Cultural Commonality and Specificity in Japanese and Euro-Canadian Undergraduate Students' Leisure Experiences: An Exploratory Study on Control and Positive Affect

ABSTRACT

Accumulated cross-cultural research indicates that North Americans typically emphasize primary control (e.g., changing the environment) and high-arousal positive affect (e.g., enthusiasm), whereas East Asians typically emphasize secondary control (e.g., adjusting oneself, accepting the environment) and low-arousal positive affect (e.g., calmness). Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory experience sampling method study was to examine cultural similarities and differences in Japanese (n = 41) and Euro-Canadian (n = 15) undergraduate students' control and positive affect as leisure experience. Results indicated that during leisure versus non-leisure participation, (a) both Japanese and Euro-Canadians experienced primary control and high-arousal positive affect more and secondary control (acceptance) less, and (b) Japanese alone experienced secondary control (adjustment) and low-arousal positive affect more. This cross-cultural study contributes to the leisure studies field, both theoretically and practically, by identifying cultural commonality and specificity in leisure experiences as well as leisure's potential role in enhancing psychological well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Canada
• culture
• experience sampling method
• Japan
• leisure experience

Acknowledgments

This article is a modified version of the first author's doctoral dissertation in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta. We wish to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and significant suggestions. We would also like to express our appreciation to the professors who participated in our expert review.

Funding

This study was supported by a Sasakawa Sports Research Grant (120A3-035) from the Sasakawa Sports Foundation (Japan).

Notes

1 Because of the Euro-Canadian group's small sample size, the correlations were calculated based on all of the individuals' data.

2 The equation of the additional HLM analysis represents as follows: Y (HAP) = β₀ + β₁*(Primary Control [grand mean centered]) + R; β₀ = γ₀₀ + U₀ and β₁ = γ₁₀ + U₁.