Emotion and Stress in Serious and Hedonistic Leisure Sport Activities

Abstract

Forty-four Japanese women recreational tennis players aged 28 to 58 years old acted as the main sample of volunteer participants in this reversal theory-based study of changes in emotion and stress induced by a single session of leisure activity. Based on their primary reason for playing tennis (e.g., health, exercise, weight control, versus fun, challenge), participants were divided into “serious” (telic) and “hedonistic” (paratelic) leisure groups respectively. Participants completed the Tension and Effort Stress Inventory (TESI), five minutes before and within five minutes after playing tennis. Although no significant inter-group differences were found, a number of significant pre-to post-session intra-group changes were revealed following statistical analysis. For the serious group, a decrease in overall unpleasant emotions was significant, as were decreases in external tension stress. A significant decrease in external tension stress was also obtained for the hedonistic group. For individual emotions, a number of statistically significant results were also revealed. Taken together, the results indicated that, especially for the serious group, tennis activities had a therapeutic effect, producing an improvement in overall affect.

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