Drawing from literature supporting top-down (i.e., well-being impacting leisure) and bottom-up (i.e., leisure impacting well-being) models explaining the bi-directional relationship between leisure and well-being, this study examines the complex relationship of well-being, leisure constraints, and leisure negotiation factors in predicting leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) rates among university students. Six hundred sixty-one university students completed an online questionnaire assessing psychological well-being (PWB), LTPA constraints, LTPA negotiation strategies, and LTPA rates. A multiple regression analysis indicated bottom-up and top-down variables jointly predict LTPA. In regards to bottom-up psychological LTPA variables, LTPA was positively predicted by LTPA planning and prioritisation skills and negatively predicted by constraints to recreation facility spaces, lack of time, and utilising financial strategies. In regards to top-down well-being, influences on LTPA, LTPA rates were negatively predicted by personal growth and positively predicted by autonomy. We highlight how the study findings might inform intentional university health promotion policies and programming, leading to a culture of student well-being through LTPA.

This qualitative study addresses the need for campus-based programming that allows students to practice adaptive coping skills and increase well-being. Eight focus groups and seven individual interviews were conducted with students participating in credit-based leisure education courses to understand self-reported health-related motivations and outcomes. Findings suggested students experienced five psychological mechanisms supporting well-being: autonomy, detachment, mastery, meaning, and affiliation. Programmatic and instructional-based insights for student affairs professionals in health, counseling, and recreation are provided.

Emerging adults who attend residential colleges experience large amounts of unsupervised and unstructured free time while continuing to develop identities surrounding life, work, and worldviews. These individuals, who are in various stages of psychosocial identity development, may have unique views of free time, including differing perceptions of leisure opportunities, boredom experienced, preferred levels of challenge or effort, and distress or uncertainty regarding leisure opportunities during free time. Using a person-centered approach, this study compares 565 emerging adults from five identity clusters to understand the connections between perception of free time and identity development. Significant differences in the perception of free time awareness, boredom, and challenge were found across identity clusters, signaling that individuals at stages of identity development have unique attitudes toward the nature of free time. Those working with college-attending emerging adults in recreation, student affairs, and counseling settings should consider identity development when addressing free time perceptions.

The school-to-work transition (STWT) is a transdisciplinary issue in which leisure-based research has been largely absent. Inspired by the conceptual framework of career adaptability, this research follows 12 early careerists (n = 12) during their first 2 years of full-time work to understand how leisure-based work values and leisure experiences evolve over time due to individual, contextual, and workplace factors. Findings suggest early careerists possess leisure-based work values when entering the workforce and adjust their leisure in individual, phenomenological, developmental, and contextual ways in the process of career adaptability. We propose leisure-based work values be explored, fostered, and managed appropriately by those affiliated with the STWT, including those working in developmental psychology, career development, organizational behavior and management, and leisure and recreation provisions. Implications for addressing leisure-based work values during the STWT are offered for these transdisciplinary stakeholders.

This qualitative study explores how campus recreation directors form wellness-based partnerships across campus to serve student wellness needs. Data were collected from 127 campus recreation professionals regarding constraints and facilitators to campus-based wellness partnerships. Data were analyzed using the constant comparison method to identify best practices associated with wellness partnership development. Selected best practices include developing a culture of partnering across campus, formalizing partnerships, and utilizing process- and outcome-based evaluations.

Leisure is an important developmental context during emerging adulthood because of its inherent freedom, opportunity for challenge, and potential for identity exploration. The nature of leisure is often linked with different developmental pathways surrounding well-being and identity. This quantitative study collected free time perceptions, well-being, and identity measures from college-attending emerging adults (n = 565). Using a clustering approach, participants were grouped based on four free time perceptions measures (awareness, boredom, challenge, distress) and then compared for differences in self-esteem, depression, and identity commitment and exploration. Groupings were named based on unique free time profiles, including mastering, restoring, stagnating, and struggling during free time. Each group had significantly different perceptions of free time awareness and boredom, and groups differed in well-being and identity scores, although not exclusively. Results show the importance of addressing free time perceptions, particularly cognitive (awareness) and affective (boredom) attitudes and inform leisure-based programming and marketing on college campuses.