An exploration of serious leisure types, flow and successful aging in later life

This study examined how different types of serious leisure activity are associated with experiencing flow and successful aging. Older adults ages 60 and over participated in this study and participants were recruited from senior related programs in the Champaign County area. In all, 162 surveys were distributed in total and among them, 113 surveys were used in this study because some people completed the survey incorrectly or did not answer some questions. Cluster analyses were used to classify the types of serious leisure activity. Then, univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to examine the differences among the different serious leisure types regarding flow and successful aging. Thereafter, the relationship between flow and successful aging was investigated with multiple regression. Serious leisure was classified into five different clusters:1) physically and socially-centered stimulating activity, 2) cognitively-centered stimulating activity, 3) diversely low stimulating activity, 4) diversely high stimulating activity and 5) cognitively and socially-centered stimulating activity. While there were some significant differences between different types of serious leisure activity regarding seriousness of leisure activity and frequency of flow, the results indicated that there was no significant difference in terms of quality of flow and successful aging. Also, results indicated that the quality of flow accounts for variance in successful aging. These study results offer some insights regarding older adults’ serious leisure and their relationships to flow and successful aging.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Recreation, Sport, and Tourism

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Lee, Chung Sup

Contributors dc:contributor

• Payne, Laura L.

• Serious leisure
• Flow
• Successful aging
• Types of serious leisure

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2011 Chung Sup Lee

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26219

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/26219