A Leisure Education Program for Postsecondary Students with Intellectual Disabilities

For individuals with intellectual disabilities finding and taking part in leisure experiences can be difficult without appropriate knowledge and skills. This study examined the use of a leisure education program with students enrolled in a post-secondary education program located on the campus of a mid-size southeastern university. This postsecondary educational program is designed to teach independent living and job skills to people ages 18-23 who have an intellectual disability. The -Leisure Ability Model is the conceptual framework for this study. Leisure attitude was measured through a revised version of the Leisure Attitude Measure; it assessed three components: cognitive, behavioral, and affective. However, leisure education for students having intellectual disability enrolled in a postsecondary transition program in a college setting has not been evaluated. Results indicated there was no significant difference in the Leisure Attitude Measure between pre- and posttests. However, semi-structured interviews provided the researcher with rich descriptive data about participants\u27 leisure attitude. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed that participants\u27 understanding of leisure increased following the intervention. Implications for therapeutic recreation practice and future research are discussed

Relationship Between Mental Health and the Education Level in Elderly People: Mediation of Leisure Attitude.

The present study intends to explore the influence of education on the mental health of retired people and the mediating role of a leisure attitude in this relationship. The sample was simple random, and a confidentiality agreement was established. The sample was composed of 403 Portuguese participants (37.2% male; 62.8% female). The participants completed the MHI and the LAS. The hypothesized mediation model showed that a leisure attitude mediated the association between education and well-being. In addition, higher levels of distress were found in participants with higher levels of education. Our results suggest that old-aged people with high education and a more positive leisure attitude have a better psychological adjustment concerning well-being. Also, a higher level of education can lead to a better perception of aging changes (physical, life, profession)

The Attitudes of Primary School Teachers towards Leisure

This study aims to analyze the attitudes of primary school teachers towards leisure. It also aims to determine whether the attitudes of primary school teachers vary according to their gender and leisure activities they attend. A total of 355 primary school teachers ( age= 45.08±7.91), including 188 females and 167 males, volunteered to participate in this study. “Leisure Attitude Scale" developed by Beard and Ragheb (1982) and adapted into Turkish by Akgül and Gürbüz (2010) and “General Information Form” were utilized to collect data. The findings of this study indicates that the leisure attitudes levels of teachers were quite high ( mean= 4.28±.33). Also according to gender of the participants, a significant difference was found in favor of the female teachers in regards to the attitude of leisure in the cognitive sub-dimension and in total points but not in the affective and behavioral sub-dimensions. In terms of the most preferred leisure activity, there was a significant difference in the behavioral sub-dimension of the leisure attitude scale of teachers, whereas there was no statistically significant difference in the cognitive, affective sub-dimensions and total scores. Accordingly, teachers who preferred physical activities in leisure had higher points than the ones who preferred other activities with regards to the behavioral sub-dimensional. In addition, no significant relationship was found between the ages of the teachers, the years of professional service, the leisure attitude scale sub-dimensions and total score

The Interrelationships of Leisure Attitude, Leisure Satisfaction, Leisure Behavior, Intrinsic Motivation and Burnout Among Clergy

This study focused on the interrelationships of leisure behavior, leisure attitude, leisure satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and burnout among clergy in The United Methodist Church in Western North Carolina. Responses were obtained from the clergy by a questionnaire that operationalized the primary variables (i.e., leisure behavior, leisure attitude, leisure satisfaction, intrinsic motivation), demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, marital status, education, years in ministry, years in present church), and burnout with its three components (i .e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment). A systematic random sample, further stratified to include no less than one-half of all women clergy in their geographic districts, was taken. A final sample of 438 was obtained representing a 55% return rate. Hypothesized relationships among study variables were tested using path analytic techniques. Also, tests of reliability were run on each of the instruments to compare them with prior studies. Significant relationships among several variables were detected, with the entire pool of independent variables accounting for about 27% of the variance in emotional exhaustion, 22% in depersonalization and 27% in personal accomplishment. Variables with significant relationships with emotional exhaustion included age, years in ministry, years in present church, leisure behavior, and leisure satisfaction. In each of these cases, the relationships were direct and inverse. Variables with significant relationships (all direct and inverse) with depersonalization included age, years in ministry, leisure behavior, leisure satisfaction and intrinsic motivation. Variables found to have significant relationships to personal accomplishment were leisure behavior, leisure satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation. In each of these cases, the relationships were found to be direct and positive. Further, significant relationships existed among the independent variables that confirmed earlier studies highlighting the positive relationship between intrinsic motivation, leisure attitude and leisure satisfaction

Gastro-tourism well-being: The interplays of salient and enduring determinants

Purpose-This research developed and tested an integrated structural gastro-tourism well-being model consisting of food-related lifestyle and leisure attitude as precursor of the consumption enjoyment of the gastro-tourism experience with satisfaction, life domain outcomes, tourism autobiographical memory and life satisfaction as outcomes of the consumption enjoyment. Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual model was assessed with quantitative data collected from tourists based on their deliberate and incidental gastro-tourism experiences (N=617). Findings – Findings indicated that enjoyment of gastro-tourism consumption experience significantly influences satisfaction, life domain outcomes, life satisfaction, and tourism autobiographical memory. Life domain outcomes and tourism autobiographical memory have enduring influence on life satisfaction over time. Food-related lifestyle and leisure attitude are salient determinants of gastro-tourism well-being with their significant influence on consumption experience. Satisfaction with consumption experiences contributes to life satisfaction regardless of the experience type (deliberate versus incidental). Research limitations/implications – This research extends our knowledge of tourism consumption experience in the domain of gastro-tourism as well as quality of life or well-being. Originality/value – This research has offered an integrated framework to measure the interplays of salient and enduring determinants of gastro-tourism well-being. Future studies will benefit from this research as a baseline model linking consumption experience and life satisfaction

Cross-cultural adaptation and content validity of leisure attitude measurement for older adults

OBJECTIVE: To adapt the Leisure Attitude Measurement to the Brazilian culture and to evaluate the face and content validity of the Brazilian version for older population. METHODS: Methodological study of cross-cultural adaptation in five stages: initial translation; synthesis of translations; back translation; evaluation by a committee of experts using a face and content validity assessment instrument; pre-test with 36 elderly, selected by convenience, with the application of a pre-test evaluation instrument. Data were analyzed descriptively and internal consistency measured by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. RESULTS: Evidenced face and content validity of the adapted version, as well as its equivalence with the original version. In the pretest, the elderly were 71.5 years old on average, 66.7% were women, 47.2% had a stable union, 66.7% lived with family members, 47.2% had 12 or more years of education and 58.3% received two minimum wages or more. The instrument revealed good internal consistency with a coefficient of 0.95 for the total global instrument and 0.88, 0.92 and 0.88 for the cognitive, affective and behavioral domains, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The instrument’s adaptation to the Brazilian culture was successful and allows to assess the attitude of the elderly in relation to leisure in a reliable manner, even though the results are a preliminary version, to be concluded after the psychometric analysis. The instrument could be incorporated in various health fields in Brazil and will allow the production of standardized data, comparison between cultures and strategies to promote positive attitudes towards leisure

Examining demographic and psychographic profiles of potential first-class undergraduates

Even though the discipline of psychology and education had gained its reputation all along, few studies have been conducted to determine the characteristics of the potential first-class undergraduate students.Thus, this study was designed to examine the demographic and psychographic profiles of the potential first class undergraduates in a Malaysian public university.The selected respondents comprised of 424 undergraduates who obtained at least 3.67 cumulative grade point average (CGPA) in their academic achievement in the period of their study. This study used a self-administered questionnaire that had adapted from the standardized measures. Validity and reliability of the instruments were found to be satisfactory.The results of the study indicate that the potential first-class undergraduates have the highest level on task orientation whereas time management scores the lowest.Also, the results reveal that more than 99% of the students have either moderate or high levels of psychographic attributes.In addition, the MANOVA results indicate that there are significant differences between male and female undergraduate students in their task orientation and leisure attitude.Likewise, significant differences between ethnic groups are found in task orientation, competitiveness, and general self-efficacy.Thus, the findings of this study are able to assist the higher education providers in providing coaching and mentoring to ensure more effective strategies could be developed to improve students’ needs and desires in pursuing their further education

Investigation of Leisure Time Attitude of University Students According to Some Parameters (Example of Northern Cyprus)

The attitude of leisure can be defined as all the emotions, thoughts, attitudes and behaviors shown for the leisure concept. The aim of this study is to examine the leisure attitudes of the students of the Cyprus University according to various parameters such as gender, age, class, faculty and whether to do recreational sports. A total of 265 students participated in the study. Leisure Attitude Scale was used to evaluate student’s leisure attitudes. Independent sample t test was used for analyzing gender and recreational sports variables, and the one-way ANOVA test was used for analysis of age, class and faculty variables. According to the results obtained, there was a significant difference in the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of the three sub-dimensions of the scale for the variable of doing recreational sports. In addition, differentiation was observed in the cognitive sub-dimension for the age variable and the behavioral sub-dimension for the class variable

A Qualitative Look at Leisure Benefits for Taiwanese Nursing Students

The purpose of this study was to determine attitudes of first year nursing students toward leisure participation at the Jen-Te Junior College of Medicine Nursing and Management in Miao-Li, Taiwan. The three research questions used for this study were: What types of leisure activities do first year nursing students at Jen-Te Junior College participate in?, what are the attitudes of first year nursing students at Jen-Te Junior College toward leisure?, and what is the relationship between leisure attitudes and leisure participation of first year nursing students in Jen-Te Junior College? The grounded theory method was used to generate the research findings. Five categories of students’ attitudes toward leisure emerged: social interaction, learning-seeking, psychological well-being, physical health and self-growth

An examination of adolescents' attitudes towards leisure activities

The aim of this study was to examine the attitudes level towards leisure activities of adolescents and to compare the participants' attitudes levels according to some variables. 610 (Nmale= 333; Mage= 15.80, SD= 1.14 and Nfemale= 277; Mage= 15.66, SD= 1.01) adolescents enrolled in this study from different high schools in Turkey. The Leisure Attitude Scale (LAS) (Ragheb and Beard, 1982) was administered on the participants. Cognitive, affective and behavioral items (12 per type) were rated on a five-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistical methods and MANOVA were used to compare the differential scores of the three sub-scales of the T-LAS among the demographic variables. Correlation analysis was used to test the relationship between T-LAS sub-scales and age. The cognitive sub-scale scores were the highest toward leisure. MANOVA analysis indicated no significant mean differences in all three sub-scales with regard to gender. However, there were no significant main effect of participation in physical activity on "T-LAS" scores; a follow-up univariate analysis indicated significant main effects for participation in physical activity on the sub-scales of "Cognitive", "Affective", "Behavioral". Participants groups had higher mean attitude scores than the non-participants in all sub-scales of T-LAS. Additionally, MANOVA indicated significant main effect of school type on "T-LAS" scores, in tests between subject effects by school type, results also revealed a significant differences in the "Cognitive", "Affective", "Behavioral" sub-scales. Private high schools' students had higher scores than the others. Overall, the girl participants had lower attitudes toward leisure than the boys. While the highest leisure attitudes mean score in affective sub-scale, cognitive subscale is the lowest score.</p