TimeWise
Taking Charge of Leisure Time —
Preventing Substance Abuse

• Overview
• The Curriculum
• What Makes TimeWise Unique?
• Theoretical Foundation of TimeWise
• Evidence of Effectiveness

TimeWise teaches youth to use their leisure time in healthy and productive ways. TimeWise originally was developed to help prevent substance use in middle school youth and has been funded through a grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA).

The TimeWise program can easily be adapted to other ages and to prevent other problem behaviors. The premise of TimeWise is that youth need help in learning how to develop healthy interests and take personal responsibility for initiating positive leisure activities (Silbereisen and Eyferth, 1986; Silbereisen and Todt, 1994).

TimeWise was designed to teach students to:

• Determine personally satisfying and meaningful leisure activities and interests.
• Understand the benefits of participating in healthy leisure.
• Understand how motivation affects a person's experience and participation in healthy behaviors.
• Alleviate boredom and increase optimal experience in leisure time.
• Take responsible action to participate in desired leisure activities.
• Identify and overcome constraints that get in the way of participation in desired activities.

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TimeWise is primarily comprised of six lessons:

Lesson 1: Beating Boredom
Lesson 2: Checking Out my Motivation
Lesson 3: Beating Boredom & Developing Interests
Lesson 4: Making an Action Plan
Lesson 5: Managing Daily Leisure
Lesson 6: Putting it All Together

In addition to TimeWise's six lessons, it includes advanced skill-builder activities can be used as booster sessions 6 or 12 months following the completion of the program to reinforce and strengthen students' application of the program's principles.

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One of the unique features of TimeWise is that it focuses heavily on health promotion and positive youth development rather than risk reduction. Although examples used in the lessons address alcohol and other drug use, the predominant focus is on promoting healthy and beneficial leisure activity.

TimeWise is based on a number of interrelated theoretical foundations, such as Intrinsic Motivation Theory, Self-determination Theory, and Constraints Theory. These theories are the foundation for TimeWise's focus on:

• self-determined and autonomous behavior
• taking responsible action for oneself
• making good decisions, and
• self-initiating positive and interesting activities.

The theory of action for TimeWise is as follows:

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TimeWise is currently under rigorous evaluation in nine school districts in Pennsylvania. The study is evaluating the efficacy of TimeWise in terms of increasing leisure motivation and leisure skills as well as preventing substance use and increasing positive and healthy leisure behavior.

The preliminary results of the study are quite positive as TimeWise successfully influenced many of the leisure outcomes of interest to the study. Highlights of the preliminary results are that in relation to the comparison group students, TimeWise students reported:

• lower levels of amotivation, and higher level of motivation
• higher levels of interest — and thus lower levels of boredom
• higher initiative levels and ability to restructure boring situations
• more ability to plan and make decisions about free time
• more participation in new and interesting activities more often
• more awareness of leisure opportunities in the community, and
• more involvement in organized sports and going to natural public places.

The preliminary results of the TimeWise evaluation study can be found at:

Caldwell, L. L., C. K. Baldwin, T. Walls and E. A. Smith. 2004. Preventing substance abuse among middle school adolescents: Preliminary effects of a leisure education program on hypothesized mediating variables. Journal of Leisure Research 36 (3).

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