Crafting leisure for well‐being: A multilevel study of youth

Abstract The present study applies a leisure crafting lens to youth's leisure activities, an issue typically examined within the occupational context. Drawing on self‐determination theory, we explored how leisure crafting and personality relate to hedonic and eudaimonic well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Participants ( N = 102) completed baseline and weekly measurements of the constructs for six consecutive weeks, resulting in 584 matched observations. Results from multilevel random coefficient models indicated that, as expected, leisure crafting was positively associated with positive indicators (need satisfaction and positive affect) and negatively associated with negative indicators (need frustration) of well‐being. On the weeks when students engaged in more leisure crafting (than their average leisure crafting), their well‐being improved significantly. Personality traits, especially open‐mindedness, conscientiousness, and negative emotionality, moderated the positive link between weekly leisure crafting and positive indicators of well‐being. Specifically, these links were the strongest when conscientiousness and open‐mindedness were the highest and negative emotionality was the lowest. The current study points to the importance of leisure crafting activities for psychological well‐being and the importance of certain personality traits in this relationship.