Yoshi Iwasaki

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.

Longitudinal analyses of the relationships among life transitions, chronic health problems, leisure, and psychological well‐being

In an attempt to integrate research on stress coping and research on psychological well‐being, we conducted longitudinal and disaggregated analyses of the relationships between leisure‐related constructs (i.e., level of leisure participation and the importance of leisure goals) and psychological well‐being for groups of individuals classified by gender and life events (i.e., chronic health problems and life transitions). Using two surveys on well‐being in Canada, we found that (a) overall, the participants showed relative stability or little change in psychological well‐being and leisure‐related variables; (b) some life events (e.g., becoming widowed for women and becoming unemployed for men) had more detrimental impacts on psychological well‐being than did others; (c) increased importance placed on leisure goals enhanced positive psychological well‐being for women who had become homemakers after having been employed, men who had experienced recent or long‐term illnesses, and men who had married; (d) incr...

The relationships between stress, health, and physically active leisure as a function of life‐cycle

This article examines relationships between stress, health, and participation in physically active leisure using data collected as part of the 1985 and 1990 U.S. National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). In particular, the article analyzes: (a) the effects of life‐cycle progression (controlled for gender) on subjectively perceived stress and self‐reported health; (b) the role of physically active leisure in enhancing health or buffering adverse health outcomes of stress; and (c) the effects of selected social‐economic factors, such as education and income, on the relationships between life‐cycle, stress, health, and physically active leisure. According to our analyses: (1) stress is unevenly distributed across the life span; (2) stress‐reducing effects of physically active leisure are present among retired older people more so than in the middle‐aged life‐cycle groups; and (3) direct health‐enhancing effects of participation in physically active leisure are more evident than the buffering effects of leisu...

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 Lins (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.

Gender-Based Analyses of Coping with Stress among Professional Managers: Leisure Coping and Non-Leisure Coping

Despite the growth of leisure and stress-coping research, gender-based analyses of leisure stress-coping have been performed rarely. The purpose of the present study was to examine how female and male managers cope with stress, using data collected from a series of focus groups. The focus group questions were designed to elicit information about the range of methods these individuals used to cope with stress and the contribution of leisure (generally and leisure travel in particular) to this process. The results demonstrated that female and male managers rely on a broad range of coping methods—including leisure specific strategies—as life-survival techniques. Although sharing a number of common stress-coping themes (e.g., socialization through leisure, deflecting stress-inducing thoughts through leisure, feeling rejuvenated through leisure, leisure as personal space, humour/laughter, spiritual coping, altruistic leisure coping, leisure travel), there also were themes unique to female managers (e.g., preventative role of leisure/exercise) and male managers (e.g., playing hard in leisure). These unique gender-based variations in stress-coping appear to be linked to differences in life circumstances and stressors women and men face in work, domestic, and leisure domains, and the gendered nature of womens and mens life experiences.

A Short-Term Longitudinal Analysis of Leisure Coping Used by Police and Emergency Response Service Workers

Despite the growth of leisure coping research, an important yet neglected idea is whether or not and how leisure contributes to coping with stress above and beyond the effects of general coping; that is, coping not directly associated with leisure (e.g., problem-focused coping). The purpose of the present study was to examine the contributions of leisure to coping with stress and maintaining good physical and mental health among workers of police and emergency response services when the effects of general coping were taken into account. According to hierarchical regression analyses, leisure coping showed a positive relationship with both short-term and longer-term outcomes of stress and coping above and beyond the contributions of general coping. It is worth emphasizing that mental health was significantly predicted only by leisure coping, not by general coping. The use of leisure for enhancing mood and facilitating palliative coping was found to significantly predict coping effectiveness, satisfaction with coping, and stress reduction. The facilitation of palliative coping and companionship through leisure was related to good mental health, whereas high leisure empowerment was associated with better physical health. Implications of the findings and future research perspectives on leisure coping are discussed.

An examination of stress among Aboriginal women and men with diabetes in Manitoba, Canada

In this study, a series of focus groups were conducted to gain an understanding of the nature of stress among Canadian Aboriginal women and men living with diabetes. Specifically, attention was given to the meanings Aboriginal peoples with diabetes attach to their lived experiences of stress, and the major sources or causes of stress in their lives. The key common themes identified are concerned not only with health‐related issues (i.e. physical stress of managing diabetes, psychological stress of managing diabetes, fears about the future, suffering the complications of diabetes, and financial aspects of living with diabetes), but also with marginal economic conditions (e.g. poverty, unemployment); trauma and violence (e.g. abuse, murder, suicide, missing children, bereavement); and cultural, historical, and political aspects linked to the identity of being Aboriginal (e.g. ‘deep‐rooted racism’, identity problems). These themes are, in fact, acknowledged not as mutually exclusive, but as intertwined. Furthermore, the findings suggest that it is important to give attention to diversity in the Aboriginal population. Specifically, Métis‐specific stressors, as well as female‐specific stressors, were identified. An understanding of stress experienced by Aboriginal women and men with diabetes has important implications for policy and programme planning to help eliminate or reduce at‐risk stress factors, prevent stress‐related illnesses, and enhance their health and life quality.

Roles of Leisure in Coping with Stress Among University Students: A Repeated-Assessment Field Study

This article reports findings of a study to examine the effects of leisure coping on various stress coping outcomes including: immediate outcomes (perceived coping effectiveness, perceived satisfaction with coping outcomes, and perceived stress reduction) and distal or long-term outcomes (physical and mental ill-health and psychological well-being), above and beyond the contributions of general coping - coping not directly associated with leisure. A repeated-assessment field design was used to examine ways in which university students cope with stressors in their daily lives. The study found that leisure coping beliefs (leisure-generated dispositional coping resources) significantly predicted lower levels of mental and physical ill-health and greater levels of psychological well-being above and beyond the effects of general coping. Also, the use of leisure coping strategies (situation-specific stress coping strategies through leisure) was significantly associated with higher levels of perceived coping effectiveness and stress reduction when the effects of general coping were taken into account. Significant contributions of specific leisure coping dimensions were found as well.

Situational and Personality Influences on Intrinsically Motivated Leisure Behavior: Interaction Effects and Cognitive Processes

Intrinsic motivation in leisure activities has typically been viewed as being determined by factors in the social situation (e.g., extrinsic rewards, surveillance). However, it has been proposed that individual differences exist that make some people more likely to experience intrinsic motivation in their leisure regardless of the situation. In a laboratory experiment, 105 undergraduate students engaged in what was described as a leisure activity (puzzle game) under conditions that have been shown to foster (autonomy-supportive) or inhibit (controlling) intrinsic motivation. Prior to the experiment, Weissingers intrinsic leisure motivation (ILM) personality scale was administered. With the use of hierarchical regression procedures, the ILM orientation was found to interact with the type of situation, and a facilitation - suppression hypothesis was supported, suggesting that both person and situation factors need to be taken into account to understand a persons intrinsic motivation in a leisure activity....

The effects of leisure beliefs and coping strategies on stress‐health relationships: A field study

Abstract The influence of leisure on the relationship between the stress that people experience and their health and well‐being was examined using a repeated assessment design. Specifically studied was the role of the relatively enduring beliefs people have about the ways in which their leisure helps them deal with stress (i.e., leisure coping beliefs), and the situation‐specific behavioural and cognitive strategies provided by their leisure choices (i.e., leisure coping strategies). Eighty‐five volunteer undergraduate students completed a variety of scales twice a week for two weeks (340 episodes in total). Several models of leisure and health were tested with structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression procedures, and stronger evidence was found for the direct effects, indirect effects and process models than for the buffer models. Beliefs that leisure contributes to empowerment (leisure empowerment) and friendships (leisure friendship) directly contributed to the reduction of mental illne...