John Dattilo

Existential meaning reflects the extent to which people perceive their lives as coherent, goal-oriented, and socially significant (George & Park, 2017). Research demonstrates that existential meani...

Leisure is complex and multi-dimensional. Dattilo and Lopez Frias (2021) described leisure as occurring across the lifespan including a range of experiences (from introspective to expressive) in nu...

Forest bathing as a recreation activity may connect to experiences of social support, activity attachment, and purpose in life (PIL) among older adults. However, it is unclear whether activity attachment mediates the relationship between social support and PIL experienced by older forest bathers. To address this area of limited research, we examined such a mediated relationship in this population. In total, 292 older forest bathers completed a survey including measures of social support, activity attachment, and PIL. We performed structural equation modeling to analyze data. Results indicated that high levels of social support predicted high levels of activity attachment; high levels of activity attachment predicted high levels of PIL; and high levels of social support predicted high levels of PIL. Therefore, it is advantageous to create contexts and situations conducive for forest bathing to develop social support when practitioners attempt to help older adults foster activity attachment and PIL.

Identifying predictors of meaning in life (MIL) among middle-aged adults is important to promote their well-being. To inform efforts to foster well-being for middle-aged adults, the purpose of this study was to examine whether transcendent experiences mediate the relationships between two types of leisure social support (leisure instrumental support and leisure emotional support) and MIL in this population. In total, 236 middle-aged adults participated in the study. We used in-person surveys to collect data on leisure instrumental support, leisure emotional support, transcendent experiences, and MIL as well as analyzed data conducting structural equation modeling. Results indicated that high levels of leisure instrumental support predicted high levels of transcendent experiences; high levels of transcendent experiences predicted high levels of MIL; and high levels of leisure instrumental support and leisure emotional support predicted high levels of MIL. We discuss implications of these results in terms of facilitating MIL experienced by middle-aged adults.

This Global Leisure Debate occurred on 9th/10th June for approximately an hour as part of the WLO Knowledge Sharing and Networking Experience. WLO chair, Joanne Schroeder, moderated the session wit...