The role of subjective well-being in serious leisure and active aging: Evidence from older Chinese Tai Chi participants

Abstract

As leisure awareness has improved, increasing numbers of older adults have begun to participate seriously in leisure activities to experience greater happiness and enhance their quality of life. This study examined the mediating role of subjective well-being in serious leisure and active aging (AA) among older Tai Chi (TC) participants. We proposed a model mediated by subjective well-being and validated this model using stepwise regression and bootstrapping methods. Data were collected from 286 older adults who engaged seriously in TC in Hangzhou, China. The results showed that (a) subjective well-being partially mediates the relationship between serious leisure and AA; (b) subjective well-being partially mediates the relationships between serious leisure and the four subdimensions of AA; (c) among the four subdimensions, the mediating effect of subjective well-being on the relationship between serious leisure and interpersonal support and the direct effect of serious leisure on body vitality are relatively large. These results help explain the intricate relationship between serious leisure and AA among older TC participants and have theoretical and practical implications for those who are interested in the phenomenon of aging.