The Contribution of Active and Passive Leisure to Children's Well-being (original) (raw)
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Aspects of Leisure on Adolescent’s Well-Being in Two Countries
Child Indicators Research, 2013
Leisure is among the perspectives of the scientific investigation on well-being in adolescence. This study verifies the relationships among motivation, organization and satisfaction with the activities of leisure and well-being in adolescents of Spain and Brazil. Participants were adolescents aged from 12 to 16 from the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, Spain (n=1,280) and from the Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil (n=1,588). From the total sample (n=2,868), 59.8 % are girls. Data collection was made through questionnaires administration in public and private schools and followed all ethics procedure of each country. Personal well-being was accessed using the Personal Well-being Index (PWI) and leisure aspects were accessed using different measures concerning the preferences, the motivation and the structure of adolescents' leisure. Preliminary analysis verified the adequacy of the instruments' factor structures (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis). After that, it was proposed a model with the relations of the variables using Structural Equation Modeling technique, and a final model achieved good fit indexes (χ2(190)=715.2, CFI=.965, RMSEA (CI)=.03 [.02-.03]). In this model, the aspects that are related to adolescents' well-being are: intrinsic motivation, satisfaction with ludic activities and those related to interpersonal relationship and also the leisure structure. Multigroup analysis showed that the model fits well for both countries (χ2(409)=1052.9, CFI=.957, RMSEA (CI)=.02 [.02-.03]). These findings point to the importance of interventions that take into account these aspects of adolescents' leisure, considering its influence on their well-being.
Organized Leisure Activities and Well-being: Children Getting it Just Right!
This article explores how the levels of participation in organized leisure activities relate to children's psychosocial well-being. Data collection occurred in a school district with 7 schools in the northern part of Sweden. Children ages 12-14 were invited to complete the World Health Organizations' Health Behavior in School-Aged Children self-completion questionnaire (n=391). An independent variable was constructed to measure children's participation in organized leisure activities at three levels: low level (LL), medium level (ML), and high level (HL). Ten out of 13 correlations were significant at the p< .05 level). Results indicated that the ML group scored high on life satisfaction, had a lot of friends, and felt less pressure in school than the other two groups, while the LL and HL groups had fewer friends and felt more pressure. The conclusion drawn is that a medium level of participation in organized leisure activities was most favorable for children's he...
Leisure activities and adolescent psychological well-being
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We examined the validity of the reported link between well-being and leisure participation in adolescents. Nine hundred and forty-seven, Year 10 students from 19 schools in Adelaide, South Australia, were recruited. Participants completed a questionnaire concerning participation in social, non-social and unstructured leisure activities as well as measures of personality. As expected, personality variables were better predictors of adolescent well-being than spare-time use, although engagement in less structured leisure activities was associated with poorer psychological well-being and substance use. These findings support previous personality research which suggests that spare-time use may be related to well-being only insofar as individuals who are psychologically healthy tend to be involved in structured leisure activities. The implications of these findings for school policy and future research concerning the links between leisure involvement and psychological well-being are discussed.
Understanding the Role of Leisure in Portuguese Adolescent Wellbeing Experience
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Because adolescent leisure is important to development, we consider its role in Portuguese adolescent wellbeing. Data for this study came from 303 adolescents in grades 10, 11, and 12 living in a large urban area in northern Portugal. Self-report data were collected in classrooms using a cross-sectional design in two urban high schools. Hypothesis testing used seven hierarchical linear regression models. Except for subjective happiness, experiencing boredom in leisure and/or the ability to make a boring situation more interesting were strong predictors of each wellbeing experience in the predicted direction. Perceptions of healthy leisure were associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, subjective happiness, self-esteem, and positive affect. Active leisure was important to adolescent self efficacy and positive affect. Those who could restructure a boring situation into something more interesting exhibited higher levels of wellbeing experience. Adolescents who perceived paren...
Effect of Physical-Sports Leisure Activities on Young People’s Psychological Wellbeing
Frontiers in Psychology, 2020
This article examines the impact of physical-sports activities on the psychological wellbeing of Spanish and Colombian young people. Scientific literature highlights that young people devote leisure time to sports for the purpose of enjoyment, and to maintain good health and body image. In addition, it provides the opportunity to socialize, and come into contact and connect with people who have shared interests. It is also an ideal resource for learning and developing social skills to ensure inclusion and the appropriate strategies for emotional management. Similarly, it favors the learning of values that promote the assumption of responsibilities, decision-making capacity, tolerance to frustration, and the development of resilience. This study considers the inherent benefits of physical-sports activities in order to analyze the impact on young people's assessment of their own psychological wellbeing. To this effect, a quantitative ex post facto study was designed, and Ryff's Model of Psychological Wellbeing was used with 1,148 young people from Spain and Colombia aged 16-21. The young people were asked whether or not they performed any type of physical-sports activity in their leisure time and the type of activity performed. The results show that young people who perform such activities have higher overall levels of psychological wellbeing. In turn, they emphasize that the perform of physical-sports activities has a positive impact on three of the dimensions of psychological wellbeing: self-acceptance, positive relations with others, and purpose in life. In addition, significant differences in young people's psychological wellbeing were found depending on whether they perform individual, team or other physical-sports activities. These results provide a basis for the proposal and design of interventions with young people based on sports and leisure activities as socio-educational strategies.
European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education
Leisure time activities in childhood may have a crucial role in the development of subjective well-being. Nevertheless, more research is needed with cross-national samples concerning the differential effects of lifestyles on life satisfaction. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to analyze the associations between the frequency of playing sports/exercise or playing electronic games on life satisfaction in a sample of 12-year-old children from nine countries from the European Union. The data used in this publication come from the third wave of the Children’s Worlds project, an international survey of children’s lives and well-being whose administration started in 2017. The sample was composed of 10,626 children (50.9% boys) from Estonia, Belgium, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Romania, and Spain. They completed the Student Life Satisfaction Scale and answered two questions to assess the frequency of playing sport or exercise, and the frequency of playing electronic gam...
Leisure activities are characterized as an important source of happiness and flourishing, which reveal the possibility of personal choice (voluntary), and allows a wide range of activities. The experience of such activities can provide great personal satisfaction. Research indicates that recreational activities promote joy, which, according to Fredrickson (2000), expands the repertoire of individual's momentary thoughts and actions. In addition, leisure may favor both the experience of positive emotions as the positive relationship, both elements of the well-being according to the theory of PERMA (Seligman, 2011).This study aims to investigate leisure habits perceived by college students. Participated in this study 92 students (72.5% female) with a mean of 22.4 years (SD = 3.9). This is a random sample who responded to an online questionaire using the snowball technique, available for 60 days. This form contained the scale of Leisure Habits activities), with items distributed in three dimensions: (1) Hedonism (α = 0.80), which emphasizes individual and immediate pleasure; (2) Recreational (α = 0.65), which relates to the use of games, toys, and entertainment in general; and (3) Instructional (α = 0.63), which emphasizes the growth experience developed by individuals, making them capable of certain leisure choices differentiated and unique to them.The results are lower than expected compared to other studies with young people. The highest average was the Hedonist dimension (M = 2.6, SD = 1.1), followed by Instructional (M = 1.6, SD = 0.96) and Playful dimensions (M = 0.8, SD = 0.8). The activity of talking to friends and tell jokes (M = 2.6, SD = 1.6) was the one with the highest score, and sports practicing got the worst score (M = 1.2, SD = 1 5).Thus,.studies on leisure can contribute to the investigation of psychological and social aspects related to flowering and personal development, focusing on strengthening the skills necessary for a positive development. In cities, leisure can be done in various places, such as parks, squares, beaches, community centers, events center etc. However, the lack of interest and action of public policies to build or maintain good public spaces, makes it common to relate leisure activities to moments in which money is needed to have fun. Capitalism uses the media to associate leisure practices with consumption of goods and services. From the 1990s onwards, there is a great growth of researches that investigate leisure, especially investigating the use of free time and how the general population benefits from their leisure time. Previously, the predominance of research on this topic was concentrated in the area of Sociology and Economics. In a recent analysis of national scientific production,
Frontiers in psychology, 2018
Scientific research on leisure has proven its contribution to physical and psychological well-being in adolescents, especially regarding the practice of structured leisure activities. Leisure is considered a privileged context for adolescents to develop and learn several developmental skills, such as emotion regulation (ER). Nevertheless, the relationship between leisure and ER has been under-researched in adolescents. The present cross-sectional study aims to test a conceptual model concerning the relationship of leisure attitudes and leisure satisfaction with adolescents' positive functioning and to explore the role of emotion self-regulation strategies in that relationship. Thus, we hypothesized that leisure attitudes would be a predictor of leisure satisfaction; leisure satisfaction would be a predictor of positive functioning dimensions (self-esteem; satisfaction with life; psychological well-being); and the relationship between leisure satisfaction and positive functioning...
Leisure, recreation, and play from a developmental context
New Directions for Youth Development, 2011
Personally meaningful and positive leisure pursuits are powerful mechanisms for adolescent development. Elements and characteristics of leisure experiences contribute directly to the development of identity, autonomy, competence, initiative, civic duty, and social connections.
2013
We all know that psychological well-being is not possible without physical well-being, both aspects are interrelated. Recreational sport activity is crucial to health, fitness and well-being. It builds strength, maintains mobility, and challenges body and mind. Thus, the present study was designed to examine the role of recreational sport activities on the psychological well-being of children. The study was carried out with 200 children (100 government and 100 private schools) by using psychological well-being scale and an intervention program. With respect to assess the role of recreational sport activity on the psychological well-being, the sample was divided into two groups (control and experimental). Intervention program was designed to the experimental groups only. Result indicated that recreational sport activity has a facilitating role in promoting psychological well-being of children in both private and government schools.