An examination of the stability of the remembering self when measuring social connection derived from a shared leisure experience

Abstract

Social connection has been identified as a public health priority, and is often positioned, in various forms, as an outcome of leisure experiences. In cases of assessing the hedonic quality of experiences, research has identified a relative permanence and stability in the remembering self; however, whether the same is true when measuring social connection is unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether recall of social connection after a structured, shared leisure experience changed over time. We compared assessments of social connection among a sample of 68 adults immediately following four structured, shared leisure experiences and again four weeks later. Using multiple statistical tests (e.g., intraclass correlation and variance components analyses), findings indicate that although mean connection scores decreased from time one to time two, this decrease was not significant. Thus, the remembering self appears to remain relatively stable when measuring connection.

Keywords:

• Experience design
• social connection
• leisure experience
• remembering self

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).