Recreation and Leisure Studies

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/9898

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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Browsing Recreation and Leisure Studies by Author "Johnson, Corey"

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    THE PERFECT STORM: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY OF IN-PATIENT MENTAL HEALTH RECOVERY (TRAUMA AND SUBSTANCE-USE): A NARRATIVE EXPLORATION
    (University of Waterloo, 2018-09-21) Leighton, Jaylyn; Johnson, Corey
    Given the marginalizing effects of a mental health diagnosis, individuals with a mental health diagnosis, more specifically those in early recovery of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance-use disorders (SUDs), are not provided opportunities to share their stories. This comes from a long-held view of the dominant medical model that currently operates within our societal systems. PTSD and SUDs were once considered to effect a small, concrete population, but has since grown to represent the greatest number of individuals accessing mental health resources (Muskett, 2014). To address this concern, complementary therapeutic modalities have begun to emerge including the field of outdoor experiential programming, nature experiences, and modalities pulled from the field of psychotherapy (Ewert, McCormick & Voight, 2001). Outdoor therapeutic practices utilize an outdoor setting to enhance an individual’s physical, social, and psychological well-being through the application of structured experiential activities (Ewert et al., 2001). Yet what is not as well understood is how this type of complementary therapeutic practices can be used in an in-patient care setting. To bridge a needed understanding of the lived experiences of individuals’ living with PTSD and SUDs while engaging in an outdoor experiential psychotherapy workshop, I used narrative inquiry as a platform for the ‘voice in the cracks’ to be heard (Jackson & Mazzei, 2005). This project describes my narrative experience of engaging in the workshop with individuals currently attending the in-patient care program for integrated alcohol and drug addiction and trauma at Homewood Health Centre in Guelph, Ontario. Focus groups and in-depth semi-structured narrative life-story interviews were used to story individuals’ lived experiences of engaging in an outdoor experiential psychotherapy workshop in early recovery. Positioning this research within a pragmatic worldview, I worked towards understanding the use of complementary forms of therapeutic practices, including outdoor experiential psychotherapy, within an in-patient care setting. In turn, this will continue the conversation around the rising issues in the field of mental health recovery and in-patient care and illuminate a dialogue that brings forth the stories of individuals living with a mental health diagnosis to create positive social change.
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    Rethinking drinking: an exploration of the discourses surrounding binge-drinking among first-year university students that live in residence
    (University of Waterloo, 2019-08-08) Farrar, Elizabeth; Johnson, Corey
    Over one-third of Canadian university students engage in heavy drinking, with even higher rates reported amongst those who live in on-campus residences (CAMH 2004; Kypri, Paschall, Langley, Baxter & Bourdeau, 2010). At the time of this study, there was very little recent research to demonstrate the prevalence of alcohol consumption amongst young adults in postsecondary education in Canada. The purpose of this narrative inquiry is to deconstruct the experiences of binge-drinking among first-year undergraduate students at a Canadian university. Data was collected through interviews with the nine participants, allowing the participants to share their stories of drinking and understandings of the ways that social norms influenced their decisions. The interview data was then analyzed to highlight the discourses of drinking that exist within the university residence context, the ways that the discourses are disseminated and disciplined among first-year students, and the ways that first-year students negotiate these discourses of drinking. After analyzing the data, I rewrote the stories shared by the nine participants into three narratives. These three narratives all tell the stories about one Friday night in residence but are written from three perspectives to demonstrate the varying experiences and understandings of the discourses as described by the participants. The thesis concludes with a discussion on the ways that drinking in residence is understood as safe. Understanding drinking in residence as safe manifested in several ways throughout the interviews, highlighting the ways that certain policies and practices further normalize drinking as an acceptable part of the university student experience.
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    Young, Wild*, and (somewhat) Free: A Narrative Exploration of Married Second- Generation East Indian Canadian Women and Their Relationship with Leisure
    (University of Waterloo, 2019-08-02) Nijjar, Jasmine; Johnson, Corey
    Stemming from my personal experiences of a second-generation East Indian (SGEI) woman living in Canada, I explore the complexities of leisure within marriages. I employ postcolonial feminist theorization to contextualize the Other identity and how power relations function to change women’s leisure behaviour. Deepening our understanding of these discourses, I employed narrative inquiry to bring married SGEI Canadian’s women’s counter-narratives to the fore. Using eight one-on-one interviews with married SGEI women ages 18-35 living in the Greater Toronto Area, I illustrate these women’s counter-narratives in dialogue-based vignettes to demonstrate the multiplicities of their experiences. Highlighting the similarities, and variations in four areas: The Other and Marriage, The Other and Performance, The Other and Agency, and The Other and Judgment. Together, the findings detail the competing discourses working to Other the married SGEI Canadian women’s identity. More specifically, East Indian marriages complicate gender role expectations through added pressures of the honour gaze and surveillance mechanisms that discipline our actions. Women use agency and negotiation to resist, challenge, and manipulate power structures through leisure activities. Given that the voices of married SGEI Canadian women have been ignored in leisure literature, this research contributes to the importance of understanding the reasons behind our leisure actions and, why we do what we do.