Serious Leisure and Recreation Specialization: An Uneasy Marriage

A case is made to wed research on serious leisure and recreation specialization. Before such a marriage can occur, the strengths and differences of the two perspectives must be examined. In this article, four important contributions of the recreation specialization are put forward that will further our understanding of serious leisure and intense forms of leisure. These are (1) there is diversity among participants involved in the same leisure activity, (2) we can quantify recreation specialization and serious leisure, (3) there are gradations of seriousness and specialization, and (4) there are practical applications of understanding that participants vary along a specialization continuum.     

Exploring Progression along the Recreation Specialization Continuum Using a Latent Growth Approach

In recreation specialization the idea of progression largely has been relegated to an assumption. Fundamental questions about how leisure participants enter and progress through social subworlds remain. We examined panel data over a six-year period to look for evidence of progression among Texas anglers. Similar to previous studies, we were unable to detect forward movement along the specialization continuum. Results revealed strong individual differences in each subdimension of the developmental process. Our study adds to this literature by treating specialization in terms of its underlying subdimensions and by demonstrating latent growth modeling as a viable alternative to repeated measure analyses.     

Commitment and leisure behavior: A theoretical perspective

Abstract

The concept of commitment has been indirectly linked to a variety of topical areas in leisure research. The purpose of this paper is to identify and critique links between commitment and leisure behavior and to identify and discuss the attributes of committed behavior. The contribution of integrating the concept of commitment into research regarding conflict, substitution, recreation specialization, and leisure social worlds is identified and discussed. Tentative propositions linking commitment to leisure behavior are identified. Recommendations are made for the future operationalization of commitment, and its potential contribution to integrating leisure is discussed.     

Serious leisure profiles and well-being of older Korean adults

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between different levels of serious leisure qualities and the happiness, health perceptions, and life satisfaction of older Korean adults who are members of community-based, sports clubs. A cluster analysis was used in order to examine patterns of serious leisure qualities (e.g. perseverance, significant effort, career development, identification and unique ethos). The core devotees who identified higher levels of serious leisure qualities reported experiencing higher levels of happiness, health perceptions, and life satisfaction when compared to the moderate devotees. The results of this study suggest that serious leisure serves as a catalyst for health and well-being which can, in turn, contribute to successful ageing.     

Serious leisure and depression in older adults: a study of pickleball players

Depression rates among older adults have been increasing. Moreover, older adults experiencing depression also have to contend with increased healthcare costs. Depression is commonly regarded as an indicator of well-being, and a number of studies have examined the protective factors related to depression in older adults. While the literature has shown that engaging in serious leisure is associated with well-being of older adults, the relationship between depression and serious leisure has not been examined. This study explores the relationship between depression, serious leisure, optimism, and social integration. A total of 153 older adults competing in pickleball tournaments participated in this study. The results revealed that serious leisure and depression were inversely related, which implies that commitment to serious leisure is associated with lower levels of depression in older adults. Further analysis correlating the qualities of serious leisure with depression revealed that career progression and career contingencies were associated with depression. Given the importance of career development among most pickleball participants, we suggest that the unique contribution of career progress and career contingencies on depression is plausible. This study builds on previous research in this field and suggests that serious leisure is important for the well-being of older adults.     

Leisure in Living Local through Food and Farming

This article reflects on aligning leisure research with the local foods movement while placing the local foods movement into the larger framework of sustainability and the fields of leisure and recreation. The local foods movement has persisted during difficult economic times; growth in local foods venues and young people endeavoring to establish small-scale sustainable farms continues to flourish. Given the history of leisure research and its continued success alleviating participation barriers and constraints, the need for leisure researchers to focus on local food systems is imperative and timely. This essay highlights the notion of leisure in living through local foods and the serious leisure aspects of small-scale sustainable agriculture. This article also encourages leisure researchers to explore and assess the relationships between the local foods movement and small-scale farming as embedded in the larger framework of sustainability.     

Meanings of recreation and leisure among adolescents

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the validity of popular definitions of recreation and leisure. High school students volunteered to participate in the study. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four possible stimulus word by response method groups. Subjects responded to either ‘recreation’ or ‘leisure’ using a production method or a sit and think method. Findings revealed that subjects defined ‘leisure’ as pleasure (and related terms) and specific passive activities. Like ‘leisure’, ‘recreation’ was defined by pleasure (and related terms), but the specific terms used to define ‘recreation’ were often active sports.     

Couple involvement in serious leisure: examining participation in dog agility

In this paper serious leisure is explored through the experiences of couple involved in dog agility. Modified auto-ethnography and narrative inquiry were used to gather data from 25 couples where both partners compete in dog agility and from 25 couples where one person competes and the other attends the competitions as a support spouse. Stebbins’ qualities of a serious leisure enthusiast are supported and refuted relative to couples’ leisure. The data recognised that while participation as a couple was somewhat important, most of the attention focused on interaction(s) and support of the/their dog(s). The data identified both positive and negative aspects of shared serious leisure, including sacrifices made to pursue the sport, the impact of spousal support and lack of support, and the intense bonding of people and their pets.     

The ethics of play,leisure, and recreation in the twentieth century, 1900–1983

Abstract

The association between play, leisure, recreation, value, and free choice leads to the problem of ethics. The purpose of this study was to describe the absolute ultimate end (the highest good) and its relation to play, leisure, and recreation in the twentieth century. This problem was approached by perusing literature from the period 1900 through 1983. Writers were organized by category and period, accompanied by explanation of how play, leisure, and recreation were related to the highest good. Eighty writers considered the question of the absolute ultimate end. Nine categories were discerned, dominated by divine ends and happiness. Play, leisure, and recreation were variously connected with the ultimate ends as both ends and means. Additionally, the practical implications of ethics are discussed using several examples. A partnership between science and philosophy is recommended for further study of ethics. Philosophy of leisure, however, must be revived for this alliance to     

The lived experience of London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games volunteers: a serious leisure perspective

Along with other sporting mega-events, the Olympic Games, in all its versions, makes extensive use of volunteers. The 70,000 London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic volunteers, for example, played a vital role in the delivery of the event. Stebbins’ theoretical perspective of serious leisure includes consideration of volunteering and there are calls for its further empirical evaluation. This study, therefore, uses a qualitative study of the lived experience of London 2012 volunteers to test the relevance of the serious leisure framework to Olympic volunteering. The data are drawn from the reflective diaries of 20 participants who volunteered in a variety of roles during London 2012. It is concluded that all of the qualities of serious leisure are identifiable to various extents within the experiences of the London 2012 volunteers. This finding will help Olympic and other sporting mega-event managers to understand and improve the experiences of their volunteers. Recommendations are also made, in the light of the findings, for the further refinement of the serious leisure perspective. Particular attention is paid to highlighting how the findings might contribute to recent debates around whether sporting mega-event volunteering is best explained by the serious leisure quality of career volunteering, or by the serious leisure associated concept of project-based leisure, or alternatively by the competing term of episodic volunteering.     

Serious Leisure as an Avenue for Nurturing Community

Using a communitarian framework to explore relationships between individuals and community, survey research was used to examine relationships among volunteers’ personal value orientations of individualism and collectivism, experiences of volunteering as serious leisure, and perceptions of sense of community and social cohesion. Based on survey responses from 300 current volunteers at ten voluntary organizations, findings linked collectivism and individualism to serious leisure, which in turn strongly associated with sense of community and social cohesion. In these empirical findings, serious leisure emerged as a pathway for nurturing community.     

Publishing in the primary leisure journals: Insight into the structure and boundaries of our research

Abstract

This study is a systematic empirical analysis of the structure and boundaries of leisure research as reflected by 2,628 citations used in six volumes of Journal of Leisure Research and Leisure Sciences. Four indicators were used to describe the structure of leisure research: the contributions from other fields, the type of citations used, the number of leisure sub‐topical areas, and the age of the citations. Leisure research has extensive ties with at least six fields and intensive attachments to three fields. As a result, citations are diversified by field and by many leisure research specialty areas. Journals and books constitute the majority of citation types, and the accumulation of recreation/leisure literature has shown substantial growth since the late 1950s. The proportion of sources originating in the recreation and parks field is growing but is still at relatively low levels in comparison with other fields of inquiry.     

Family Leisure and Leisure Service Provision: Making the Case for Including Perspectives from Practice

ABSTRACT

Research over the last 20 years has contributed to the conceptualization and theorizing about family leisure. Missing from this body of knowledge has been research that focuses on the provision of family leisure programs and services that includes the perspectives of practitioners. Also missing from this research are the perspectives of those who engage in programs and services that have been designed for or offered to families. The first purpose of this article is to, through a discussion of the literature, demonstrate the potential value of engaging recreation and leisure agencies in research that advances knowledge about how family leisure is practiced in program and service contexts. The second purpose is to identify potential areas of inquiry that not only will contribute to advancing theory about family leisure but also support practice in delivering recreation and leisure programs and services for families.     

Becoming a belly dancer: gender,the life course and the beginnings of a serious leisure career

Serious leisure careers have a beginning, middle and end, yet few studies examine the beginning stage of leisure careers dominated by women. Drawing from interviews with male and female belly dancers in the USA, this study examines how people join serious leisure activities. Results show that both men and women were interested in dance, arts and history, had personal ties to belly dance, and wanted an enjoyable form of exercise to match their capabilities when they entered the world of belly dance. Unlike men, the women in this study also experienced major life transitions, such as diminishing familial responsibilities, job and school issues, moving and shifting relationships. These findings have implications for the gendered nature of serious leisure.     

Women,gender, leisure and place: towards a more ‘humanistic’ geography of women's leisure

A growing interest in the role of place in social processes has led to a recognition of the need to incorporate these ideas into the study of leisure and recreation. A critique of the traditional geographical approach to the study of leisure and recreation is followed by a brief review of the geography of gender and humanistic geography literature, indicating the possible contribution that some of the perspectives contained in this material can make to our understanding of women's leisure. In conclusion, it is argued that it is only through developing a deeper understanding of the way individuals and groups perceive different places, with their complex mosaics of gender and class relations, that a more complete, more contextual representation of women's leisure can emerge.     

Applying the Theory of Recreation Specialization to Better Understand Recreationists’ Preferences for Value-Added Service Development

This study examined recreationists’ preferences for the development of value-added recreation products and services using the theory of recreation specialization. A choice modeling method was employed to evaluate the value-added products and services in the for-hire fishing boat industry. Data were collected through a mail survey using Florida saltwater fishing license holders as a study population. Study results indicated that anglers were interested in experiencing new attributes of boat fishing trips besides traditionally fishing-oriented aspects. Further, the results also provided evidence that heterogeneous preferences existed by level of recreation specialization. Study findings generally supported the proposition that as anglers become more involved in fishing activity, their focus expands from activity-specific to activity-general fishing experiences; thus, high specialization anglers likely attach high importance to nonfishing attributes. Managerial implications pertaining to the development of effective recreation products and services are discussed.     

Theory in Recreation and Leisure Research: Reflections from the Editors

The evolution and importance of theory in leisure research have been recognized as essential to broaden understandings of leisure. The purpose of this reflective piece is to describe and critique the contributions that theory has made by examining the research documented in American leisure and recreation research journals during the 1990s and projecting those contributions toward the future. From our perspective as individuals associated with Leisure Sciences during the past two years, we provide a review of literature regarding the meanings of theory, note summaries of other studies in our field that have empirically examined theory, compare leisure research from the 1980s to the 1990s, and offer suggestions regarding trends in the future theoretical development of the parks, recreation, leisure, sport, and tourism fields. We also advocate “post approaches” such as postmodernism that may be essential in the next stage of theory evolution.     

The Temporal Phases of Leisure Experience: Expectation,Experience and Reflection of Leisure Participation

While there have been studies whereby the methodology relied on evaluations of pre-, during, and postparticipation experiences, it is far more common that research on leisure does not consider the temporal phases of a leisure experience. Further, many of the studies that have attempted to encompass the multiple temporal phases of experiential leisure involvement have not focused on participants who had established significant leisure careers or long histories of recreation participation in a singular activity. The purpose of this study was to explore the temporal phases of a leisure experience in the context of individuals' in situ attendance at a niche music performance. These phases consisted of participants' expectations before the event, the actual experience during the event, and the memory of that experience after its completion. Because participants wanted to feel in control of their lives, personal reassessments and the prioritization of positive events sought to emphasize the value of their agency. Researchers found that the reconstruction of memory drives desire for future participation as well as the associative expectations of what is to come.     

The immediate and subsequent effects of public health interventions for COVID-19 on the leisure and recreation industry

Public health interventions to combat COVID-19 can be viewed as an exogenous shock to the economy, especially for industries—such as leisure, recreation, and tourism—that rely heavily on human mobility. This study investigates whether and how exactly the economic impact of government public health policies varies over time. Focusing on the leisure and recreation industry, we use data for 131 countries/regions from February to May 2020 and employ generalized difference-in-differences models to investigate the short- and longer-term effects of public health policies. We find that stricter policies lead, on average, to an immediate 9.2–percentage-point drop in leisure and recreation participation. Even so, that industry recovers in about seven weeks after a COVID-19 outbreak in countries/regions that undertake active interventions. After thirteen weeks, leisure and recreation involvement recovers to 70% of pre-pandemic levels in a place that actively intervened but stagnates at about 40% in one that did not.