Research on the leisure of racial and ethnic groups has recently been criticized for a variety of different reasons. In response to some of these concerns, this article examines the motivations of outdoor recreationists who identify themselves as being Chinese (n D 53); it compares their motivations with those of Euro-North Americans (n D 180) at the same outdoor setting; and it does so using the construct of self-construal as an intervening variable between ethnicity, acculturation, and motivations for outdoor recreation. According to Markus and Kitayama (1991), individuals with independent self-construals value being unique, expressing themselves, and promoting their own goals, whereas individuals with interdependent self-construals value belonging, tting in, and promoting others' goals. Furthermore, although people in or from Western Europe and North America are more likely to have independent self-construals, people in or from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Southern Europe are more likely to hold interdependent self-construals. On the basis of the above, a series of regressions were conducted. Results suggest that (a) ethnicity does affect both types of self-construal; (b) ethnicity does affect four outdoor recreation motivations directly, although this relationship is usually, but not always, mediated by self-construal; (c) ethnicity does affect four other recreation motivations indirectly, either through the interdependent self-construal or through both types of self-construal; and (d) with Chinese respondents, acculturation did affect one recreation motivation directly and, through the independent self-construal, two other motivations indirectly.
In the academic literature, including the field of positive psychology, there have been articles advocating how leisure activities can be used within a behavioral activation framework. To this end, differing academic writers advocate the use of scheduling leisure activities to increase enjoyable behavioral activity (e.g., Mazzucchelli et al. 2010), but do not elaborate on how leisure can be used within a behavioral activation framework. This paper fills this void by explaining (1) how the serious leisure perspective (SLP) can help mental health counselors and other applied human service professionals structure potential activation targets based on differentiating between pleasure-based casual leisure and mastery-based serious leisure, and (2) how the SLP can be used as a potential structure for grading activation assignments. The last part of this paper provides a mental health counseling case report of a middleaged man who had stage four renal disease, severe depression, and mild anxiety who became healthier by intervention that linked the SLP, behavioral activation, and positive psychology.
Because many college students engage in low levels of physical activity, the current study used a qualitative framework to interview 11 college students to examine the meaning physically active college students assign to the practice of fitness and health. Students discussed the importance of healthy eating, but that it was difficult to accomplish at college. Additionally, students intertwined health and fitness with physical appearance and attractiveness. In particular, the media shaped many of their perceptions of health and fitness. Implications of these findings to policy making in higher education, in particular wellness programming, are highlighted.
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