A Theoretical Model to Measure the Appraisal and Coping Response to Hassles in Outdoor Recreation Settings

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess measurement models for the stress/coping process experienced in outdoor recreation settings. Three separate measurement models were evaluated: (1) experience use history and social support, (2) secondary appraisal, and (3) ways of coping scales. This research documents the development of models that can be improved upon by future researchers and promote stress/coping theory building in outdoor recreation research. Social support performed well, and experience use history was reduced to a single dimension measure. The secondary appraisal factor was problematic; the four variables may not be functioning as a unidimensional measure. A model consisting of two, second-order factors and four error covariances was identified for the ways of coping scales. An acceptable fit was achieved for all three models, statistical and theoretical justification is provided for modifications made to the models, and explanations of problems are offered.     

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.     

Coping with Chronic Stress: Leisure and Women Who Are Homeless

The present study explored if women who are homeless face chronic stress and how the women cope with living in a shelter, which could be chronic stress or part of ongoing chronic stress. The study demonstrated that women who are homeless experienced chronic stress. When the women discussed how they coped with stress, various strategies were identified with a primary strategy of being with others. The women also noted that they engaged in diversionary leisure activities to help them relax. Although diversionary activities helped the women relax, they were not identified when the women discussed coping. It could be that diversionary activities have become so much a part of the women's lifestyles that these activities unconsciously assist with coping. Thus, diversionary leisure activities are critical to coping with chronic stress, but not recognized as coping strategies. The present study suggests that researchers working in the area of stress and coping must be cognizant of the differences between event stress, traumatic stress, and chronic stress, and the various conscious and unconscious ways that people cope with chronic stress.     

Leisure as a Coping Resource: Variations in Coping with Traumatic Injury and Illness

The influence of leisure in coping with negative life events likely derives from its powers to distract, to generate optimism about the future, and to preserve a sense of self in the face of trauma (Kleiber, Hutchinson, & Williams, 2002). While there is recent evidence of leisure's role in coping with daily hassles and normative life stressors (e.g., Iwasaki & Mannell, 2000), the nature and extent of leisure's utility in coping with a life-altering event, such as a traumatic injury, is not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to examine how individuals used leisure in coping with a traumatic injury or the onset of a chronic illness. Qualitative data from two studies involving people with either a spinal cord injury or chronic illness were used for this analysis. Findings support suggestions from earlier research: leisure served to buffer effects of immediate life circumstances and it sustained their coping efforts in various ways. The authors end by discussing the data in light of recent theoretical propositions about the role of positive affect and meaning in coping.     

Leisure,Stress, and Coping: The Sport Participation of Collegiate Student-Athletes

Research has indicated that there is a relationship between stress and participation in leisure (Caltabiano, 1995; Chalip, Thomas, & Voyle, 1992; Reich & Zautra, 1981; Strauss-Blasche, Ekmekcioglu, & Marktl, 2002; Warner-Smith & Brown, 2002; Wheeler & Frank, 1988). It has been suggested that leisure buffers or mediates stress, thereby enhancing individual health and well-being, because of the self-determination and social support that are experienced in leisure (Coleman & Iso-Ahola, 1993). However, a number of issues have been raised by the recent research, including whether or not the leisure, stress, and health relationship varies by type of leisure activity (Iwasaki & Mannell, 2000), exactly why and how leisure (or any given leisure activity) interacts with stress (Iwasaki & Mannell, 1999-2000; Kleiber, Hutchinson, & Williams, 2002), and the possibility that leisure itself could be a stressor (Iwasaki & Mannell, 2000; Iwasaki & Smale, 1998). The interpretive study reported here examined a particular leisure activity--collegiate sport--and individuals' experiences of stress because of their participation in this type of leisure. Results indicate that collegiate sport is perceived to be both a buffer and experience of stress. Results also reveal that race and gender are important in shaping collegiate athletes' experiences of stress. Support was found for the ideas that (a) stress is a transactional process (Lazarus, 1998) and (b) research approaches that allow the dynamic experience and contextualization of the personal meanings of stress and leisure to emerge are needed (Iwasaki & Smale, 1998; Kleiber et al., 2002).     

Coping with the risk of internet connectivity in hotels: Perspectives from American consumers traveling internationally

A reliable and secure Internet connection may represent the only viable solution for international travelers to complete communication tasks in hotels (e.g., talking with loved ones at home, engaging in work-related activities, accessing restricted resources). Yet, the current cyber-environment accessible by connecting a mobile device to the Internet is characterized by a certain degree of risk, to which consumers generally respond via coping mechanisms. Based on data from a sample of 1017 American consumers who traveled internationally, this study validated a conceptual model that explains consumers' intentions to cope with the risk of connecting their mobile devices to hotel networks in order to access the Internet. The study recognizes consumers’ risk-benefit calculative mechanisms that influence coping intentions, and the roles of knowledge, habit, and convenience orientation in influencing the benefit-risk dyad.