Everyday temporalities: Leisure, ethics and young women's emotional wellbeing

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between temporality and young women's emotional wellbeing in order to consider the implications for leisure and health policy. Time is central to much contemporary social policy. For example, the Active Australia policy urges us to undertake 30 minutes of physical activity per day to maintain physical health. Debates over paid maternity leave implicate work, leisure and family time. Mental health policies also urge us to take time-out to seek help from medical practitioners and engage in preventative care for ourselves. Policies concerning health and leisure increasingly urge women to use time more efficiently and to be more responsible for their own and others' wellbeing. Hence, it is important to explore critically the effects of how women 'live' time as they are urged to organise their work, leisure, family and community lives in particular ways. In this exploration, we connect findings regarding young women from a longitudinal study on Australian women's health with a qualitative research project investigating the socio-cultural context of youth suicide in urban and rural communities. The issues of time pressure and emotional wellbeing emerge as central to young women's health and identity. There is also an embodied, emotional dimension of time that requires further investigation in relation to the development of health and leisure policies and programs aimed at prevention of illness and promotion of wellbeing. We explore this sense of 'lived temporality' through a concern with the ethical dimensions of everyday social relations, rather than viewing leisure time as merely a resource for health.