Purpose: College students’ well-being is important for their self-growth and the whole society. However, we still know relatively little about how college students could proactively, strategically improve their well-being in the leisure context. Following the self-determination theory and proactivity literature, this study examines how and when leisure crafting (ie, a proactive act whereby individuals balance their leisure resources and demands by utilizing their personal abilities and needs) can enhance college students’ well-being.
Methods: Conducting a quantitative weekly diary study of 80 Chinese students in an engineering college (320 observations), we drew a moderated mediation model.
Results: We found that weekly leisure crafting behaviors (ie, seeking structural leisure resources, seeking social leisure resources, seeking leisure challenges, and reducing hindering leisure demands) were positively related to weekly intrinsic need satisfaction (ie, need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness), then resulting in higher weekly subjective well-being (ie, physical thriving, mental health, and life meaningfulness). Moreover, this indirect effect was stronger for those who had a higher level of leisure boredom.
Conclusion: Our study contributes to student development and well-being literature by focusing on the students’ leisure context and providing a means to enhance their well-being. We unfold how the leisure crafting strategy boosts college students’ well-being via increasing their intrinsic need satisfaction. We also highlight the compensating role of leisure crafting when one is in an unfavorable personal state (eg, leisure boredom).
Bibliographical noteAll procedures performed in this study were in accordance with American Psychological Association (APA) ethical regulations regarding the treatment of human participants. This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the Ethics Committee of the University of Jinan, with written informed consent from all subjects. All the participants were asked to read and approve this ethical consent before taking part in the present study and followed it in the process of research. The protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Jinan.
© 2022 Xue et al.
- College student
- Diary study
- Intrinsic need satisfaction
- Leisure boredom
- Leisure crafting