leisure, quality of life, culture, meaning, diversity, strength,

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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 stressinducing 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 examined the extent to which frequency and enjoyment measures of leisure participation predict adaptational outcomes, over and above the contributions of general coping. Police and emergency response services workers (N = 132) participated in the study, and a repeated measures design was used. The study provides evidence that the type of leisure activity matters in predicting immediate adaptational outcomes (coping effectiveness, coping satisfaction and stress reduction) and mental and physical health. Relaxing leisure was found to be the strongest positive predictor of coping with stress, while social leisure and cultural leisure significantly predicted greater mental or physical health.

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The purpose of this study was to examine stress-buffer or -counteracting effects of leisure coping, by taking into account several key axes of society (i.e., gender, social class, and age) that are essential to characterize the diverse nature of our society. A 1-year prospective survey of a representative sample (n = 938) from an urban Canadian city was conducted. In the total sample, long-term health protective benefits of leisure coping became evident when stress levels were higher than lower (i.e., support for buffer effects of leisure coping). However, a health-protective effect of leisure coping to counteract the impact of stress on health was found substantially stronger for people with lower social class than for those with higher social class. On the other hand, health-protective stress-buffer effects of leisure coping were evident regardless of people's gender and age. The findings underscore the importance of giving greater attention to the role of leisure as a means of coping with stress in health practices, particularly among marginalized groups such as individuals with lower social class.

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