Online and offline leisure, relatedness and psychological distress: a study of young people in Switzerland

Depression and psychological distress have high incidence rates among young people. Leisure is a known determinant of health and well-being and can help mitigate these phenomena through a variety of mechanisms. While it is known that sport and exercise provide benefits for neurological functioning, leisure has received less attention as a means of mobilising social networks and cultivating relatedness, a known factor protecting mental health. From a sample of 891 young adults in Switzerland, we grouped twenty online and offline leisure activities into seven different dimensions, testing their associations with perceptions of support from relatives and friends (relatedness), and with a composite index of psychological distress. Our results help to determine those face-to-face experiences, such as sport and social activities, that most help to cultivate support through close ties, which in turn seems to make them important for increased levels of mental health. The results indicate that screen-based leisure activities do not promote relatedness. However, psychological distress is linked with only some forms of media-based leisure, such as online chatting, presumably because depressive moods lead to networks being mobilised through online engagement rather than face-to-face interactions.