Role of positive emotions in the constraint process: the case of Taiwanese college students

ABSTRACT

This study adopts the partial least squares (PLS) method to analyse the relationships among positive emotions, leisure constraints, leisure negotiation strategy, and participation frequency in outdoor recreational activities using stratified proportional sampling of Taiwanese students (N = 569) and SmartPLS 2.0 statistical software to perform statistical analyses. This study determined that positive emotions not only directly affected the level of involvement in outdoor recreational activities but also indirectly increased involvement by improving negotiation ability. While leisure constraints have a direct, positive and significant impact on the leisure negotiation strategy, they do not significantly influence the level of participation in outdoor recreational activities. This article observed that the level of participation did not depend on constraints but instead depended on the process of ‘leisure negotiation’ based on the constraints. In the future, different samples can be used to test the stability and adaptability of this model; alternatively, other variables can be added to better understand college students’ participation in outdoor recreational activities.

KEYWORDS:

• positive emotions
• leisure constraints
• leisure negotiation
• partial least squares (PLS)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sheng-Fong Chen

Sheng-fong Chen is PhD candidate in the Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology. His current research interests include Positive psychology, Leisure constrains, data mining, text mining, deep learning and Big data. He has published in Journal of Computers and Applied Science Education and other Chinese journals.

Shi-Jer Lou

Shi-Jer Lou is a full professor in the Graduate Institute of Vocational and Technological Education, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. His research interests cover areas in vocational education, teacher education, educational technology, and digital learning.

Shang-Ming Ma

Shang-Min Ma is Professor in the Faculty of Recreational Sport and Health Promotion at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. His research interests concern player performance in tennis, positive psychology in leisure behaviour and recreational sports constraints negotiation process.