Longitudinal analyses of the relationships among life transitions, chronic health problems, leisure, and psychological well‐being

Abstract

In an attempt to integrate research on stress coping and research on psychological well‐being, we conducted longitudinal and disaggregated analyses of the relationships between leisure‐related constructs (i.e., level of leisure participation and the importance of leisure goals) and psychological well‐being for groups of individuals classified by gender and life events (i.e., chronic health problems and life transitions). Using two surveys on well‐being in Canada, we found that (a) overall, the participants showed relative stability or little change in psychological well‐being and leisure‐related variables; (b) some life events (e.g., becoming widowed for women and becoming unemployed for men) had more detrimental impacts on psychological well‐being than did others; (c) increased importance placed on leisure goals enhanced positive psychological well‐being for women who had become homemakers after having been employed, men who had experienced recent or long‐term illnesses, and men who had married; (d) increased importance placed on leisure goals reduced negative psychological well‐being for men who had become employed after having been unemployed; (e) results showed a stronger effect of change in leisure goals than of change in level of leisure participation on well‐being; (f) several reciprocal relationships were supported, demonstrating that leisure can be both a cause and an effect of psychological well‐being; and (g) some gender differences were shown in some indicators, the relationships between them, or both.

Keywords:

• leisure goals
• leisure participation
• life events
• stress coping