Despite repeated calls for “leisure as prevention,” the fields of leisure and prevention science have little intentional integration. Guided by a recent publication on this topic, Elizabeth Weybright will review intersections between these fields, suggestions for moving forward, and examples from her research on leisure boredom.
About the speaker: Elizabeth Weybright, Ph.D., is Youth and Families Program Unit Interim Director, and Associate Professor & Adolescent Extension Specialist at Washington State University. Her research focuses on how leisure behavior and experience (e.g., healthy leisure, boredom, sensation seeking) is associated with adolescent substance use. Conceptually, Weybright’s research (a) examines how leisure-related processes may serve as risk or protective factors associated with substance use, (b) identifies social-ecological moderators of these associations, and (c) uses findings to further inform and evaluate prevention efforts and initiatives targeting adolescent health behavior.
While at Penn State, she participated in the Prevention and Methodology Training program. This program, funded by the National Institutes of Health, trains pre- and post-doctoral researchers in the integration of prevention science and statistical methodology for the behavioral sciences. Weybright earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management at Penn State after earning her M.S. and B.S. from the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management at Indiana University.
