The Role of Physically Active Leisure in Enhancing Well-Being

Abstract

Using an ecological perspective, the current research developed a theoretical framework that suggests that environmental and personal resources related to physically active leisure, as well as the interactions between them, contribute to well-being. A distance-running event was examined as an environmental resource for enhancing global life satisfaction, a key measure of subjective well-being. In contrast, the constructs of behavioral involvement and psychological involvement were used to measure personal resources resulting from physically active leisure. The proposed framework was tested with a set of three studies in which participants were recruited through a survey panel from a 10-mile distance-running event in the US. Study 1 performed a partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis to examine whether the distance-running event contributed to behavioral and psychological involvement and whether such involvement, in turn, promoted global life satisfaction. By using longitudinal data over a 5-month period, Study 2 used a latent growth modeling approach to investigate whether the distance running event was able to enhance participants' psychological involvement and whether such change promoted global life satisfaction. Study 3 conducted a moderated mediation analysis to examine the influence of personality, behavioral and psychological involvement, and two environmental resources of the distance running event and an organized running club on global life satisfaction. The results of the three studies suggest that a distance-running event can serve as an environmental resource that promotes participants' behavioral involvement and psychological involvement in the activity. The results also indicate that psychological involvement plays an important role in promoting global life satisfaction, whereas behavioral involvement may be insufficient to promote global life satisfaction. Overall, the current research contributes to the sport management and leisure literature by providing scholars with a new way of understanding the benefits of physically active leisure. The findings from the current research also provide practical implications for government and community leaders to enhance people's well-being by promoting physically active leisure in their cities and communities.