies have examined the benefits of second home ownership (here taken to mean those used primarily for the purpose of leisure and recreation rather than investment), and references to such second homes as sanctuaries and places of physical and psychological rejuvenation are common. This is frequently attributed to the physical landscape and natural environment the second home is located in; it is argued that re-connecting with nature has both tangible and intangible therapeutic benefits. However, the significance of the architectural design element of second homes in facilitating a sense of well-being has been overlooked in the literature. Representations of well-being at the second home in an architectural context are examined in this study, through a thematic analysis of second home articles in New Zealand’s first architecture and lifestyle magazine (Home New Zealand) from 1936 to 2015. The paper presents evidence that design elements may enhance benefits for well-being – whether those elements are architect-initiated or in response to a design brief from the owners. Furthermore, through taking a longitudinal approach, the study finds that designing for well-being at the second home has changed over the years, from a focus on physical well-being (health) to increasing emphasis on psychological well-being.     

The benefits of and constraints to participation in seniors’ online communities

Participation in seniors' online communities is a significant trend in elders' leisure use of the Internet. Based on an online survey of 218 members of 16 communities, this study explored the experience of participation in such communities. Results identified seven psychological benefits resulting from participation, the most salient being ‘Joyfulness’, ‘Stimulation’ and ‘Companionship’. Analysis also revealed various positive impacts on members' offline social life, interests and activities, as well as instrumental contribution. Negative experiences and several constraints to participation were discovered as well. Still, the findings suggest that the communities offer various mechanisms for enhancing seniors' well-being and promoting successful ageing.     

Pulling the Pin on Active Outdoor Leisure: Building an Understanding of Leisure Abandonment from the Narratives of Outdoor Recreationists

The study draws upon the leisure narratives of a sample of outdoor recreationists who had abandoned their chosen activity of tramping (hiking), freshwater angling, mountaineering, or hunting. Abandonment, even when only temporary, was a traumatic experience for study participants associated with feelings of loss and guilt. The distinction between participation and abandonment is not entirely clear. Abandonment is complex and may be short-lived, longer-lasting, or permanent. It is also multidimensional. While it is obviously displayed by a physical abstention or exclusion from the activity, for many participants this was merely the outward manifestation of abandonment, and they retained their inner identities as participants. Sometimes physical involvement in the activity was substituted by a more cerebral, social, or institutional involvement. The study supports and builds upon Stebbins's (2008) typology of abandonment and poses the notion that multiple antecedents can be operative for any one abandonment experience.     

‘Thank the ladies for the plates’: The incorporation of women into sport

The extent to which women service the leisure of others can be well illustrated by an analysis of sport. It is argued that gender relations in sport are mediated by male interests and serve to incorporate women for the institution's maintenance and reproduction. Through the ideology of motherhood and wifehood, the domestic labour done by women provides space for others to participate in sport and contributes directly to their sporting effectiveness. This is particularly so concerning women's immediate family members. Some parallels are made to Finch's (1983) work on women's incorporation into men's jobs. Outside the home environment, women's contribution to sport is subscribed not only by their domestic roles, but also by the definition of women as sexual and the vicariousness through which women's lives are frequently lived. The argument presented here is predominantly illustrated by a discussion of gender relations in New Zealand and Australia.