Deeper leisure involvement as a coping resource in a stigmatized leisure context

Although leisure involvement can be a resource for coping with stigmatization, some forms of leisure are themselves stigmatized. One such stigmatized leisure context is the furry fandom, a diverse group of people that create anthropomorphic animal identities. Drawing on the minority stress model and symbolic self-completion theory, we examined survey responses of 3473 members of online furry communities. Greater involvement in the furry community was associated with higher levels of well-being. This association was statistically explained by greater disclosure of furry identity and an indirect path through feelings of self-acceptance and affiliation with the furry fandom linked to greater disclosure of furry identity. Results suggest how deeper leisure involvement helps to counteract minority stress and cope with a stigmatized leisure identity.