Health and Leisure: Making the Connections 2nd edition

This second edition of Health and Leisure: Making the Connections is more than a simple update to the field-defining first edition published in 2010, reframing and extending knowledge by emphasizing prevention, equity, and real-world application. While the original volume established leisure as a vital context for health and wellness through transdisciplinary scholarship, this new edition incorporates more than a decade of scientific progress and social change. It expands the conceptualization of health to fully integrate social, spiritual, environmental, and cultural dimensions, and addresses contemporary issues such as climate change, environmental policy, health inequities, population diversity, the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and implementation science. Together, these additions position leisure not merely as a personal lifestyle choice, but as a critical determinant of health and well-being in complex social systems. With a strong focus on translating research into practice, this edition equips scholars, practitioners and policy makers with evidence-informed insights to design inclusive, effective, leisure-based strategies that promote health, resilience, and quality of life.