Real-Time Associations Between Engaging in Leisure and Daily Health and Well-Being
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Real-Time Associations Between Engaging in Leisure and Daily Health and Well-Being Matthew J. Zawadzki, Ph.D. & Joshua M. Smyth, Ph.D. & Heather J. Costigan, B.S.
# The Society of Behavioral Medicine 2015
Abstract Background Engagement in leisure has a wide range of beneficial health effects. Yet, this evidence is derived from between-person methods that do not examine the momentary within-person processes theorized to explain leisure’s benefits. Purpose This study examined momentary relationships between leisure and health and well-being in daily life. Methods A community sample (n=115) completed ecological momentary assessments six times a day for three consecutive days. At each measurement, participants indicated if they were engaging in leisure and reported on their mood, interest/boredom, and stress levels. Next, participants collected a saliva sample for cortisol analyses. Heart rate was assessed throughout the study. Results Multilevel models revealed that participants had more positive and less negative mood, more interest, less stress, and lower heart rate when engaging in leisure than when not. Conclusions Results suggest multiple mechanisms explaining leisure’s effectiveness, which can inform leisurebased interventions to improve health and well-being.
Keywords Leisure . Mood . Stress . Ecological momentary assessment . Multilevel modeling
Leisure activities are generally self-selected, self-rewarding behavioral pursuits that take place during non-work time [1, 2]. Studies have shown a wide range of positive effects of leisure—more leisure engagement is associated with greater positive mood, well-being, or life satisfaction [3–5], less negative or depressed mood [3, 6, 7], less stress and/or more stress-coping [8–10], and better cardiovascular health [11–13]. Although these results demonstrate a consistent positive relationship, much less is known as to how—or through what process—leisure exerts these effects. This lack of knowledge is due in part to leisure being primarily tested with between-person methods (i.e., those engaging in leisure are those that show a particular outcome), which are unable to assess the in-the-moment responses that engaging in leisure are proposed to have on health (i.e., the within-person processes linking leisure engagement to positive outcomes). Testing whether leisure has momentary or within-person effects is a necessary step toward understanding the mechanisms for leisure’s benefits and ultimately to informing interventions employing leisure to improve health. To this end, this study examines the within-person effect of engaging in leisure on positive and negative mood, interest/boredom, stress (self-reported and cortisol), and heart rate.
Contrasting Between- and Within-Person Effects
M. J. Zawadzki (*) Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. M. Smyth (*) : H. J. Costigan Department of Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16802, USA e-mail: jms11
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