Personal, professional, and social benefits from leisure engagement among social workers: A qualitative exploration

Despite the increasing attention to social workers' self-care and their provision of leisure-related services, the interplay of leisure and work among social workers remains underexplored. Informed by the Serious Leisure Perspective, this study investigated the experience of social workers engaging in leisure and integrating it into their professional lives. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-four Chinese social workers. Using thematic analysis, this study revealed three major themes. First, social workers gained personal benefits from coping with challenging professional work through leisure engagement. Second, they derived professional benefits from leveraging leisure skills to enhance professional practice. Third, they fostered social benefits from facilitating community and social connections through social leisure. The findings provided evidence for the common ground between social work and leisure, contributing to unpacking the ways in which social workers leveraged leisure to enhance self-care and professional competence. Future studies need to advance leisure studies of social workers and focus on their leisure careers to achieve self-fulfilment in promoting personal and social well-being. Leisure engagement is recognized as an effective self-care practice for social workers, and many social work practices take the form of leisure activities. However, few studies have explored how social workers experience leisure activities and apply them in their professional practice. Informed by the 'serious leisure perspective', this study examined the benefits from leisure engagement within and beyond the workplace. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with twenty-four Chinese social workers. Three major themes emerged. First, social workers gained personal benefits from coping with challenging professional work through leisure engagement. Second, they derived professional benefits from leveraging leisure skills to enhance professional practice. Third, they fostered social benefits from facilitating community and social connections through social leisure among their service users. These findings suggest the common ground between social work and leisure, allowing social workers to leverage their strengths- and competence-based leisure to enhance their self-care and professional competence. This study advocates for academic and practical attention to establishing a leisure career for social workers to achieve greater self-fulfilment within and outside their professional roles.