World Leisure Journal

The Role of Leisure in Mental Health and Well-Being

Aim and scope of the special issue

This proposed special issue seeks to critically examine the role of leisure in mental health and well-being from interdisciplinary perspectives. The aim is to expand our understanding of leisure not merely as a time filler or form of entertainment, but as a deeply influential element in fostering psychological resilience, emotional regulation, identity development, and holistic well-being across diverse populations. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified conversations around mental health, burnout, loneliness, and emotional recovery (Buckley & Westaway, 2020; Casper et al., 2021; Ma et al., 2021; Wen et al., 2025). As a result, there is increasing interest in how individual and collective leisure practices can support healing, self-expression, and social reconnection. This special issue aims to highlight innovative research, lived experiences, and applied practices that explore leisure as a resource for improving mental health, preventing distress, and supporting long-term well-being. Importantly, we invite papers that interrogate structural inequalities in leisure access and mental health outcomes.

Key guiding questions include:

• How do various forms of leisure (creative, physical, digital, cultural, or restorative) contribute to individual and collective mental well-being?
• How do age, gender, race, disability, social class, and other intersectional identities shape the mental health benefits or barriers of leisure?
• What is the role of nature-based leisure in emotional and psychological healing?
• How can leisure be intentionally designed and governed to support community mental health, especially in vulnerable or marginalised populations?

This special issue builds upon a growing body of scholarship recognising leisure's therapeutic dimensions. Prior contributions in the World Leisure Journal and beyond have explored themes such as leisure and stress reduction (Hayosh, 2017), the restorative effects of nature (Buckley, 2020), creative expression in leisure (Whiting & Hannam, 2015), and the use of leisure as resistance (Genoe, 2010; Shaw, 2001). However, this issue offers a timely and more integrated focus on mental health, aligning with global discourses on well-being, trauma recovery, and social sustainability. By positioning leisure as both a personal and political act tied to mental health, this issue aims to spark critical dialogue on the intersection of leisure studies, psychology, public health, tourism, and human geography. This special issue also aligns with the One Health approach (Dustin et al., 2021) by recognising the interconnectedness of human, environmental, and animal well-being, as well as the vital role leisure plays in fostering holistic mental health within socio-ecological systems. It will also bridge theory and practice by inviting contributions from both scholars and practitioners, encouraging the inclusion of case studies, ethnographic accounts, participatory action research, and decolonial or Indigenous approaches to leisure and healing. This issue will also critically engage with existing frameworks, such as the World Health Organization’s definition of well-being, the Capability Approach (Pogge, 2010), and the Leisure Constraints Theory (Crawford & Godbey, 1987), reframing them to better account for mental health concerns in contemporary contexts.

Topics of interest

The special issue welcomes original empirical research, theoretical papers, conceptual explorations, critical reflections, and case-based contributions related to the following (but not limited to):

• Leisure and Mental Health Recovery: Contributions exploring how leisure supports recovery from trauma, grief, anxiety, and depression. Includes examples from clinical settings (e.g., therapeutic recreation; travel therapy (Hu et al., 2025) or informal and culturally rooted leisure practices.
• Intersectionality and Leisure Mental Health: Analyses of how race, gender, sexuality, neurodiversity, disability, and social class influence the mental health impacts of leisure participation or exclusion.
•  Youth and Elder Well-Being through Leisure: Studies focused on how leisure engagement supports young people’s identity formation or combats social isolation and depression among older adults.
• Nature-Based and Outdoor Leisure for Mental Resilience: Articles examining forest bathing, hiking, surf therapy, gardening, and ecotherapy from mental health and sustainability perspectives.
• Digital and Virtual Leisure as a Mental Health Space: Research on the use of video games, virtual reality, online communities, and digital mindfulness platforms in supporting psychological well-being.
• Leisure in Times of Crisis, War, and Displacement: Case studies or ethnographic research exploring leisure as a coping tool in humanitarian settings, post-disaster recovery, or among refugees and displaced populations.
• Leisure and Collective Healing: Community-based leisure practices that foster collective identity, belonging, joy, and resilience, including storytelling, festivals, sport, and participatory art.
• The Leisure-Mental Health Workforce and Practice: Contributions from practitioners and scholars on how leisure professionals are trained or supported to deliver mental health benefits and trauma-informed care.
• Leisure Justice and Mental Health Equity: Critical pieces interrogating systemic barriers to leisure access and their effects on mental health, particularly in urban marginalised communities.
• Critical Theories and Future Directions: Theoretical contributions that expand how we conceptualise the links between leisure, mental health, and broader societal well-being. This may include affect theory, feminist leisure theory, decolonial mental health approaches, or posthumanist perspectives.

This special issue is particularly relevant in the wake of a global mental health crisis, environmental collapse, digital fatigue, and social polarisation. It will offer a much-needed academic and practical platform to showcase leisure as an active and transformative space for recovery, connection, and care. While many disciplines address mental health, leisure studies offer a uniquely hopeful, embodied, and culturally attuned perspective that seeks to advance this issue. In inviting both emerging and established scholars, the issue also aims to be inclusive and interdisciplinary. By featuring work from diverse regions and methodological backgrounds, it will present a plurality of voices that reflect how leisure and mental health are lived, imagined, and institutionalised worldwide. This special issue will provide a comprehensive, socially relevant, and future-oriented contribution to the field of leisure studies. It will critically illuminate the relationship between leisure and mental health while celebrating the diverse ways people seek and find well-being in everyday and extraordinary leisure contexts. By bringing together international scholars and practitioners working at the intersection of leisure and well-being, the issue will shape future research agendas, inform practice and policy, and highlight leisure’s potential as a pathway to individual healing and collective flourishing.

References

Buckley, R. (2020). Nature tourism and mental health: parks, happiness, and causation. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 28(9), 1409-1424. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1742725

Buckley, R., & Westaway, D. (2020). Mental health rescue effects of women's outdoor tourism: A role in COVID-19 recovery. Annals of Tourism Research, 85, 103041. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103041

Casper, J. M., N., B. J., & and Lothary, A. F. (2021). An examination of pickleball participation, social connections, and psychological well-being among seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic. World Leisure Journal, 63(3), 330-346. https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2021.1957708 

Crawford, D. W., & Godbey, G. (1987). Reconceptualising barriers to family leisure. Leisure Sciences, 9, 119-112. Dustin, D., Gene, L., James, M., Cary, M., Brett, W., & and Harper, J. (2021). Purveyors of One Health: The Ecological Imperative Driving the Future of Leisure Services. Leisure Sciences, 43(1-2), 12-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2020.1773976

Genoe, M. R. (2010). Leisure as resistance within the context of dementia. Leisure Studies, 29(3), 303-320. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614361003720570

Hayosh, T. (2017). Engagement is serious leisure as practice for coping with the stress of daily life. World Leisure Journal, 59(3), 206-217. https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2017.1345485

Hu, F., Wen, J., & Wang, W. (2025). Navigating Travel Therapy: Balancing Benefits and Risks for Optimal Wellness. International Journal of Tourism Research, 27(3), e70040.

Ma, S., Zhao, X., Gong, Y., & Wengel, Y. (2021). Proposing “healing tourism” as a post- COVID-19 tourism product. Anatolia, 32(1), 136-139. https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2020.1808490

Pogge, T. (2010). A critique of the capability approach. Measuring justice: Primary goods and capabilities, 17, 17-60. Shaw, S. M. (2001). Conceptualising Resistance: Women's Leisure as Political Practice. Journal of Leisure Research, 33(2), 186-201. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2001.11949937

Wen, J., Hu, F., Zheng, D., Hou, H., & Wang, W. (2025). Interdisciplinary Research Among Tourism, Public Health, and Global Health: A Promising Stream Focusing on Populations with Suboptimal Health Status. International Journal of Tourism. Research, 27(2), e70012.

Whiting, J., & Hannam, K. (2015). Creativity, self-expression and leisure. Leisure Studies, 34(3), 372-384.