Running head: Stress and Recreation

Phase III Survey Research Report: Stress and Recreation

Group Six: Amy Holt, Erin Unger Jessop, Katie Walton

RCLS 425 Evaluation in Recreation and Leisure Services

June 6, 2018
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Phase III Survey Research Report: Stress and Recreation

Introduction.

The purpose of this Phase III Survey Research Report is to report the results of

the survey instrument we distributed in May 2018, which gathered information related to

the stress levels, recreation habits and the use of recreation as a stress management tool

from the 33 students in the Spring 2018 RCLS 425 class at Eastern Washington

University. In this report, we will also discuss the methods we used to choose the

questions for the survey instrument, why we chose those particular questions and why we

designed the instrument in the way that we did. Lastly, we will provide recommendations

related to the entirety of this evaluation project -- Phase I, II and III.

Methodology.

In this section of the survey report, we will discuss the themes we chose to focus

on with our survey instrument and why we chose those particular themes, we will

introduce and explain the types of questions utilized in our survey, and we will explain

why we chose those styles of questions and what information we sought through each

question. In addition, we will explain how we wrote and organized our survey instrument,

and lastly, we will discuss the use of descriptive statistics with our data.

During the discussions in our focus group session, themes we found to be

prominent are the following: intrinsically motivated recreation relieves stress and stress

has negative impacts emotionally, mentally and physically. Responses like, “Recreation

is whatever you like to do in your free time that gets you out of your norm,” and “Stress

shuts me down and I just clam up,” give a foundation for our findings. We chose these
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two themes, because most conversations during the focus group circled around discussing

the activity type in relation to stress relief, as well as the negative impacts that stress had

on all of the participants. When creating our survey instrument, we intended to further

investigate the extent to which these two themes described the experience of Spring

Quarter 2018 RCLS 425 students.

In terms of our criteria, this further investigation through the survey instrument of

these two themes -- intrinsically motivated recreation relieves stress and stress has

negative impacts emotionally, mentally and physically -- closely ties to our original

criteria, which were developed to understand the potential relationship between stress and

recreation among these students and have remained unchanged through the phases of this

evaluation project. Specifically, our criteria are as follows:

 “To what extent do RCLS 425 students engage in recreation to relieve stress?”

 “How do RCLS 425 students define stress?”

 “How do they define the impacts stress has on the body?”

 “Do the students believe that different types of recreation (i.e. recreation

involving physical exertion versus recreation involving mental effort) have

different effects on their stress levels?”

In order to collect a wide range of quantitative data that can be statistically

analyzed and used during our assessment of our evaluation, we utilized several different

question types in our survey instrument. At the start of our survey, we asked two interval

style, likert scale questions that judged participant stress during a given week and their

participation in recreation in a given week. According to Henderson, Bialeschki, and

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Browne (2017), interval level data, “result when the ordered categories have meaningful

predictable size differences or differences between values” (p. 284). With this data we

can analyze variance, standard deviation, mean, median and mode. Likert scales are

typically used to measure the attitude, positive or negative, that the respondent has

towards the question being asked (Henderson et. al., 2017).

For questions numbered three and four, we asked self assessment and ranking

style questions, which produced ordinal level data. According to Henderson, et al. (2017),

“Ordinal data are more sophisticated data that have some implied rank or order to the

categories, according to some criterion” (p. 284). However, it is less sophisticated than

other, higher-level types of data, because though there is an implied rank or order to the

categories -- that is, each category is ranked higher or lower than another, like the first,

second and third place of competitors in a race -- the distance between those categories is

not measured and is therefore unknown (Henderson, et al., 2017). Because of this, ordinal

level data only allows us to calculate mode and median. Self assessment questions are a

type of ordered close-ended questions that ask the respondent to, “describe where she or

he is on a scale” (Henderson et. al., 2017, p.162).

Interval level data is gathered again for questions five, six and seven, where we

determine if our participants viewed recreation as effective for relieving their stress or not

effective at all, if recreation is their first choice for stress relief or if it is their last, and if

recreation completely relieves their stress or does not impact their stress levels. This

interval data is collected using semantic differential question types. This question type is

set up with “two opposing, or bipolar, adjectives written in linear fashion” (Henderson,
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et. al., 2017, p. 159). Much like likert scales, semantic differentials identify participant

attitude.

Questions eight and ten gathered ratio data, which is the most sophisticated type

of data, according to Henderson, et al. (2017). “Ratio data have a true zero point, as well

as all of the ordering and distancing properties of interval data” (Henderson, et al., 2017,

p. 285).

Lastly, we asked demographic questions related to gender, class standing, and

major. This style of question gathered nominal data, which is the least sophisticated data

and can be used only to calculate mode and percentage. “Nominal, or categorical, data

are the lowest level because no assumption is made about relationships between values”

(Henderson, et al., 2017, p. 283).

On the following page, we attached a clean, complete copy of our survey

instrument.
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Now we will explain how we wrote and organized the survey instrument above.

Utilizing the example provided by Dr. Matt Chase as a guide, we formatted and worded

our questions to not only align with our themes and criteria, but also to be as clear and

easily understood as possible. The questions we chose to include were close-ended

questions with ordered responses, which is a question type that is consistent, which

makes them straightforward to code, administer and analyze, according to Henderson, et

al. (2017). We also were sure to include only one idea per question and avoided double-

barreled questions, which essentially ask two questions in one statement and are often

confusing to respondents. We also avoided leading questions, which imply that a

particular response is desired, and opted for simple language (Henderson, et al.,

2017). The formatting was also chosen to be easy to read and attractive to the

respondent. (Please note that because of technical difficulties, the alignment of parts of

the digital document above is confusing and inconsistent. These aspects of the survey

were corrected before distribution.)

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We included an introductory paragraph before the first question. This introduction

included an explanation of the survey’s purpose and what it will be used for, a statement

of gratitude for the respondent’s time and effort, an estimated time for completion and a

statement about anonymity. According to Henderson, et al. (2017), “The introductory

statement should guarantee anonymity or confidentiality and explain carefully how the

data will be used” (p. 185). The questions were ordered from highest priority (those we

deemed most important and relevant to our project) to lowest priority (i.e. demographic

questions). Because respondents sometimes fail to finish survey instruments in their

entirety, ordering questions in this fashion helps to ensure that the most important or

revealing information is gathered (Henderson, et al., 2017). They were also ordered to

build on one another in a logical sequence, from general to more specific, as

recommended by Henderson, et al. (2017). Lastly, we chose to limit our survey to two

pages and 12 questions, eight questions directly related to our criteria and themes, as well

as four demographic questions. This was done to give us the greatest chance of success.

According to Henderson, et al. (2017), “Instruments should be long enough to get the

needed information, but not too long. Shorter questionnaires reduce fatigue and are more

likely to be completed” (p. 169).

Finally, we will explain the primary purpose of descriptive statistics and how we

will be able to use the information we gather, based on the constraints of our sampling

method. We will use descriptive statistics to paint a broad picture of our data and help

shed light on the answers to our criteria. According to Henderson, et al. (2017),

“Descriptive statistics are exactly as the name implies. They describe and summarize the

characteristics of your data” (p. 294). The descriptive statistics we used focused only on
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one variable -- which are called univariate statistics -- and included percentages,

frequency counts, and measures of central tendency (which cover mean, median and

mode). The mean is simply the average, while the mode is the most commonly occurring

value in the data set (Henderson, et al., 2017). The median is the middle of the data set, if

all the numbers are lined up in order. In other words, Henderson, et al. (2017) write, “The

median is the value above and below which one half the observations fall” (p.295). These

measures of central tendency are helpful when it comes to describing the variables that

are being examined during an evaluation (Henderson, et al., 2017). In descriptive

statistics, variance and standard deviation are measures of distribution or dispersion.

“Variance is a dispersion measure of variation that is based on all observations and

describes the extent to which scores differ from each other. In other words, variance tells

you how far apart the scores are” (Henderson, et al., 2017, p. 297). This information can

be essential to understanding and interpreting data, according to Henderson, et al. (2017).

Related to variance and calculated by taking the square root of the value for variance,

standard deviation is “the average of the degree that scores deviate from the mean and

has a special relationship to the normal distribution” (Henderson, et al., 2017, p. 297).

The standard deviation describes the variability of data and is important because it shows

how values are scattered or clustered around the mean. One can then interpret the

similarity or disparity in answers on the survey, depending on how close or far those

scores are from the mean (Henderson, et al., 2017).

In the next section of this report -- the ‘Analysis and Findings’ section -- we will

use these descriptive statistics to present the data gathered through the survey instrument
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through the lenses of percentage, frequency counts, measures of central tendency,

variance and standard deviation.

Analysis and Findings

At first when analyzing our findings, we digitized participant responses and put

all the data points into an Excel spreadsheet. Next, we calculated measures of central

tendency for each question.

Question number one of our survey was a Likert style question that asked

respondents to react to the following statement: “I experience stress at least once a

week.” Question One Breakdown:

Mean = 3.43 Median = 4.00 Mode = 4

This indicates that the majority of RCLS 425 experience stress at least once a week.
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Throughout the rest of the survey we asked participants to expand upon their attitudes

toward recreation as a stress management technique.

Question number six was a semantic differential question that asked participants

to identify on a scale which statement they most identified with. For this question, the

statements were ‘Recreation is my first choice for stress relief’ and ‘Recreation is my last

choice for stress relief’ on a one-to-six scale.

Question Six Breakdown:

Mean = 2.14 Median = 2 Mode = 2

Variance = 1.66 Standard Deviation = 1.29

We found that 68% of the data points are between the values of 0.85 and 3.43 for

question number six. This range was produced by adding and subtracting one standard

deviation from the mean. This is represented in the table below.

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To show the amount of each numerical response we have provided the below

chart. This shows that the majority of students responded with ‘2’. This indicated that

they felt that recreation was close to their first choice for stress relief. The second highest

response was ‘1,’ which indicated that they completely agreed with the statement

‘Recreation is my first choice for stress relief.’

For question number nine was asked students to report their gender. This was the data

from their response.

Question one breakdown:

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n= 23 Out of the 33 surveys given, we received 23 back. The distribution of male and

female respondents was 47.8% Male, 52.2% Female.

For question number 10, we asked students to report on their exact age. The majority of

RCLS 425 students, 34.8%, reported that they were 21 years of age. Followed by 17.4%

reporting that they were 22 years of age. The remaining 47.8% of students were ages 20,

23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 34, and 35. The pie chart below is a visual representation of the

breakdown of ages.
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n= 23 m= 21 The median age of respondents was 22.

Overall, we found that the majority of the students in RCLS 475 participate in personal

recreation to relieve their stress.

Conclusions

In this section of our Phase III Survey Research Report, we will describe and

summarize the characteristics of our data and explain what we have learned from

carrying out this survey in RCLS 425 during Spring Quarter 2018. The questions on this

survey were derived from the criteria we developed at the beginning of this evaluation

project. The criteria are as follows:

 “To what extent do RCLS 425 students engage in recreation to relieve stress?”
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 “How do RCLS 425 students define stress?”

 “How do they define the impacts stress has on the body?”

 “Do the students believe that different types of recreation (i.e. recreation

involving physical exertion versus recreation involving mental effort) have

different effects on their stress levels?”

Firstly, surveys were distributed to all 33 students in RCLS 425 during Spring

Quarter 2018. Of the 33 distributed, 23 surveys were returned. In terms of demographics,

of the 23 students surveyed, 52.2% were female and 47.8% were male. The median age

of respondents was 22 years old.

When asked to respond to the question, “I experience stress at least once a week,”

60.87% of the RCLS 425 students surveyed indicated that they strongly agreed with that

statement, while only 4.35% indicated that they strongly disagreed with that statement.

This data indicates that the majority of RCLS 425 spring 2018 students strongly agree

that they experience stress at least once a week.

Observing that our population is stressed that often, we then looked to the sixth

question on our survey, which was tied to our criteria, “To what extent do RCLS 425

students engage in recreation to relieve stress.” Question six asked participants to mark

where they fell on a scale of one-to-six in regards to the following statements:

“Recreation is my first choice for stress relief,” which was marked with a number one, to

“Recreation is my last choice for stress relief,” which was marked with a number six. The

majority of students responded with a number two on that scale. This indicated that they

felt that recreation was close to their first choice for stress relief. The second highest
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response was a number one, which indicated that they completely agreed with the

statement and that recreation was their top choice for stress relief.

This stress and recreation relationship among RCLS 435 students is consistent

with evidence we cited previously in our Phase I Report, from a study done by Iwasaki,

MacTavish and Mackay on populations vulnerable to stress in Canada. The authors found

evidence that leisure plays an important role in coping with stress in a few specific

aspects, “a positive diversion or ‘time-out’ from stress-inducing situations and thoughts,

and a context for rejuvenation and renewal” (Iwasaki et al., 2005, p. 93).

Now, we will move to the final section of this report, where we will make

recommendations for further study and work in this area of evaluation.

Recommendations.

Now we will make recommendations on how to further explore this topic and use

the data gathered as a launchpad to lowering the stress levels of of college students and

improving their wellbeing.

Based on our findings and conclusions, we would can make the following

suggestions for future evaluations on this topic.

The first area of improvement involves the focus group session. During this part

of our evaluation, we would like to focus more deeply on the frequency and type of

recreation used by RCLS 425 students to relieve stress. By investigating this question in

more depth, we can confirm with greater accuracy the findings which were presented in

this evaluation. Additionally, we would like to inquire more about the degree of stress

relief experienced during that recreation. By exploring the extent of that impact, we can

better predict the effectiveness of recreation as a stress relief for students in the RCLS
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425 class. These are all avenues that can be further probed with a follow-up paper survey

instrument containing approximately 15 questions and distributed to all 33 students

enrolled in RCLS 425.

We also have several recommendations for future survey questions and changes

to wording in order to explore this topic in finer detail. The first change we would make

is a change in diction. In addition to using the term recreation, we would also use the

term ‘leisure’ in a future survey. We feel that this addition is appropriate because we

believe that the word ‘leisure’ has a connotation for students of a relaxing, stress

relieving activity and can be interpreted as less structured than traditional recreation

activities. Furthermore, we would provide our participants with a definition of recreation

and leisure in order to provide respondents with common knowledge to increase the

accuracy of the survey instrument. Two questions that we would add to our existing

survey guide are the following semantic differential questions:

Mark how effectively leisure relieves your stress.

1. Very effectively 1 2 3 4 5 6 Not effectively at all

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

2. Leisure is my 1 2 3 4 5 6 Leisure is my last choice

first choice for ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ for stress relief
stress relief

We feel these two questions might help capture those students who enjoy

recreation activities that are more informal and passive in nature, like spa time. We would

also include another ranking question asking the participants to rank their leisure choices

from one to four, similar to our recreation ranking question. We would also tweak our

recreation ranking question slightly to include active and social recreation activities and

would modify our leisure ranking question to include activities that are less physically
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active, more individualistic and, as mentioned prior, more passive in nature. By adding

these questions, we can get a better idea of the leisure activity type, frequency and

effectiveness and compare it to recreation activity type, frequency and effectiveness. This

allows us the opportunity to identify if RCLS 425 students have two separate definitions

for recreation and leisure, helping us determine if they value one over the other for stress

relief.

In closing, we also recommend for college campuses to promote recreation and

leisure activities for students. Providing more opportunities to engage in these style of

activities will allow for students to have greater resources are their disposal to help

manage stress levels.

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References

Henderson, K. A., Bialeschki, M. D., & Browne, L.P. (2017). Evaluating leisure

services:Making

enlightened Decision(4th ed). State College, PA: Venture Publishing

Iwasaki, Y., MacTavish, J., & MacKay, K. (2005). Building on strengths and resilience:

Leisure as a stress survival strategy. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 33(1),

81-100. doi:10.1080/03069880412331335894