This research seeks to critically examine Canadians’ use of leisure time in the context of self described health, happiness and sense of belonging [with health, happiness and sense of belonging measured using likert-scaled questions asking respondents to rate their health in general, their happiness, and their sense of belonging to community, province and country]. Previous research has determined that recreation and active living are essential to health, skill development, quality of life, healthy communities, strong families, and reduction of anti-social and self-destructive behaviours (Torjman, 2004). The literature also suggests that sport is an important component of active leisure time with benefits to health, skill development and social cohesion (Bloom, Grant & Watt, 2005), while less active leisure pursuits (aka cultural use of time) have separate, but equally important benefits to mental health, skill development, and social capital (Torjman, 2004). The current study analyzes data from the Public Use Data Set from Statistics Canada’s 2005, 1998 and 1992 General Social Surveys (GSS). These large-sample surveys included a Culture, Sport and Physical Activity module in which a subset of respondents (n=9,851) answered detailed questions regarding cultural, leisure, and sport participation activities. This study seeks to determine links between type of leisure activity (‘active’ versus ‘cultural’) and self-described happiness, health, satisfaction with life, and sense of belonging. Preliminary results indicate that happiness, satisfaction with life as a whole, sense of belonging to local community, and self described health are related to reading newspapers for leisure, visiting museums, and regular participation in sport – other common, but not pervasive, correlates include reading magazines and books, going to a movie or drive-in, listening to music, and going to an historic site, zoo, botanic garden, aquarium, planetarium, observatory, conservation area or nature park. Future work on this data will seek to further examine these relationships in terms of demographic and regional variables in order to develop a deeper understandingtime. This understanding can inform public policy initiatives to increase leisure activities that promote individual health and happiness.

Access to document: D25_Leonard_Bridget.pdf

Perceptions of Health, Sport and Leisure Time in Gangwon Province of Korea
Francis Lobo, Edith Cowan University (Willetton, Australia); Sooyoung Sul, Ewha Womans University (Seoul, Korea)

This paper evaluates self-perceived health status, major factors in maintaining health, the effect of sport on study, work and family life and the frequency of accessibility of sport-related information on the Internet. Further, the study also determined the amount and use of leisure time in the Gangwon Province with each of the variables being compared to comparable national Korean data. Original data were obtained from the National Survey on Participation in Sport-for-all Activities, published by the  Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2006. The study found that residents of Gangwon Province took personal responsibility for their health and well-being through modest sport involvement, regular meals and adequate rest. Participation in sport was beneficial to health, study, work and family life. The Internet was used for sport-related information as it was for other areas of life. Free time was generously distributed in the population and the use of it was diverse. Variables in Gangwon Province were examined against national background statistics. Lifestyle patterns were mirrored between Korean and Provincial data. The paper is the first in a series that highlights the City of ChunCheon which hosts the X1 World Leisure Congress in 2010.

Access to document: D25_Francis_Lobo.pdf

Towards the Dignity of Leisure Leisure in the Social Doctrine of the Church
Marcos Ayjon Fernando, University of Deusto (Guadalajara, Spain)

The Institute for Leisure Studies at the University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain) approaches leisure from a multidisciplinary and humanist perspective. The research presented in this paper relates this humanist comprehension of leisure with the social doctrine of the Church, i. e., the part of Catholic Theology that confronts the question arising from social changes. The Church’s social teaching has a pastoral purpose and is at the service of the person. From this position, the subject of research can be exposed as follows: To analyze the humanism involved in the teaching of the Catholic Church, based on the dignity of the human person. To expose the concept of humanist leisure, which is also based in the dignity of the human person, focusing on the definition and analyzing each of its terms. To expose the principles and guidelines for social life offered by the Church, looking for their relation with humanist leisure. To delimit the main documents of the social doctrine of the Church, forming a text corpus for study that includes the numerous interventions of Popes, Bishops, theologians and Christian thinkers around the social question. To design some tables of variables of the terms used by the definition of humanist leisure, as guidelines for the interpretation of the documents. To analyze the text corpus looking for the above mentioned variables, to study the presence and evolution of the humanist leisure in the social doctrine of the Church. The research approaches leisure as an area of human development, which cannot be separated from the necessary respect towards the dignity of the human person. Its ultimate purpose is to set the basis for a comprehension of the role of leisure in the life and development of communities, from a Catholic perspective.