%0 Journal Article
%T Enhancing the College Student Experience: Outcomes of a Leisure Education Program
%A Denise M. Anderson
%A June J. Pilcher
%A Katherine A. Jordan
%A Ryan J. Gagnon
%J Journal of Experiential Education
%@ 2169-009X
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1053825917751508
%X Background: Experiential education in higher education provides opportunities for college student development that contribute to student success. As such, a leisure education program is posited as a complement to experiential education programming. Purpose: This study explored the impact of a leisure education program (leisure skills) on dimensions of college student success, including school satisfaction, student life satisfaction, school belonging, and self-esteem. Methodology/Approach: This study compared 531 leisure skills students with a group of 136 students not enrolled in a leisure skills class. Findings/Conclusions: The results of a repeated-measures analysis indicated leisure skills students fared better than non¨Cleisure skills students in the measured dimensions, maintaining similar levels of school satisfaction, life satisfaction, belonging, and self-esteem over the course of the semester while the non¨Cleisure skills students experienced decreases. Implications: Students who chose leisure skills classes experienced stability and improvement in school and student life satisfaction, school belonging, and self-esteem. Therefore, leisure education programming should be further examined as a mechanism for college student success
%K leisure education
%K college student development
%K satisfaction
%K sense of belonging
%K self-esteem
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1053825917751508