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Well-Being after a Three-Week Resort-Based Respit from Occupational and Domestic Demands

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Written by Clemson University SCRDP Tuesday, 16 June 2009 23:14

Summary of: Strauss-Blasche, G., Muhry, F., Lehofer, M., Moser, M., Marktl, W. (2004). Time course of well-being after a three-week resort-based respite from occupational and domestic demands: Carry-over, contrast and situation effects. Journal of Leisure Research, 36(3), 293-309.

Study:

This study looks at the effects of a three-week vacation at a health resort on participants’ mood, quality of sleep, and ill-feeling.

Findings:

Positive mood increased during the stay at the health resort.
After the first week back from the resort, positive mood decreased to original levels.
Restfulness of sleep increased while at the health resort.
Restfulness of sleep gradually declined after returning from the vacation.
Feeling ill increased during the first week home, then decreased to original levels.

Implications (306):

Well-being generally improves during resort-based vacation
To avoid a transient decrease of well-being after longer vacations, vacationers should have the prospect of a weekend at home following their stay. Coming home to a high workload situation may negatively interfere with the positive vacation effects;
Vacation “feels good”; mood is generally better during vacation than at home.
Improvement of some aspects of subjective health such as quality of sleep achieved during vacation are likely to persist after vacation for at least several weeks. This may be the basis for the reported health benefits of vacation.