Accounting for Leisure Preferences from Within: The Relative Contributions of Gender, Race or Ethnicity, Personality, Affective Style, and Motivational Orientation

Abstract

This study contributes to the literature by exploring the unique and combined contributions of gender, race or ethnicity (African-, Asian-, European-, Hispanic-American), personality (Big 5 traits, sensation seeking, self-as-entertainment), affective style (positive and negative affect, affect intensity), and motivational orientation (types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) in predicting seven general types of leisure activity preferences. 999 university students were administered a number of questionnaires and hierarchical regression analyses indicated that variations in activity preferences were largely due to different personality, affective, and motivational constructs. The sole contributions and interaction of gender with race or ethnicity were additional although lesser influences in most types of leisure participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Leisure and personality
• affect
• leisure motivation
• leisure preferences
• gender
• race
• ethnicity