Building on strengths and resilience: leisure as a stress survival strategy

Abstract

Exploring the ways in which leisure contributes to managing, relieving, or counteracting stress has become an increasingly popular area of study in recent years. Findings from a multi-year study of stress and coping among diverse residents of a western Canadian city are reported in this paper. In particular, the key findings presented are specific to the role of leisure in stress-coping, with an emphasis on those that are relevant to guidance and counselling. The participants in the study included: (a) Aboriginal individuals with diabetes, (b) individuals with physical disabilities, (c) older adults with arthritis, (d) gays and lesbians, and (e) a group of professional managers. Grounded in a qualitative framework, data were collected using a focus group method, while phenomenology was adopted as the analytical framework. Our findings demonstrated leisure's role as a palliative coping strategy. This strategy incorporates two elements: a positive diversion or ‘time-out’ from stress-inducing situations and thoughts, and a context for rejuvenation and renewal. Leisure also provided opportunities for promoting life balance, whereby the intentional creation of a leisure space became an oasis for personal renewal (physical, psychological, emotional) that facilitated resilience and the capacity to proactively cope with or counteract stress. Implications of the findings for guidance and counselling are discussed.

This study was funded by the Government of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Notes

Originally, the intention of segmenting the focus groups by sex was to facilitate a gender-based comparative analysis, which is beyond the scope of the present paper.

According to Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada (2002), ‘The Constitution Act of 1982 recognizes three main groups of Aboriginal peoples in Canada: the First Nations, the Inuit, and the Métis … First Nations describes all Aboriginal people in Canada who are not Inuit or Métis … Inuit are Aboriginal people who live in Canada's North, which includes Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Northern Quebec and Labrador … Many early French fur traders and some English traders married First Nations women. Their descendants are called the Métis people’ (pp. 14–15).