Journal of Leisure Research

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The Contribution of Leisure Participation and

Leisure Satisfaction to Life Satisfaction of Older
Persons

Mounir G. Ragheb & Charles A. Griffith

To cite this article: Mounir G. Ragheb & Charles A. Griffith (1982) The Contribution of Leisure
Participation and Leisure Satisfaction to Life Satisfaction of Older Persons, Journal of Leisure
Research, 14:4, 295-306, DOI: 10.1080/00222216.1982.11969527

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.1982.11969527

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The Contribution of Leisure
Participation and Leisure
Satisfaction to Life Satisfaction
of Older Persons 1
Mounir G. Ragheb and Charles A. Griffith

ABSTRACT: The goal of this investigation was to test the

interrelationships among leisure satisfaction, leisure participa-
tion, life satisfaction and some other variables (such as satisfac-
tion with family, health, and standard of living) of older per-
sons 55 years of age and above (N = 565). Employing multiple
regression analysis, a set of six variables explained 39 percent
of the variance in life satisfaction (leisure satisfaction, satisfac-
tion with standard of living, satisfaction with family relations
and activities, satisfaction with health, leisure participation,
and marital status). Leisure satisfaction showed the greatest
contribution, accounting for 20 percent of the variance in life
satisfaction (more than 50 percent of the total variance ex-
plained). Also, it was found that (I) the higher the frequency
of participation in leisure activities, the higher the life satisfac-
tion (r = .34); (2) the more the leisure participation, the higher
the leisure satisfaction (r = .53); (J) the greater the leisure satis-
faction, the greater the life satisfaction (r = .43); and (4) all the
six leisure satisfaction components correlated positively with
life satisfaction. These findings point out the need to offer
older persons leisure opportunities and experiences with the
potential for leisure satisfaction.
KEYWORDS: Life satisfaction, leisure participation, lei-
sure satisfaction, quality of life, aging, multiple regression
analysis.

1
This investigation was supported by the NRTA-AARP Andrus Foundation, Wash-
ington, D.C. The paper was presented at the Society for Park and Recreation Education
Research Symposium, National Recreation and Park Association, Phoenix, Arizona, 1980.

Fourth Quarter 295

 AUTHORS: Mounir G. Ragheb, is Assistant Professor
and Charles A. Griffith, is Associate Professor, Leisure Services
and Studies, Department of Human Services and Studies, Col-
lege of Education, The Florida State University at Tallahassee.
Journal of Leisure Research, 1982 Volume 14, Number 4,
pp. 295-306. Copyright© 1982 by the National Recreation and
Park Association.

Commencing with the work of Cavan et al. ( 1949), a considerable

amount of research has been conducted over the past three decades on
the subjective well-being of older persons. Using a variety of approaches,
early studies focused primarily on testing the relationships among indi-
vidual's relative adjustment and specific domains of life, such as work,
health, religion, financial situation, family, and standard of living
(Larson 1978, for full review).
Over the years, at least two theoretical concepts concerning aging
and life satisfaction have been developed, namely the activity theory and
the disengagement theory. Stated simply, the activity theory postulates
that the satisfied older person is the individual who is physically, so-
cially, and mentally active and who has frequent interaction with all sec-
tions of society. This individual, rather than withdrawing from society,
maintains a middle-age life style (Havighurst et al. 1968). Conversely,
the disengagement theory assumes that elderly people, in expectation of
the roles assigned to them by society, withdraw from general interaction
with all age groups in society, and any interaction which takes place oc-
curs between them and their own age group. This theory claims that sat-
isfaction is the result of playing the role assigned by society (Cumming
and Henry 1961). This withdrawal is mutual between older persons and
society.
Many studies have contributed a great deal toward the understand-
ing of the variables associated with life satisfaction of older adults. How-
ever, it was not until the 1970's that researchers started to realize the need
to account for two important variables, leisure participation and leisure
satisfaction. For example, Palmore (1968), Peppers (1973), and Decarlo
( 1974) all reported a positive relationship between frequency of partici-
pation in leisure activities and life satisfaction. Thorson ( 1977) found
that leisure participation after retirement was positively associated with
life satisfaction. Moreover, Bley et al. ( 1972) observed that there was a
significant association between the erratic use of leisure services and low
morale, satisfaction, and adjustment.
Graney (1975) found that social participation and interaction, fre-
quently mentioned as major components of leisure, were related to the
well-being of older adults. He also observed a positive relationship be-
tween happiness and participation in social activities in old age. In sup-
port of the findings of Graney, Tobin and Neugarten (1961) obtained ev-

296 Journal of Leisure Research

idence suggesting that social interaction was positively associated with
life satisfaction. It should be noted, however, that research related to the
relationship between social activity and well-being has yielded conflict-
ing results. Studies conducted in retired communities (Lemon et al. 1972;
Bull and Aucorn 1975) indicate that activity levels are not always good
predictors of life satisfaction. Although the weight of evidence available
indicates that leisure participation in general relates to the life satisfac-
tion of older persons, the relationship between the quality of this partici-
pation (leisure satisfaction) and life satisfaction has not been investi-
gated because of the lack of conceptualizations and measurements of
leisure satisfaction.
In order for activities to be satisfying, they have to maximize the use
of an individual's abilities, produce challenge, be interesting and elicit
pleasure (Susman 1976). The positive impact of such activities could be
self-respect, a high self-concept, confidence, and a sense of worth. Lei-
sure choices appear to have the potential of contributing to this process,
but the leisure satisfaction variable has thus far been largely neglected in
the process of developing the theoretical models of life satisfaction. The
intent of this study was to investigate how leisure participation, leisure
satisfaction, satisfaction with family, health, and standard of living con-
tribute to life satisfaction of older persons.

Problems and Hypotheses

In an effort to determine if significant relationships exist between

life satisfaction and leisure participation and leisure satisfaction, the fol-
lowing problems were formulated:
I. What are the relationships among leisure participation, leisure
satisfaction and life satisfaction of older individuals?
2. What components of leisure satisfaction contribute most to life
satisfaction of older individuals?
3. What are the relationships among leisure activities, their major
categories and the life satisfaction of older individuals?
After controlling important variables, such as health satisfaction, sat-
isfaction with family relations and activities, satisfaction with standard
of living, and socioeconomic variables, the following hypotheses were
examined in relation to older persons:
I. The higher the frequency of participation in leisure activities, the
higher the life satisfaction. (after DeCarlo 1974).
2. The more the leisure participation, the higher the leisure
satisfaction.
3. The greater the leisure satisfaction, the greater the life satisfaction.
4. The more the leisure satisfaction gained from each of the six
components, the higher the life satisfaction.

Fourth Quarter 297

 Method

Subjects

Using the publication, Older People in Florida: A Statistical Ab-

stract, the researchers identified the six counties which were most popu-
lated with older persons in 1976 (the most current statistics available).
From this list, one county was randomly chosen as the county to be in-
cluded in the study. The county was next subdivided into one-square-
mile sections. Forty-five sections were identified, and using random sam-
pling, six sections were chosen. Within each of these sections, 15 streets
were randomly selected. All residents 55 years and above living on the
chosen streets composed the sample to be used in the study.
A simple random sample of 565 subjects was achieved by August
1979, from the selected county, with a refusal rate of 14 percent. Subjects
were 55 years and above, with a mean age of 70 years and a standard de-
viation of 8.2 years. Females accounted for 55 percent of the sample-
relatively atypical in this regard.

Instruments

In addition to assessing satisfactions relevant to a variety of life sec-

tors, demographic data were collected. Satisfactions with relevant life
sectors were related to health, standard of living, family life, financial sit-
uation, and transportation data. Three other measures were used: life sat-
isfaction, leisure satisfaction, and leisure participation.

Life Satisfaction. This dependent variable was measured using

Neugarten's et al. (1961) Life Satisfaction Index A (LSIA). Twenty items
on the scale were reduced to 18 items as a result of Adams' (1969) testing.
The responses available were: Agree, Disagree, and Undecided. Each re-
sponse which indicated life satisfaction obtained one point, while each
response which did not indicate life satisfaction or was undecided ob-
tained zero. The maximum score was 18, and the minimum was zero.
Adams obtained a reliability of .87, utilizing the Spearman-Brown coef-
ficient. In this present investigation, the alpha reliability coefficient was
.83 for the LSIA.

Leisure Satisfaction. This variable was assessed utilizing Beard

and Ragheb's (1980) Leisure Satisfaction Scale (LSS). The original LSS
had 51 items and a reduced form composed of 24 items. The LSS was re-
duced to avoid users' haphazard selection of items. The short form with
a five-point scale ranging from Almost Never True to Almost Always
True was used in this study. The alpha reliability coefficient was .93 for
the 24 items. The original index yielded the following reliability coeffi-
cients for the LSS's six components: Psychological (reliability .84), Edu-

298 Journal of Leisure Research

cational (.82), Social (.80), Relaxational (.85), Physiological (.93), and
Environmental (Aesthetic) (.83). Content validity was tested by Beard
and Ragheb (1980) on a sample of 160 professionals and educators in the
field of leisure and recreation, whose reactions reflected "face" validity.

Leisure Participation. This variable was measured by adopting,

modifying, and reducing the Leisure Activities Blank (LAB) developed
by McKechnie (1975). The LAB (120 items) was judged to be too long for
the purpose and the sample of this study, and was reduced to the major
leisure categories (mass media, reading, social activities, outdoor activi-
ties, sports activities, spectator sports, cultural activities, and hobbies).
Respondents were asked to rate how often they participated in these
eight leisure categories. Responses ranged from I (Never) to 5 (Very
Often).

Pilot Study (Pretesting)

The preliminary questionnaire, including all the above instru-

ments, was subjected to a review by a panel of the Florida State Univer-
sity professors, educators in leisure services and studies, and researchers
in social gerontology. As a result, the questionnaire was modified and
printed in a tentative form. This questionnaire was then pretested in a
rural setting, a nursing home, a senior citizens' center, and with a se-
lected sample of individuals 55 years of age and above residing inde-
pendently. On the basis of this prestesting, some minor revisions in clar-
ity and readability were made. The questionnaire was then printed in its
final form.

Data Collection

The researchers, with the help of volunteers, professional case

workers from the county, and officials from one of the senior citizens
centers in the area, conducted a house-to-house canvass of all streets in-
cluded in the sample. Prior to the collection of data, two training ses-
sions were held with all personnel involved in the data-collection phase.
They were acquainted with the questionnaire and the steps to be fol-
lowed to collect the data as it is explained in the following paragraph.
Households on the chosen streets were visited a maximum of three
times in case of the absence of residents. Persons receiving the question-
naires were given an explanation of the purpose of the study, the ques-
tionnaire being used, and were asked to complete the questionnaire
within 48 hours. After that period of time, the questionnaires were col-
lected at the respondents' homes and checked on the spot for completion
unless arrangements had been made to leave them outside their homes in
suitable locations. If questionnaires were not available after the initial
48-hour period, two additional visitations were made.

Fourth Quarter 299

 Results

The first hypothesis, that the higher the frequency of participation

in leisure activities the higher the life satisfaction of older individuals,
=
was accepted (r .34, p < .001). This relation was tested while control-
ling for leisure satisfaction utilizing partial correlation, resulting in
=
r .15, p < .001. The data also confirmed that the more the leisure par-
ticipation the higher the leisure satisfaction of older persons (r = .53,
p < .001), r = .45, p < .001 while controlling for life satisfaction. The
third hypothesis, that the greater the leisure satisfaction the greater the
=
life satisfaction of older persons, was supported (r .43, p < .001). Con-
trolling for leisure participation while testing this relation yielded
r= .32, p < .001.
The last hypothesis, that the more the leisure satisfaction gained
from each of the six components, the higher the life satisfaction of older
individuals, was accepted. All six leisure satisfaction components corre-
lated significantly with life satisfaction (p < .00 I). The correlations
were: psychological (.49), educational (.32), social (.36), relaxational
(.32), physiological (.33), and environmental (.30).
The researchers were also interested in the question, how are leisure
activity categories related to the six leisure satisfaction components?
However, due to the lack of theoretical rationale and background,
no subhypotheses were raised. In an effort to explore those relations and
to lay the groundwork for future studies, Table 1 was developed. All
the correlations were significant except among the mass media category
and total leisure satisfaction, and mass media and the psychological, ed-
ucational, physiological, and aesthetic components. Within the signifi-
cant correlations there were some dominant trends. The following
statements of observed relations were raised based on the correlations in
Table I.

I. The more the participation in outdoor recreation activities, the

higher the leisure satisfaction gained from the psychological
component, r = .42.
2. The more the participation in social activities, the higher the
leisure satisfaction elicited from the social component, r = .49.
3. The more the participation in sports activities, the higher the
leisure satisfaction obtained from the physiological component,
r =.50.
4. Sports and outdoor activities had the highest correlations with
total leisure satisfaction, .43 and .40, respectively.
5. Social, outdoor, and sports activities had the strongest correla-
tions with life satisfaction, (.29, .26, .26).
6. The psychological, social, and educational components of leisure
satisfaction showed the highest correlations with total leisure
participation (.49, .48, .47).

300 Journal of Leisure Research

ci'
...c
5-
~
Dl
...
1i TABLE I
Correlation Coefficients Among Leisure Categories, Their Total, Six Leisure Satisfaction Components,
and Life Satisfaction
Leisure Activities
Leisure
Sa tis. Mass Social Outdoor Sports Attending Cultural Total
Comp. Media Reading Act. Act. Act. Sports Act. Hobbies Leisure Part.

Psycho. .06 .18 .~4 .42 .~5 .21 .19 .24 .49
Educ. .05 .12 .~0 .~5 .~0 .22 .~0 .29 .47
Social .07 .10 .49 .27 .~5 .22 .~1 .17 .48
Relax. .09 .16 .26 .28 .28 .14 .15 .22 .~9
Physio. -.05 .07 .17 .~4 .50 .16 .18 .I~ .~8
Aesthetic .04 .09 .25 .~0 .~0 .12 .16 .18 .~6
Total Leisure Salis. .05 .15 .~7 .40 .43 .22 .27 .25 .5~
Li(e Salis. .II .I~ .29 .26 .26 .12 .20 .o7 .~4

r = .07 and higher signi(icanl at .05

r = .10 and higher signi(icanl at .01
r = .13 and higher signi(icanl at .001

0
""'
 7. All the leisure activities categories correlated significantly with
life satisfaction. Social activities had the highest correlation
(r = .29), and hobbies had the lowest (r = .07).
Multiple regression analysis showed that six variables out of 12 ex-
plained 39 percent (adjusted R square = .38) of the variance in life satis-
faction (see Table 2).
Leisure satisfaction alone showed the greatest contribution to life
satisfaction, accounting for 20 percent of the variance, with an overall
F = 132.86, p < .001.

Discussion

The most relevant explanation of the first three hypotheses empha-

sizes the fact that leisure satisfaction contributes much more than mere
leisure participation to the life satisfaction of older persons. This sup-
ports the notion which says that the value of an activity is not only de-
termined by the frequency of engagement in it, but also by its meaning,
attitude, quality, and state of mind (Slavson 1946; Aristotle reported in
de Grazia 1962; Pieper 1963; Kando 1975; Sapora 1975; Neulinger 1974;
and Iso-Ahola 1979). This intuitive notion is evidenced by the obtained
correlation between leisure participation and life satisfaction after con-
trolling leisure satisfaction. This correlation dropped more than half
(from r = .34, tor= .15), whereas the correlation between leisure satis-
faction and life satisfaction only dropped about one fourth (from r = .43
to r = .32) when controlling leisure participation.
The positive correlation between leisure participation and life satis-
faction was consistent with the previous results by Palmore (1968), Hav-
ens (1968), Peppers (1973), DeCarlo (1974), Thorson (1977), and Shaffer
(1977). The strength of the association between leisure satisfaction and
life satisfaction can be interpreted logically. Life satisfaction is a com-
posite of the different satisfactions (e.g., family, financial, standards of liv-
ing, work, health, and leisure). Tatarkiewicz, ( 1976, p. 8) explained the
nature of this relationship: "Happiness requires total satisfaction, that is
satisfaction with life as a whole . . . . Satisfaction is only happiness
when it is complete satisfaction . . . . People who are satisfied partially
or relatively do not call themselves happy . . . . Happiness means lasting
satisfaction." Leisure satisfaction, accordingly, is a part of a whole,
which is life satisfaction. Therefore, there was a strong intercorrelation
between the two. Further supportive evidence concerning this relation-
ship, utilizing the same two measures (leisure satisfaction and life satis-
faction) was obtained by Delgado (1979). She obtained results consistent
with this study (r = .33, p < .001), although Delgado's sample size was
relatively small (105 subjects).
Authorities in the field of leisure behavior have long speculated that
a positive association between leisure participation and leisure satisfac-

302 Journal of Leisure Research

6'
...c
:;.
~
Ill
...;:;
...
TABLE 2

Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Six Independent Variables Which Contribute to
Life Satisfaction of Older Persons
F to Multiple R2 Overall
No. Variables R Enter or Remove p R R2 Change F p

I Leisure Satis. .45 1112.86 0 .449 .201 .201 1112.86 0

2 Satisfaction with .44 80.52 .000 .554 .1107 .106 116.72 .000
Standard of Living
11 Satisfaction with .411 111.50 0 .589 .1146 .0119 92.811 0
Family Rei. &: Act.
4 Satisfaction with .119 17.811 .000 .607 .1168 .022 76.111 .000
Health
5 Leisure Part. .115 111,07 .000 .619 .1184 .015 65.07 0
6 Marital Status -.111 6.22 .0111 .625 .1191 .007 55.80 .000

df = 6,522

0
""'
""'
tion exists (Brightbill 1961; Dumazedier 1974; Sessoms et al. 1975). The
relationship found in the current study corresponded with a finding by
Ragheb (1980). The degree of association found between leisure partici-
pation and leisure satisfaction was r = .56, p < .01 (ages ll-58), in com-
parison tor= .53, p < .001 observed in the present study.
The positive association between the six components of leisure satis-
faction and life satisfaction is supported partially by the findings of
Graney (1975), and Tobin and Neugarten (1961). These researchers
found positive correlations among social interaction, social activities
and life satisfaction and happiness. The social component had the sec-
ond strongest correlation with life satisfaction, r = .36; the next most
prominent component was the "psychological" dimension, r = .49. It is
speculated that this finding shows that gaining a sense of accomplish-
ment from engaging in leisure activities, gaining self-confidence, utiliz-
ing one's skills and abilities, and doing an interesting activity (psycho-
logical component) are important to one's life satisfaction. More
investigations are needed to understand and explain this relationship.

Implications and Recommendations

On the basis of the findings of this investigation, the following im-

plications and recommendations are offered:
First, in relating variables to life satisfaction of older persons, scien-
tists should not ignore leisure satisfaction and leisure participation of
older individuals. These two variables, particularly leisure satisfaction,
demonstrated a high contribution to life satisfaction as compared to
other variables that scientists have typically been considering, such as sat-
isfaction with family, health, and standard of living.
Second, human and social services practitioners dealing with the
elderly should be aware of the importance of leisure satisfaction. Accord-
ingly, they need to consider in their programs and services the opportun-
ities and experiences necessary to increase life satisfaction.
Last, the primary contribution of leisure activities to life satisfaction
is not only the frequency of engaging in those activities, but above all,
the satisfaction obtained. Therefore, leisure practitioners must design,
plan, and offer services which contribute not only to participants' leisure
satisfaction but also to life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and
thus the happiness of older persons.

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