Leisure Activities and Recreation Facilities in Nigeria: Implications …
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pleasure at times of leisure. This could take place indoors or outdoors depending
on what is found more suitable. Giddens (1964) explained that recreation to adults
is essentially what play is to children: non-economic unstructured pleasurable exercises. Suleiman (2016) listed eight criteria to be fulfilled before an activity could
be regarded as recreational. This paper finds some of them debatable but highlights
acceptable conditions that are relevant to it. First, recreation has to be a voluntary
action. A person must be deliberate about his intention without external compulsion or urge. Second, recreation involves leisure time and activities. Cordes (2013,
p. 7) posited that recreation was a subset of leisure that involved active participation,
which may include social interaction with other people. Kelly and Godbey (1992,
cited in Beville 2010) identified ‘social cohesion’ with neighbours as an important
impetus for recreation. Third, the subject is fully aware of his involvement in leisure
activities and is capable of deriving explicit satisfaction and enjoyment. For instance,
a mentally deranged individual cannot be associated with recreational activities no
matter what he is doing. Fourth, measurable positive health outcomes are produced.
This may be physical, psychological, social or a combination of two or more health
outcomes. Oftentimes, people find partners for their recreational activities. Thus,
communities should enable the process by making recreation facilities available and
the built environment conducive for pleasurable exercises (Bird et al. 2018). As WHO
pursues its goal of reducing the global prevalence of physical inactivity by 15% in
ten years’ time, communities are charged to come to the party with actionable steps.
Promoting the culture and practice of recreation in the community is hinged on a SOC
that breeds healthy social interactions and an environment with facilities that make
engagement in LTPA appealing. Both factors work in tandem to make recreation a
pleasure (Xu et al. 2019; Bird et al. 2018). Herein lies the context of and influence
on the community and community health of the SDoH in recreation and leisure.
3 Operationalisation of Research Construct into Variables
To engender wholesome community health, the variables at play are community,
health, leisure time and recreation facilities. Consequently, the effectiveness of strategies to achieve our aim depends largely on the configuration of these variables and
the alignment of the community’s orientation towards sustainability, such that the
equation of exchange is written as:
y = f(x)
where:
y = wholesome community health (dependent construct)
x = environment (independent construct).
The dependent construct (y) can further be disaggregated into the following
variables:
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pleasure at times of leisure. This could take place indoors or outdoors depending
on what is found more suitable. Giddens (1964) explained that recreation to adults
is essentially what play is to children: non-economic unstructured pleasurable exercises. Suleiman (2016) listed eight criteria to be fulfilled before an activity could
be regarded as recreational. This paper finds some of them debatable but highlights
acceptable conditions that are relevant to it. First, recreation has to be a voluntary
action. A person must be deliberate about his intention without external compulsion or urge. Second, recreation involves leisure time and activities. Cordes (2013,
p. 7) posited that recreation was a subset of leisure that involved active participation,
which may include social interaction with other people. Kelly and Godbey (1992,
cited in Beville 2010) identified ‘social cohesion’ with neighbours as an important
impetus for recreation. Third, the subject is fully aware of his involvement in leisure
activities and is capable of deriving explicit satisfaction and enjoyment. For instance,
a mentally deranged individual cannot be associated with recreational activities no
matter what he is doing. Fourth, measurable positive health outcomes are produced.
This may be physical, psychological, social or a combination of two or more health
outcomes. Oftentimes, people find partners for their recreational activities. Thus,
communities should enable the process by making recreation facilities available and
the built environment conducive for pleasurable exercises (Bird et al. 2018). As WHO
pursues its goal of reducing the global prevalence of physical inactivity by 15% in
ten years’ time, communities are charged to come to the party with actionable steps.
Promoting the culture and practice of recreation in the community is hinged on a SOC
that breeds healthy social interactions and an environment with facilities that make
engagement in LTPA appealing. Both factors work in tandem to make recreation a
pleasure (Xu et al. 2019; Bird et al. 2018). Herein lies the context of and influence
on the community and community health of the SDoH in recreation and leisure.
3 Operationalisation of Research Construct into Variables
To engender wholesome community health, the variables at play are community,
health, leisure time and recreation facilities. Consequently, the effectiveness of strategies to achieve our aim depends largely on the configuration of these variables and
the alignment of the community’s orientation towards sustainability, such that the
equation of exchange is written as:
y = f(x)
where:
y = wholesome community health (dependent construct)
x = environment (independent construct).
The dependent construct (y) can further be disaggregated into the following
variables: