Leisure and Health: The Role of Social Support and Self-Determination

This paper reviews the literature on the social context of health to identify the ways in which leisure might contribute to health. Considerable evidence has demonstrated that stressful life circumstances induce physical and mental illnesses. However, this impact has been shown to be moderated by various coping processes including leisure participation. The paper argues that leisure participation facilitates coping with life stress in two ways. First, one of the most effective sources of relief from life stress has been shown to be the perception that social support is available. Leisure has been demonstrated to be highly social in nature and to facilitate development of friendships. Companionship in shared leisure activity appears to provide effective relief for people as they deal with excesses of daily life stresses. In addition, many leisure experiences have the capacity to provide feelings of support. Second, dispositions reflecting self-determination (e.g. hardiness, locus of control) have also been shown to contribute to people's coping capacities and health. Perceptions of freedom, control, competence and intrinsic motivation that are central to many leisure experiences are believed to induce these stable beliefs in self-determination.