BENEFIT OBTAINED FROM LEISURE ACTIVITIES AND PERCEIVED WELL-BEING: A SAMPLE OF PREGNANT WOMEN

Nowadays, the importance of leisure has increased, and the efficient utilisation of this period of time has brought many benefits such as increasing motivation, psychological well-being or adaptation to vital changes. Since pregnancy is characterised as a period in which women's emotional or individual characteristics can change, it is important that they are directed to areas in which they can benefit. In this direction, this study aimed to determine the relationship between pregnant women's leisure benefits and their perceived well-being. The population of the online study designed according to the relationship screening model consisted of all pregnant women over the age of 18 in Turkey. The sample consisted of 382 pregnant women who met the inclusion criteria between May-November 2022 (n=382). Pregnant Women Information Form, Leisure Benefit Scale (LBS) and Wellness Self Perceptions Scale (WSPS) were used to collect the data. Data that did not fit the normal distribution were analysed with Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis and Spearman correlation tests. According to the research results, it was determined that the leisure benefit levels (94.72±13.79) and well-being (47.69±8.36) of pregnant women with a mean age of 28.20 (±4.85) were at a high level. On the other hand, it was found that income and educational status, parity, employment status or the activities they performed affected the leisure benefits and well-being, and there was a significant relationship between these two phenomena. In the study, it was concluded that the well-being of pregnant women increased with the increase in their leisure benefit levels, and it is recommended that studies should be conducted to raise awareness and encourage leisure activities to have a healthy pregnancy period.