An Investigation of Male Youth Experiences with Exercise and Leisure Education within an Addiction Treatment Program

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of male youth in an addiction treatment program with exercise and leisure education as part of their rehabilitation treatment. Central to this investigation was examining the role of exercise within other aspects of their rehabilitation program, the knowledge and experiences youth acquired from exercise and leisure education sessions that they perceived would be useful post-treatment, whether the exercise program altered their values and attitudes about exercise, and if the leisure education sessions altered how they spent their available free time or how they planned to spend their available free time.

Nine male youth from an in-patient addiction treatment facility took part in a four week exercise and leisure education program. After completion of the program, eight semi-structured, face-to face interviews were conducted. A phenomenology approach was used to create themes from the data. The results from this study suggest that you youth who are recovering from addictions experienced positive outcomes during the exercise component, they developed an awareness of self and awareness of leisure options post-treatment.

As displayed in the findings, both the exercise and leisure education programs had a positive impact on the experiences addicted youth had during their treatment process. More research should be conducted on the structure of treatment programs, focusing on the amount of sedentary activities and look to include guided exercise programs as part of the daily structure in order to meet the need of many ADHD residents. Additionally, the findings from this study contribute to the literature on the role of leisure education with addicted youth and the impact of exercise during addiction treatment.