Leisure and spiritual well-being: A response to Bouwer and Van Leeuwen

Abstract

ABSTRACT Bouwer and Van Leeuwen after reviewing the research of three leisure scholars concluded that these scholars ‘conceptualisations are fundamentally related to psychological well-being and not spiritual well-being.’ Their review built upon Bouwer’s earlier chapter that examined whether leisure contributes to spiritual well-being. Bouwer concluded ‘the existent evidence for supporting the statement that leisure is a moderator for spiritual well-being is (conceptually) too weak to make a valid case for it.’ To advance scholarship on this topic and ultimately enhance our understanding of the relationship between leisure and spiritual well-being, the purpose of this paper is to respond to both Bouwer’s and Bouwer and Van Leeuwen’s research reviews. This paper concludes that most studies on leisure and spiritual well-being have discovered that leisure is associated with or contributes to spiritual well-being while a few studies have demonstrated that leisure can also detract from spiritual well-being.