Recreation and Leisure Studies

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

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Understanding Consumers’ Intentions to Purchase Technological Innovations in the Context of Sport
(University of Waterloo, 2024-07-05) Selvaratnam, Vinurshan
Researchers have studied innovation adoption in various sport contexts, including digital ticketing, sport team mobile apps, fantasy sports league websites, and smart-connected sports products, to name a few. However, researchers have yet to examine consumers’ acceptance of the Apple Vision Pro. This is primarily because the Apple Vision Pro is a new technology that was just introduced to the public in February 2024. Understanding consumers’ acceptance of the Apple Vision Pro is warranted since anecdotal evidence suggests it can positively impact the fan experience. In this dissertation, I conducted three studies to better understand sport consumers’ acceptance of the Apple Vision Pro by applying and extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a theory widely used to study innovation adoption. For all three studies, online surveys designed through Qualtrics were used to collect data (n=272) from Prolific Academic, an online crowdsourcing platform used for behavioral research. In study 1, I included team identification into the TAM to explain why and how sport consumers accept the Vision Pro. To analyze data, structural equation modeling was used and the findings showed that private evaluation and cognitive awareness, two dimensions of team identification, had an indirect positive effect on purchase intention through perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitude. As such, I recommend that marketers and technology developers implement strategies highlighting the usefulness and ease of use of technologies such as the Vision Pro. I also recommend targeted marketing strategies that appeal to the emotional and cognitive aspects of team identification, leading to purchase intentions among sports fans. In study 2, I included constructs from innovation diffusion theory into the TAM to better understand consumers’ acceptance of the Apple Vision Pro. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data. The findings showed that compatibility, trialability, and observability positively and indirectly influenced purchase intention through perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitude. As such, I argue that marketing strategies for the Vision Pro should not only focus on demonstrating its unique features and benefits but also emphasize its compatibility with users' lifestyles, offer new opportunities to try the technology for sports fans, and showcase the benefits accrued by existing users. Finally, in study 3, I included perceived monetary value and financial risk into the TAM to understand sports consumers' acceptance of the Vision Pro. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data. The findings showed that perceived financial risk indirectly influenced purchase intention through attitude. This suggests that while perceived financial risk directly influences consumers' attitudes, these attitudes then significantly shape consumers’ purchase intention of the Apple Vision Pro. As such, I argue that marketers should focus on enhancing the positive aspects of the Vision Pro to promote favorable attitudes among sport consumers. For instance, showcasing the unique features of the Vision Pro and emphasizing its benefits in enhancing the fan experience can enhance positive attitudes and offset the negative impact of perceived financial risks. Theoretically, this dissertation extends the TAM by showing the value of integrating other theories and concepts relevant to the study of innovation adoption. This dissertation also advances understandings of technology acceptance in the context of sport by revealing one of the unique features of sport, namely team identification, and its role in adoption. Therefore, exploring the complex interplay of various factors influencing the adoption of the Apple Vision Pro not only validates existing theories but also provides new insights and perspectives, thus paving the way for further research.
Leisure Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction: Examining the Mediating Roles of Self-Rated Physical Health and Mental Health
(University of Waterloo, 2024-05-30) Azam, Arefin
Researchers have studied leisure satisfaction and life satisfaction in different eras (Brown & Frankel, 1993; Neal et al., 1999; Ragheb & Griffith, 1982). A recent study demonstrated that leisure activities and life satisfaction correlate positively (Kim et al., 2022). However, limited information is available regarding the explanatory mechanisms underlying this connection. Drawing from the bottom-up spillover theory proposed by Andrews & Withey (1976), this research examines two potential explanatory mechanisms, self-rated physical health (SRPH) and self-rated mental health (SRMH), which could help explain the relationship between leisure satisfaction and overall life satisfaction. The current study uses population-level secondary data from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) (n = 113,290). The research suggests three hypotheses: (i) that leisure satisfaction has a positive relationship with life satisfaction; (ii) that self-rated physical health will positively mediate the association of life satisfaction and leisure satisfaction; and (iii) Self-rated mental health will operate as a positive mediator in the relationship between life satisfaction and leisure satisfaction. Measures, such as leisure satisfaction (e.g., “How satisfied are you with your leisure activities?”), life satisfaction (“How satisfied are you with your overall life?”), SRPH and SRMH were obtained from the 2017-2018 CCHS. Results from the regression analysis revealed that leisure satisfaction was a significant predictor of life satisfaction. Self-rated physical and mental health also partially mediated this relationship. This research contributes to the growing knowledge of the intricate interplay between leisure, mental and physical health, and overall life satisfaction. Understanding these relationships has implications for interventions and policies to enhance individuals' well-being by considering the role of leisure activities and their impact on mental and physical health.
The ordinary Niagara Falls
(University of Waterloo, 2024-03-11) Stinson, Michela
Tourism is a practice traditionally geared away from the ordinary; by virtue of its opposition from everyday life tourism is an act through which we see and do extraordinary things (Urry, 1992). Over time, tourism scholars have complemented and amended these conceptualizations of tourism as a spectacular practice, bringing in more nuanced understandings of tourism as a part of (and not apart from) ordinary life (Larsen, 2008). These orientations include situating the body in tourism (Veijola & Jokinen, 1994), turning toward the mundane and the proximate (Rantala et al., 2020), and positioning tourism as an ordered and assembled performance (Franklin, 2004; van der Duim, 2007). As Niagara Falls, Ontario remains a place dominated by material and discursive spectacle, I am drawn to considering the power of its “ordinary” aspects (Stewart, 2007) in the overall maintenance of its position in the global tourism landscape. Broadly, this dissertation argues that the construction of tourism at Niagara Falls is, indeed, ordinary, achieved not only thorough the larger representational work of advertising and marketing, but through the individual and collective actions of tourists, researchers, residents, and people living with/in and subsequently worldmaking (Hollinshead et al., 2009) with/in Niagara Falls, Ontario. This dissertation also argues that this ordinary work has extraordinary outcomes, and helps to locate tourism as enrolled in the further production of Canadian nationalism, settler colonialism, ruination, and state-sponsored reconciliation in Niagara Falls, Ontario. These are not new arguments, but they are arguments that I believe have urgency in the wake of accelerating climate crisis, global pandemics, and geopolitical conditions that are converging in the changing practices doing of “ordinary” tourism.
Becoming-with More-than-human Protected Areas
(University of Waterloo, 2023-11-28) Hurst, Chris E.
The planet is currently undergoing immense and permanent geological change and environmental decline, a period some scholars have referred to as the Anthropocene. Climate change and environmental events, biodiversity declines, wildfires, flooding, pollution, and pandemics are changing the ways in which we engage with the natural environment – as tourist and recreationist. Protected areas, and Parks in particular, are uniquely placed within this broader context of environmental crises in Canada on account of their dual mandate to both facilitate positive visitor experiences and to conserve the ecology and heritage of a site. Tethered to these mandate positions are anthropocentric separations or distinctions between humans and nature. The first, visitor experience, positions humans as visitors and nature as the backdrop for human recreation and tourism. The second mandate, conserving ecologies and heritage, assumes that humans as managers of these places can intervene in nature for particular outcomes, reinforcing ideas of human superiority over nonhumans and nature. Framed by posthuman philosophical, theoretical, and methodological approaches, the manuscripts, book chapter, and research note comprising this thesis work individually (and in combination) to disrupt, co-opt, challenge, and attend to concepts (i.e., anthropomorphism, affective reverberations, time, and agency) that have largely been subject to anthropocentric inscription and offer productive spaces for experimenting with different kinds of affective-sensory-material attunement practices in protected areas. The specific aims of this project are to contribute to building some of the conceptual foundations necessary for a more-than-human conservation ethic and practice premised on knowing-with, being-with, and researching-with nonhumans in nature-based tourism. With the exception of the research note, each chapter also experiments with more-than-human attunements borne of (re)enchantment (i.e., care as action) with concepts, integrating posthuman relationality and praxis with (re)presentational choices intended to evoke and affect (rather than represent per se). Each article simultaneously engages theory-methodology-(re)presentation as an iterative and entangled practice of being-with more-than-human places. Specifically, this research draws upon the sensory-attunements of walking methodologies, the methodological fluidity of methodologies without methodology, and the evocativeness of nonrepresentational methodologies, as an embodied practice of attending. Situated within more-than-human encounters in three Provincial Parks in Ontario, Canada, this thesis contributes to the growing interdisciplinary scholarship engaging with nonhumans as kin and invites us to care-with more-than-human temporalities, agency, and affectivity for more inclusive, responsive, and response-able tourism futures.
Unbearable Fruits
(University of Waterloo, 2023-09-27) Moran, Robyn
Counter to my bodily instincts, abstract writing demands we make something evident in the interest of time (Loveless, 2019). I’ve been state power, settler colonialism, neighbourhood change and/or gentrification, queer politics, homonationalism, mobilities, and placemaking (or place-taking and place un-making). Accordingly, I have situated at the nexus of political economy (i.e., neoliberalism, rainbow capitalism, racial capitalism) and “the cultural politics of emotion” (i.e., affect theory). I've organized the fruits of this labour in three manuscripts (crucially, supported by a handful of addendums, audio-visual, and arts-based components). Across this work, I argue that although "gentrification" lacks consensus definition or measure, as we move towards a more entangled understanding, identification with neighbourhood change processes like 'gentrification' (e.g., an emerging sense of loss, fear of change, felt exclusion, attuning to power) may produce an uncomfortably self-aware political dissonance, where Canadian settler colonialism is operates quietly through the (re)production of queer space. This tension is well symbolized by the growing tendency to include Indigenous design motifs (e.g., a medicine wheel, purple symbolizing Two Row Wampum) as part of the now commonplace rainbow crosswalk. In our worried clammer for cultural sustainability, memorialization, and/or to save the gaybourhood and gay bar from its post-gay demise, have we ignored the ways queer placemaking may also be place-taking? With that in mind, I guess I am left wondering: Why would someone ever want to read this document? It's grievous stuff. “Unbearable,” insofar as the relief from one anxiety simply affords another, resulting in what Berlant (2022, p. 151) described as “a threat that feels like a threat.” I don’t want to be “here” (Jones et al., 2020, p. 402).
Exploring volunteering experiences of South Asian Indians and their intersections with community identity and daily life in Canada
(University of Waterloo, 2023-09-19) Tewari, Aradhana
There is abundant evidence that volunteering generates both positive and negative impacts on the daily lives of volunteers as well as individuals in the communities they serve (Cavanaugh et al., 2000; Han et al., 2020, p.1732). Volunteering experiences of immigrant communities like South Asian Indians (SAIs) in Canada are not well represented in Western volunteering literature, and this gap is especially concerning in times when there is a worldwide decline in volunteering retention (Stefanick et al., 2020, p.124). To help fill this gap, I interviewed SAIs in Canada to understand what it means to volunteer for them and what constitutes their volunteering experiences. Throughout the research, I became increasingly aware of the importance of a variety of contextual factors that shaped the volunteering experience. Adopting a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, I was able to explore the ways in which different contextual factors influenced the volunteering interpretations, motivations, recognition of the SAI community identity, as well as the impact that volunteering created on daily life. The shared conversations with the SAI volunteers revealed four principal themes: (1) volunteering interpretations are different in the native and immigrant country, (2) settlement goals and leisure goals are primary volunteer motives, (3) the SAI community identity emerges when volunteers seek familiarity in the Canadian contexts, and (4) volunteering meanings, motives, and identities interact to have a possible impact on daily life. The findings highlight the interactions between the contexts, volunteers’ priorities, leisure outcomes of volunteering, and culture at the volunteering organization, thereby reinforcing the significance of considering the contextual factors in future research. In addition, the study presents volunteer participants’ suggestions that can support volunteering organizations in their work to improve volunteer welfare and volunteer retention.
Communal Orientation and Employee Well-Being: Examining the Mediating Roles of Positive Relational Communication and Perceptions of Customer Interactions
(University of Waterloo, 2023-06-15) Fu, Ying
Customer interactions can be a significant source of work-related stress for hospitality employees, which can lead to burnout and high employee turnover rates. However, adopting a communal approach to customer relationships may help reduce these stressors. This approach involves caring for others based on their needs and welfare, with less expectation of return. To investigate the potential benefits of having a communal orientation in the hospitality industry, the present study conducted a survey among 610 hospitality frontline employees in Hainan Island, China and examined the relationship between communal orientation and well-being outcomes. Additionally, the study investigated potential mediating mechanisms that could explain this relationship. Results suggested that higher levels of employee communal orientation were associated with lower burnout, greater work engagement, higher job satisfaction, and greater life satisfaction. These associations were all explained by employees’ perceived intimacy during customer interactions. Perceived social orientation also accounted for the positive association between communal orientation and work engagement. However, employee perceived information seeking suppressed the potential positive effect of communal orientation on the need for recovery. Positive relational communication behaviours did not explain the association between communal orientation and well-being. These findings contribute to the relationship literature by providing important evidence for the advantages of having a communal orientation in business relationship contexts. The findings suggest that hospitality managers can enhance employee well-being by acknowledging the significance of communal orientation and relationship intimacy. To achieve this, the managers could explore effective solutions such as frontline recruitment, intimacy-enhancing interventions, and investment in employee well-being.
Opportunities for Redress: Re-imagining Relations, Restoration, and Leisure for Uniformed Bodies serving as First Responders
(University of Waterloo, 2023-03-17) Leighton, Jaylyn Joanne
In times of distress, uniformed first responders (UFRs) are the first formal line of care on scene and are responsible for providing care. Due to the obligations required of UFRs, they are considered to be at higher risk for experiencing traumatic stressors that may lead to concerns with their mental well-being (such as depression, alcoholism, post-traumatic stress, major depression, generalized anxiety, and sleep disorders) (Benedek et al., 2007; Bennett et al., 2004; Carey et al., 2011; Fullerton et al., 2004; Jacobson et al., 2008; Meyer et al., 2012). In the current climate of social activist movements (Black Lives Matter (BLM) and #Defundthepolice, in particular), the purpose of this research is to unpack and address the complex issue of care provision for first responders alongside these long overdue movements. Drawing from critical theories of disability, this research project was methodologically inspired by critical participatory action research (PAR) and narrative inquiry (Clandinin, 2016). I partnered with a local organization (FF) – a community-based holistic wellness centre built for and by UFRs to offer wellness-based services in Southern Ontario. The PAR team (three individuals) recruited 11 participants (six police officers, four paramedics, and one corrections officer) to participate in a series of audio-recorded focus groups and semi-structured interviews (September to December, 2021). This work was guided by concepts of power, privilege, and culture to unpack what it means to identify as a UFR (i.e., the militant ideologies, power-laden relations and performances, and symbolic representations) By un-learning and re-learning how emergent care is provided in these situations, and how restorative justice and care can be re-centered, this work aims to resist systemic oppressions (i.e., capitalism, government-sanctioned power, and ableism), restore caring bodies, and reconcile power relations with the public. This work employs the concept of redress ¬– the idea of resisting, restoring, repairing, or reconciling – (similar to Amighetti & Nuti, 2015; Henderson & Wakeham, 2013; Spiga, 2012) to address: (1) parts of institutional culture that UFRs that perpetuate toxic resilience, (2) the lack of mental health care relations and support that exist within UFR cultures, and (3) the need for leisure spaces of care, compassion, and healing. Through a reflexive, interpretive analysis (Smith et al.,1999), three main threads are described as making up the material and symbolic constructs of the UFR uniform (relations of power, cultural habitus and performing the expectations and symbolic representation) (Bourdieu, 1990; Butler, 1990; Foucault, 1977; Holt, 2008). Interrupted by necessary reflections on ableism, capitalism, white supremacy, and power in relation to UFRs, the findings of this research provide conceptual and practical implications on how government-sanctioned power is strategically used to maintain toxic relations within institutions that govern UFRs. I also offer reflections on how UFRs and the public experience parallel tensions and systemic harms as a result of government-sanctioned institutions of power. Leisure as a space for coping with stresses and trauma(s) (Heintzman, 2008; Iwasaki & Mannell, 2000; Kleiber et al., 2002; Weissinger & Iso-Ahola, 1984) is then used to better understand how UFRs take up leisure to navigate the nuances of stepping into laborious caring roles. This research makes a case for how leisure as care, healing, and restoration can be used to begin to mend the broken systemic relations for UFRs and the public. The findings of this research are represented through a narrative (documentary inspired) script as a means to share the stories and lived experiences told by UFRs. Future research can build on this work by interrupting government-sanctioned institutions of power that continue to privilege processes of ableism, capitalism, and colonialism and enact systemic harms and violences on UFRs and the public. All persons are in need of care in our badly fractured systems. I believe spaces of leisure can be used to cope and heal from systemic oppressions by offering opportunities for care, healing, and restoration to better meet the communal needs of all members of the public, including UFRs.
Sacred Memories, Decolonial Futurities
(University of Waterloo, 2023-02-02) Fortin, Kendra
Employing a collective memory work research methodology, this thesis narrates discussions between four Settler-Christians as they grapple with notions of travel, tourism, Christianity, divinity, and settler colonialism. Informed by settler colonial theory and postcolonial theology, the purpose of this collective memory work study was to collaborate in understanding, critiquing, and ultimately enhancing Indigenous-Settler relationships as storied in and through the travel experiences of Settler-Christian students at a Canadian university. Memory texts demonstrated how notions of divinity are tied to broader Christian discourses, specifically relating to divinity as connected to service, land, evangelism, and material expressions of religiosity. Analyses revealed the ways in which memory texts both do and undo settler colonialism in tourism contexts. Participating in the collective memory work process encouraged co-participants to consider the diversity of Christian theology and religious interpretation, thus creating space for the emergence of theologies oriented to uplift Indigenous ways of being and Indigenous expressions of Christianity. This study also demonstrated how theological inquiry might be deployed in tourism research to enrich and complicate analyses, especially those related to religious tourism experiences.
The Influence of Shared Leadership in Positive Youth Development Through Sport
(University of Waterloo, 2022-10-03) Crane, Nathaniel
Leadership research has begun to expand and develop, with scholars attempting to understand which leadership styles may be the best fit for their own specific research contexts. Currently, leadership research is starting to explore shared leadership, a form of leadership that is bringing about positive impacts on non-profit and various sport organizations (Jones et al., 2018; Ensley & Pearce, 2000; Pearce et al., 2004; Shilbury & Ferkins, 2011). Organizations are beginning to adapt strategies to help foster the connection and communication between paid staff and unpaid volunteers, board members, and even participants (Shilbury & Ferkins, 2011). Leadership research also has looked at understanding how leadership styles can impact youth development in sport (Vidic & Burton, 2011). However, there is a specificity missing in the current and past leadership research that is available, mainly to do with context. Sport-for-development (SFD) and positive youth development (PYD) are two key characteristics that must be kept in mind when conducting leadership research as it provides significant implications for the context of studies. Although leadership research is said to be important, scholars still cite that there is oversight from sport organizations when developing programs on leadership and implementing the correct style (Svensson et al., 2017). This is a clear gap in the literature pertaining to leadership research, and is an area that, if researched and developed, could provide practical implications to sport organizations. Given the listed emphasis on previous research, and the gaps that exist, the purpose of this study is to understand how shared leadership assists Adventure4Change, a local non-profit organization, in achieving its desired outcomes. This study is framed in a case study context and is developed using theory from concepts such as positive youth development, sport-for-development, and shared leadership. Various characteristics of Adventure4Change are explored including the impact that shared leadership has on areas such as PYD and organizational capacity, while also ensuring that the tensions and challenges are critically examined throughout the study. This qualitative study illustrates the process of a local non-profit implementing a youth soccer program and how utilizing a specific leadership strategy in shared leadership can impact the outcomes of that program. To understand the outcomes of the program and how leadership shaped those, both semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used. Eight individual semi-structured interviews were conducted along with two focus groups to collect data. The participants of the interviews and focus groups included staff, volunteers, parent of program participants, and youth participants; 17 individuals in total were spoken to across these interviews and focus groups. Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis was used to develop themes from the interview data in order to draw final findings and conclusions. A number of themes were developed across the different areas of focus for the study. The themes spanned a number of topics such as the roles of staff in shared leadership, how shared leadership specifically impacts organizational capacity, how shared leadership effects positive youth development, and the tensions and challenges that an organization must navigate through the shared leadership process. The findings suggest that shared leadership is important in developing a level of trust between Adventure4Change and the community it is serving, trust that spans across ethnic and racial diversity, diversity in roles and responsibilities, and the safety of program participants. Areas of organizational capacity such as financial, resources – both human and physical, and building program sustainability were found to be positively impacted by shared leadership. Youth felt inspired and valued, trusted by their leadership, and were enabled to be leadership and share responsibility of the programs they were involved in. The families felt closer and more connected to their community and felt safe in the spaces that their children were involved in. The topics of sustainability and gathering feedback were the main areas that were found to be most challenging for the organization, but it was found through the data that early signs of sustainability were forming, and feedback may have to be gathered in a strategic way by building trust between organization and community. The end of the study offers recommendations for practice for Adventure4Change, the organization under study. It also provides a direction for further research as leadership research, specifically shared leadership research, is a developing sector that shows much promise in its early outcomes.
A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Experiences of Community Reintegration for Women Leaving Prison
(University of Waterloo, 2022-09-12) Momi, Preet
Women are a small, yet growing, increasingly diverse and complex group out of the overall Canadian prison population. From 2005 to 2015, the population of people in Canadian prisons rose by approximately 10% and most of this growth can be attributed to the increase of visible minorities, individuals of Indigenous descent and women in prison. Presently, more than 50% of the women are under supervision in community, thus in need of support as they attempt to socially reintegrate. Unfortunately, in comparison to the average Canadian, formerly incarcerated women carry a greater rate of mental health and substance abuse issues and are more likely to have a history of sexual or physical abuse. In comparison to men, women are often more vulnerable and likely to experience negative outcomes from incarceration, including continuous stigmatization while re-entering the community. Thus, women leaving prison may face a wide array of constraints to achieving a healthy lifestyle. Thankfully, decades of research have shown that relationships hold great value in helping women achieve a sense of normalcy in their lives during their transitions from prison into community. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of women reintegrating into community after imprisonment. To do this, I performed a feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) on a data set of longitudinal transcribed interviews with six women who have experienced incarceration at the Grand Valley Institution for Women (GVI). The women took part in a community-based restorative justice program, known as Stride Circles, in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.
Understanding Young Carers and their Leisure (UYCL): A Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) Initiative
(University of Waterloo, 2022-08-30) Norman, Rebekah
As of 2012, Statistics Canada estimated there were a minimum 1.2 million young Canadians supporting a family member or friend with a long-term health condition, disability, or as an older adult (Statistics Canada, 2012). Young carers voices and perspectives are predominantly missing from representations of their lived experiences in research, social policy, and support services. Leisure may have important implications for supporting young carers in their care roles; however, little attention has been brought to understanding young carers’ meanings and experiences of leisure. This critical participatory action research (CPAR) project partnered with young carers and staff supporting them to expand our understandings of young carers' experiences of care and how those care experiences shape leisure. Our team, made up of staff from two young carer organizations in Ontario and four, bright young carers, collaboratively and critically explored dominant conceptualizations of young carers and their leisure to better understand how to support young carers in their care roles. Drawing on critical youth studies and an authentic partnership approach, our CPAR process brings attention to the possibilities of involving young carers in actions and decision-making throughout all phases of the research. Our CPAR project brought attention to four key themes: There is Nothing Unnatural About Being a Young Carer: It’s About Just Being Human; Tensions in Understandings and Experiences of Young Carers; Leisure as Relational Moments of Rejuvenation in Everyday Life, and; Being Acknowledged as Relational Beings. Through privileging the perspectives of young carers, our findings contribute an alternative conceptualization of young carers and their leisure, filling gaps in research, policy, and practice.
The Role of Campus Recreational Sports Participation in Predicting Students' Psychological Wellbeing during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Goal Orientation Approach
(University of Waterloo, 2022-07-13) Abdeahad, Narges
The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic and sudden campus lockdown added new stressors and challenges (e.g., academic uncertainty, e-learning challenges, financial/emotional struggles; Abdeahad & Mock, in review) to post-secondary students’ academic life. Drawing on goal orientation theory (Dykman, 1998), the purpose of this study was to examine the role of pre-lockdown campus recreational sports (CRS) participation in protecting students’ psychological wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, growth mindset was examined as a potential mediator to explain how pre-lockdown CRS participation can help students use more adaptive coping strategies to overcome Covid-19 related challenges and protect their psychological wellbeing during the campus lockdown. Studies show growth-oriented individuals see challenges and setbacks as opportunities to learn new strategies rather than as a test of their basic self-worth (i.e., goal orientation model; Dykman, 1998). In the face of negative life events, rather than losing self-esteem, starting self-blaming, or disengaging from an apparently unmanageable activity, a growth-oriented individual appraises negative outcomes less threatening. Therefore, they experience less anxiety and may have a greater level of psychological wellbeing. From leisure and recreational perspective, regular exercises and sport activities can also improve self-control, self-esteem, self-efficiency, and positive social interactions all of which help students cope more adaptively with life stressors (Edwards, 2002; Coleman & Iso-Ahola, 1993; Yiannakis et al, 2001) leading to greater personal and social growth (Shaw & Dawson, 2001) and psychological wellbeing enhancement (Kilgo et al., 2016; Stebbins, 2018). Pre-lockdown CRS participation was also associated with lower levels of stress during the pandemic (Abdeahad & Mock, in review). Taken together, it stands to reason that the students who participated in CRS activities before the pandemic are likely to be more growth oriented. Therefore, in the face of pandemic-related challenges they are more likely to engage in adaptive coping strategies which in turn can protect their psychological wellbeing over time. Self-administered online survey data were collected at two time points from 116 students who participated in CRS programs at the University of Waterloo. Findings showed that the sample participants were mainly undergraduate male domestic Canadian students who, on average, participated four times a week in different recreational activities offered on campus before the lockdown. Regression analyses were used to investigate the effect of CRS participation on five dimensions of psychological wellbeing: autonomy, environmental mastery, positive relations with others, self-acceptance, and purpose in life during the pandemic. Results indicated that pre-lockdown CRS participation had a significant positive impact on protecting students’ environmental mastery and self-acceptance during the pandemic. However, the association was not statistically significant with autonomy, positive relations with others, and purpose in life. The off-campus recreational activities (e.g., running, bicycling, yoga) in which students participated during the lockdown were not found to have a statistically significant effect on the associations, showing that positive outcomes of engagement in CRS activities is beyond short term enjoyment, physical benefits, learning new sports, or finding new friends. An examination of the serial mediation model in which the pathway of CRS participation predicting psychological wellbeing (i.e., environmental mastery and self-acceptance) first through growth mindset and then subsequently through adaptive coping strategies showed that the indirect effect through both mediators was statistically significant. It can be concluded that pre-lockdown CRS participation can enhance students’ growth mindset, therefore, they are less likely than those with a validation mindset to consider challenges as a threat, but a warning that their life is out of balance, and a desire to find meaning or purpose in the challenges they encounter. According to Dykman (1998) an individual with a primarily growth mindset appraises stressors as manageable and controllable problems that need to be either resolved or the underlying negative emotions should be modified. Therefore, they engage more in adaptive coping strategies such as instrumental supports, new strategy plans, positive reframing, and emotional support. It can be concluded that greater pre-lockdown CRS participation helped students to enhance a growth mindset, and that in the face of pandemic-related challenges, due to this growth mindset, they could take on behaviours to manage problems and challenges in a way to protect their perception of mastery and self-acceptance.
(In)visible Hero: Heroism as an Aid in the Extraction of Care Labour During the COVID-19 Pandemic
(University of Waterloo, 2022-06-24) Cargill, Crystal-Jade
This honours thesis examined the myriad ways in which discourse supported the extraction and overproduction of care labour through the use of heroism labels. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the label of heroism was used to describe the contributions of Healthcare Workers (HCWs) in different settings. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, care labour was largely considered an invisible occupation (Hennekam et al., 2020). However, the severe impact of the pandemic on collective health and wellbeing resulted in a drastic shift in the ways that care labour was framed and discussed. I highlight the use of heroism by policy makers, Long Term Care Homes (LTCHs) and mainstream media as a prop to meet the critical needs of heroism through HCW labour. This sudden shift in care discourse created a potentially harmful arena with limited capacity to support this heroism narrative long after the pandemic has ended.ﾠThus, questioning the motivation, validity and durability of this narrative in a post-pandemic world. One in which care labour will continue to exist and be required in large quantities to sustain the ever-changing LTCH system. This study utilized critical framing theory (Entman 1993; Fridkin et al, 2017) to further understand how heroism has been positioned and constructed to acquire, maintain, and over-ask of care workers and their labour. Critical narrative inquiries (Austin & Anderson, 2021; Tracy, 2013) were utilized to describe the lived experiences of the heroism narrative amongst HCWs employed in LTCHs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings in this research study indicated that HCWs felt as though the use of heroism discourse along with the overproduction of labour disconnected them from rest, respite, and community. Additionally, themes of sacrifice, moral injury and perceived risk in healthcare settings were identified and further discussed. Future implications including stronger pandemic preparedness policy, and interprofessional collaboration are also considered and discussed.
Gender and Physically Active Leisure: Testing Constraints as Mechanism
(University of Waterloo, 2022-05-26) Feng, Ruth
Most adults fail to achieve the minimum amount of exercise for an active lifestyle (Troiano et al., 2008), which is at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes per week of vigorous-intensity exercise in order to receive the health benefits associated with an active lifestyle (U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee, 2008). However, in an objectively measured sample, more than 95% of American adults fail to achieve 30 minutes per day on most days of the week (Troiano et al., 2008). Moreover, women tend to be less physically active than men across age groups, and women over 50 years old are more likely to be inactive than men of similar ages (Shiroma & Lee, 2010; Armstrong, Bauman, & Davies, 2000). This finding may be related to various phenomena. For example, a typical image of traditional gender roles for women is someone who is a "wilting violet" (Hochschild, 2002) who needs support from others to function fully; Women are expected to be mothers with children living at home who devote more time to housework and parenting and have less leisure time than fathers (Bianchi, Wight, & Raley, 2005; Bianchi, Robinson, & Milkie, 2006; Craig, 2006); There is also an economic gender gap with inequalities in both the quantity and quality of women's economic involvement (Medina-Claros et al., 2021). In leisure studies research, Crawford and Godbey's leisure constraints (1987) may help explain some of these inequities in access to leisure related to gender. In addition to leisure constraints, I will draw on Henderson's (1994) five stages in feminist leisure research, Bem's (1993) gender role ideology, Huyck's gender-role socialization (1999) to help explain gendered patterns of leisure participation. The factors proposed to explain these gendered constraints are agency (intrapersonal), division of domestic labor (interpersonal), and socioeconomic status (structural). They were chosen to align with both the choices of earlier researchers and the headings in Crawford's leisure constraints model.
An Intersectional Colour-Blind Frame Analysis of Sports News Coverage on Athlete Activism in the WNBA, NBA, and NHL Following the Shooting of Jacob Blake
(University of Waterloo, 2022-05-17) Kabetu, Victoria
Despite Black women leading the way in athlete activism, there is little research and discussion on their experiences doing so. With the rapid progression of athlete activism in sport, it is important to understand the ways it is currently interpreted and disseminated by sport news entities especially since this is a space Black woman, and women in general, are typically underrepresented. This study analyzed how sport news framed the racial justice protests that occurred in the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) after a Black man named Jacob Blake was shot and left partly paralyzed by a White police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A framing analysis, anchored in Critical Race Feminism and the five Colour-blind frames offered by Bonilla-Silva (2006) and Jayakumar & Adamian (2017), was conducted to compare 272 articles and 84 league statements written the two weeks after the shooting (August 24 – September 6). The findings show that both articles and league statements discuss the protest, athlete activism, and racial justice in ways that are rooted in the male experience and Whiteness, thus perpetuating inequalities and limiting social progress. Therefore, this study suggests that there is a need for organizational and cultural change within sport journalism, sport leagues, and sport research to effectively represent, fight for, and protect the rights and human dignity of all athletes, staff, and audiences, no matter their gender and race.
Hand-mapped stories of ‘Canadian’ Blackness, Failed Multiculturalism, and Black Humanity in a Predominantly White Mid-Sized City in South-Western Ontario
(University of Waterloo, 2022-05-13) Kwarko-Fosu, Nana Akua
The happy, upbeat narratives of multiculturalism in Canada misrepresent lived experiences of individuals who embody Canada’s narrative of multiculturalism and cultural diversity (Berry, 2013; Walcott & Abdillahi, 2019). This thesis asks young Black-‘Canadian’ adults to reflect on when and how they show up as their true, authentic selves while in their predominantly white mid-sized city (PWMC), Kitchener-Waterloo. Using art-based methodologies (Betancourt, 2015) and collective reflection (Mann & Walsh, 2013), I braided (Bancroft, 2018) the discussions to race and multiculturalism literature into five moments: Racist Experiences in Kitchener-Waterloo, Coping in Predominantly White (PW) spaces, Representation: Who needs it, Negotiation to Full Humanity and Community, and Encompassing All Peoples in Communities. In collaboration with the volunteers in this project, we call on those living in Kitchener-Waterloo to address the harms contributed to by racialisation and racism in tangible ways.
“The world has always been like a comic book world to me”: Examining representations of queer stories in comics and other media
(University of Waterloo, 2022-05-13) Caza, Kelsey
Engagement with media has become the most popular form of leisure in our lives with approximately 40% of leisure time being dedicated to television viewing alone (Mullen, 2020). The consumption of books, graphic novels/comics, videogames, movies, and TV have only increased since the start COVID-19 pandemic (Doherty, Millar & Misener, 2020; Reid, 2021). Due to media’s significant impact on our cultural beliefs, it is becoming increasingly important to be conscious of the messages being relayed particularly those around queer identities as they have historically been reduced to unjust portrayals or erased from media entirely (Gerber et al., 2002; Meyer, 2020; Key, 2015; Corey, 2017). This thesis seeks to examine the ways media, and specifically comic books/graphic novels, represent queer identities. In this thesis, I use a text, context, paratext analysis to explore a graphic novel, The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars; secondary data that examines the lived experiences of bisexual women living in Waterloo Region; and social media posts discussing the queer representation in my chosen graphic novel. I highlight the importance of continuing to include just and meaningful queer representations in mainstream media.
The relationship between online gaming and wellbeing among post-secondary students
(University of Waterloo, 2022-05-06) McDonald, Hayley
As the “fastest growing form of entertainment in the world” (Tran, 2019, p. 76), gaming has become a significant part of our society (Groening & Binnewies, 2019). Considering its widespread popularity as a leisure activity amongst adolescents and adults (Entertainment Software Association of Canada, 2020), it is unsurprising that multiple studies have explored its relationship to the player’s wellbeing. Previous research has found mixed findings regarding gaming’s impact on wellbeing. Several findings have identified gaming as a way to relieve stress, relax (Russoniello et al., 2009; Snodgrass et al., 2011; Wack & Tantleff-Dunn, 2009), positively influence aspects of social wellbeing (Gitter et al., 2013; Kowert & Oldmeadow, 2015; Martončik & Lokša, 2016) and is associated with a variety of improvements in psychological and physiological functions (Ryan et al., 2006). Despite these benefits, numerous other findings have associated gaming with negative outcomes such as interfering with a player’s social functioning, wellbeing, and adjustment (Grüsser et al., 2007; Stockdale & Coyne, 2018; Weinstein, 2010). Given these apparent contradictions in previous literature, further exploration needs to be conducted in understanding the relationship of gaming and wellbeing among post-secondary students. To examine this relationship, additional factors that can impact one’s wellbeing should be considered such as the motives for engaging in their leisure pursuits, one’s feelings of connection and support from others in the community, and the breadth of activities one engages in. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between gaming and wellbeing among post-secondary students while taking into account the player’s motivation, social connectedness, and overall leisure repertoire. A secondary data analysis was undertaken using data (n = 982) gathered from the Georgian College Student Wellbeing Survey launched in January 2019 conducted by the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW). Multiple factors were considered in exploring the relationship to wellbeing including the students demographic characteristics (age, sex, student status). Students identified the frequency and intensity of their gaming, a measure of their leisure repertoire was calculated, and the degree to which they were socially motivated to participate in their leisure assessed. Three different measures were used to assess social connectedness: (1) number of close friends, (2) feelings of social isolation, and (3) sense of community (i.e., social climate and bonds). Finally, as a measure of their subjective wellbeing, students rated their life satisfaction along an 11-point scale. The findings indicated that neither whether students participated in gaming nor their intensity of gaming were significant factors in explaining wellbeing. Instead, social factors (feelings of social isolation and perceptions of social climate and bonds) and leisure repertoire were particularly significant factors in explaining their wellbeing. Reducing feelings of social isolation emerged as the most important factor in explaining wellbeing irrespective of how intensely or how often students participate in gaming. Ultimately, social context is the most important factor in explaining variations in wellbeing, above and beyond other factors including gaming participation and intensity.
Establishing Legitimacy in the Face of a Dominant Amateur Sport Organization: A Case Study of True Hockey
(University of Waterloo, 2022-04-04) Wigfield, Daniel
The context of sport is ripe with instances of change, despite the depiction of long-term stability (Washington & Patterson, 2011). Within amateur sport—in particular, youth sport—criticism of the increased standardization and underlying logics that govern it has never been greater. In most contexts, entrepreneurs can enter the marketplace with their own unique operations to serve dissatisfied consumers; however, doing so within an institutionalized sport system has been difficult (Legg et al., 2016). Indeed, powerful national and regional governing bodies rely on coercive pressures to ensure their member community sport organizations (CSOs) remain aligned with their organizational vision and values (Slack & Parent, 2006). To date, little remains known about institutional entrepreneurship as a process of disruption in the amateur sport system, including how and why it develops and persists against significant resistance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop understandings of how new sport organizations can successfully challenge dominant sport organizations, and how they can achieve their own legitimacy within a highly institutionalized system in order to diversify the range of opportunities available to youth participants. Theoretically, this study draws on an institutional work perspective, which explores the mechanisms that actors employ to create, maintain, and/or disrupt institutions (Lawrence et al., 2009). Guided by an instrumental case study methodology (Stake, 1995), this study explored the case of a minor hockey organization (i.e., True Hockey) in Ontario, Canada that has been successful at overcoming barriers to operate independently from the athlete development system established by the sport’s national governing association (i.e., Hockey Canada). True Hockey is one of a few organizations to have provided youth an alternative to Hockey Canada’s highly restrictive development programming (Garbutt, 2018; Radley, 2015). Following its development, True Hockey was identified as a problem by Hockey Canada that it needed to address. Historically, Hockey Canada has invoked a policy that labels organizations like True Hockey as “outlaw leagues” and prohibits participation by anyone associated with these rival organizations (Campbell, 2019). Additionally, Hockey Canada has also shown a tendency to adjust its organizational boundaries to absorb members of “outlaw leagues” to eliminate any threats to its dominance (Kalchman, 2010). Data were collected via interviews with 20 stakeholders of True Hockey (i.e., executives, parents, coaches, managers). Additionally, data were also extracted from organizational documents, promotional materials, and media reports. Documents and interviews were analyzed using abductive reasoning (Dubois & Gadde, 2002). Through an abductive approach, the researcher attempts to explain as much of the phenomenon (i.e., True Hockey’s ability to develop as an organization and achieve legitimacy despite challenges from a dominant organization within the institutionalized sport system) as possible with existing theory while looking for anomalies in the data that may require new explanations (Timmermans & Tavory, 2012). It is through the consistent confronting of theory with the empirical world that a novel advancement of institutional work can be established (Dubois & Gadde, 2002). A relativist approach to trustworthiness was established in accordance with guidance provided by Smith and Caddick (2012). Findings revealed that True Hockey’s key actors have had to navigate four distinct phases of evolution in order to garner support and gain legitimacy within a field that lacks alternatives to program delivery. Specifically, the four phases of evolution that have contributed to the establishment of True Hockey include the Building, Growth, Competition, and Stabilization phases. Each phase is characterized by distinct actions and concepts reflective of the institutional work necessary to launch and maintain a new sport organization. Consistent with existing institutionalization literature, the most effective work performed by True Hockey’s key actors involved the manipulation and control of the organization’s boundaries, practices, and cognitions in order to put pressure on the dominant organizations in the field. Impressively, the embedded nature of Hockey Canada’s logics throughout the hockey community provided the organization an institutional presence that could not be overcome. Thus, to secure the long-term viability of the organization, True Hockey executives and staff made the decision to abandon its success as an independent minor hockey organization to become a sanctioned member of Hockey Canada after 15 years. True Hockey executives and staff deemed the institutionalization process when the organization accepted Hockey Canada membership. Interestingly, the perceptions of both parents and coaches from within True Hockey suggest that the organization’s work with regards to its pursuit of legitimacy remains incomplete. Parents and coaches have and will continue to gauge True Hockey’s legitimacy through the evaluation of its business processes, athlete development programming, and participant experiences. The evolution of True Hockey offers key insights into how a new CSO transitions from start-up organization to legitimate venture within the highly restrictive and regulated sport system. Considering the pressure that many governing bodies in a variety of sports are under to introduce updates to their development systems for youth, the lessons from this case are timely as they show that entrepreneurs are valuable to a sport system because they challenge and debate past ways of doing things in order to create better sport experiences.

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