Dissolution of Associational Life? Testing the Individualization and Informalization Hypotheses on Leisure Activities in The Netherlands Between 1975 and 2005

In this paper we examine whether individualization and informalization processes have occurred in the field of leisure in The Netherlands, by analyzing the social context of a wide range of activities between 1975 and 2005. We find that the choice of a particular leisure context is dependent on education, gender, year of birth, age and time pressure. We find evidence for informalization, but—contrary to popular belief—not for individualization. The informalization trend follows a pattern of cohort replacement, and is also caused by a rise in the average education level in the population. Our findings imply that research on civil society, community and social capital should not only be concerned with membership rates, but also with participation in alternative social contexts.     

How Chinese Elderly Spend Leisure Time

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Ageing, Leisure, and Social Connectedness: How could Leisure Help Reduce Social Isolation of Older People?

This study investigates the relation between leisure activities and the social status of the elderly based on a heterogeneous sample of the Dutch population. Close relationships are also analyzed to identify which people could serve as successful stimulators of leisure participation. The social profile confirms that older people have fewer social contacts and often feel lonely. This study shows that leisure activities explain a significant part of older people’s social connectedness. Voluntary work, cultural activities, holiday, sports, reading books, hobbies and shopping are found to be successful predictors for social connectedness of older people. Watching TV, listening to the radio, and spending time behind the computer (passive activities) were not associated with social connectedness. Friends correlate positively to participation in leisure activities. Partners play a role in participation in cultural activities and sports; parents play a role in participation in voluntary work and holidays; siblings play a role in voluntary work and sports; and children play a role in cultural activities, reading books, and shopping. Local communities can use these close relationships and develop special programs to increase social connectedness and hence improve quality of life for older adults.     

Leisure Inequality in the United States: 1965–2003

This article exploits the complex sequential structure of the diary data in the American Heritage Time Use Study (AHTUS) and constructs three classes of indicators that capture the quality of leisure (pure leisure, co-present leisure, and leisure fragmentation) to show that the relative growth in leisure time enjoyed by low-educated individuals documented in previous studies has been accompanied by a relative decrease in the quality of that leisure time. These results are not driven by any single leisure activity, such as time spent watching television. Our findings may offer a more comprehensive picture of inequality in the United States and provide a basis for weighing the relative decline in earnings and consumption for the less-educated against the simultaneous relative growth of leisure.     

Major Activities to Mark World Family Year

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Preparatory Activities for 1995 World Summit on Social Development

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Leisure Time in Modern Societies: A New Source of Boredom and Stress?

The increase in leisure time over the last century is well documented. We know much less, however, about the quality of the use of leisure time. Quite divergent predictions exist in this regard: Some authors have argued that the new, extensive free time will lead to new forms of time pressure and stress; others have foreseen an expansion of boredom. This is the first paper that systematically investigates the quality of leisure time in 36 countries around the world. It uses the 2007 ISSP-survey “Leisure Time and Sport”. We investigate stress and boredom during leisure time by making use of four general theories about international and intercultural differences. The theories relate to the level of socio-economic development, religious–cultural systems, types of welfare states, and to the emergence of specific “time regimes”. In addition, we control for the effect of relevant individual level variables. At the macro level, significant differences emerge concerning the level of development, the dominant religion, and the extent of welfare benefits. The most interesting finding, however, was that a typology of leisure time regimes is the most suited to explain the considerable differences between the 36 countries compared. Implications of this finding for time policy and further research are discussed in the concluding section.     

Marital Status and Mothers’ Time Use: Childcare,Housework, Leisure,and Sleep

Assumptions that single mothers are “time poor” compared with married mothers are ubiquitous. We tested theorized associations derived from the time poverty thesis and the gender perspective using the 2003–2012 American Time Use Surveys (ATUS). We found marital status differentiated housework, leisure, and sleep time, but did not influence the amount of time that mothers provided childcare. Net of the number of employment hours, married mothers did more housework and slept less than never-married and divorced mothers, counter to expectations of the time poverty thesis. Never-married and cohabiting mothers reported more total and more sedentary leisure time than married mothers. We assessed the influence of demographic differences among mothers to account for variation in their time use by marital status. Compositional differences explained more than two-thirds of the variance in sedentary leisure time between married and never-married mothers, but only one-third of the variance between married and cohabiting mothers. The larger unexplained gap in leisure quality between cohabiting and married mothers is consistent with the gender perspective.     

Characteristics of Activities That Affect the Development of Women’s Same-Sex Relationships

The author utilized semistructured interviews with 56 women to explore how a wide range of activities affected the development of the participants’ same-sex attractions and relationships. The researcher was able to identify and describe some aspects of the process by which eight characteristics of activities that are more or less present in various social contexts have the potential to impact whether these contexts are more or less conducive or hindering to the development of women’s same-sex attractions and relationships. Activities were more apt to nurture the development of the participants’ same-sex attractions and relationships when the activity (a) included lesbians, (b) was composed primarily of women, (c) affirmed women, (d) facilitated bonding, (e) featured a climate of acceptance of lesbians/gays/bisexuals, (f) did not feature a climate that emphasized heteronormativity, (g) was perceived as gender neutral, and (h) generated or drew participants who were similar to each other.     

Promoting Older Women's Health and Well-Being Through Social Leisure Environments: What We Have Learned from the Red Hat Society®

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to describe the ways that participation in a leisure organization contributed to the health and well-being of middle-aged and older women. We analyzed 1,693 members' responses to a query about meaningful experiences garnered through participation in the Red Hat Society®. Results suggested that older women's lives have been enriched and changed by their experiences, with the women in this study citing multiple psychosocial health benefits from their participation in the Red Hat Society®. Main themes encapsulating these health benefits were creating happy moments, responding to transitions and negative events, and enhancing the self. These findings are related to research on positive psychology, social support and coping, transformative leisure processes, and social identity formation. We conclude by providing suggestions for applying these findings to leisure and health promotion programming to enhance women's health and well-being in later life.     

Is it Pleasure or Health from Leisure that We Benefit from Most? An Analysis of Well-Being Alternatives and Implications for Policy

International policy now constantly advocates a need for populations to engage in more physical activity to promote health and to reduce society’s health care costs. Such policy has developed guidelines on recommended levels and intensity of physical activity and implicitly equates health with well-being. It is assumed that individual, and hence social welfare will be enhanced if the activity guidelines are met. This paper challenges that claim and raises questions for public policy priorities. Using an instrumental variable analysis to value the well-being from active leisure, it is shown that the well-being experienced from active leisure that is not of a recommended intensity to generate health benefits, perhaps due to its social, recreational or fun purpose, has a higher value of well-being than active leisure that does meet the guidelines. This suggests rethinking the motivation and foundation of existing policy and perhaps a realignment of priorities towards activity that has a greater contribution to social welfare through its intrinsic fun and possibly social interaction.     

Alegría! Flow in Leisure and Life Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Event Satisfaction Using Data from an Acrobatics Show

The aim of the current study was to examine the role of satisfaction-with-event as a mediator in the relations between flow and life satisfaction based on the bottom-up theory (Andrews and Withey in Social indicators of well-being: Americans’ perceptions of life quality. Plenum, New York, 1976; Lee et al. in J Macromarketing 22(2): 158–169, 2002). Four hundred and thirty-four participants with a mean age of 35.60 (SD = 11.76) were recruited from the audience of a “Cirque du Soleil” acrobatics show, performed in Taiwan in 2009. Participants completed the flow scale (Csikszentmihalyi in Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row, New York, 1990), a satisfaction-with-event scale (Lin and Hsu in Mark Rev 3(4): 497–528, 2008), and a satisfaction-with-life scale (Diener et al. in J Pers Assess 49:71–75, 1985) immediately after viewing the show. Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine our hypothesis that satisfaction-with-event levels would fully mediate the relationship between flow and overall life satisfaction. Results supported our prediction and are discussed in terms of bottom-up theory. Implications of the study are also provided for the leisure managers.     

“Life Without Line Dancing and the Other Activities Would be Too Dreadful to Imagine”: An Increase in Social Activity for Older Women

ABSTRACT

The literature on aging is replete with the positive effects of physical exercise on the well-being of older adults. Some Glass, T. A., de Leon, C. M., Marottoli, R. A. and Berkman, L. F. 1999. Population based study of social and productive activities as predictors of survival among elderly Americans. British Medical Journal, 319: 478–483. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] suggest, however, that the potential impact of social activities has not received adequate attention, and others Lennartsson, C. and Silverstein, M. 2001. Does engagement with life enhance survival of elderly people in Sweden? The role of social and leisure activities. The Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 56B(6): S335–S342. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar] note the importance of distinguishing between the physical and nonphysical impact of these activities. This study investigated whether line dancing, a physical activity, led to an increase in social activity. Thirty women over the age of 60 were interviewed to discover how line dancing affected them. Content analysis of the interviews helped identify various themes indicating that line dancing enabled these women to expand their repertoire of social activity, leading to positive reinforcements such as further community involvement, charitable work, inclusion in national sports events, self-expression, and personal development. The impact of line dancing plainly goes beyond the perceived physical benefits.