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

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.