College students’ perceptions of healthy and unhealthy leisure: associations with leisure behaviour

ABSTRACT

Despite social acceptance of some leisure activities as healthy or unhealthy, individual behaviour suggests the story is more complex as individuals engage in leisure in both healthy and unhealthy ways. To better understand how leisure behaviour is perceived, we assessed American college students’ perception of their own leisure activities’ healthiness, as well as their perception of healthy and unhealthy leisure activities in general. Three groups were observed: students who viewed all of their leisure as healthy, students who viewed their leisure as a mix of healthy and unhealthy activities, and students who viewed most of their leisure as unhealthy. Across groups, students participated in the same activities but categorised the healthiness of these activities differently. However, students shared an understanding of the types of leisure they considered to be generally healthy and unhealthy. Interventions should therefore promote healthy ways of engaging in leisure, rather than particular “healthy’ leisure activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Health
• leisure
• college students
• young adults
• free-listing

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Jennifer P. Agans

Jennifer P. Agans is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research examines how recreation and out-of-school time programmes can foster positive youth development, and explores the development of active lifestyles in youth and young adults.

Steven Hanna

Steven R. Hanna is a master's student in the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management at The Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on the contributions of parks and public green spaces to improved states of health and well-being and examines the potential for these spaces to promote positive youth development.

Elizabeth H. Weybright

Elizabeth Weybright is an Associate Professor and Extension Adolescent Specialist in the department of Human Development at Washington State University. She has expertise in prevention science, leisure and health, and adolescent development. Her research interests focus on health promotion and substance use prevention in adolescents including adaptation, implementation, and evaluation of prevention programming.

Julie S. Son

Julie Son is a Professor and Program Director of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism Management at University of Idaho. She investigates the role of leisure in health promotion across the lifespan including recreational sport and physical activity, and the role of community-based recreation, sport, and tourism in health promotion and self-care.