Karaoke as a form of leisure in later life: connections between singing and meaning in life

ABSTRACT

Identifying predictors of meaning in life (MIL) among older adults is important to promote their well-being. Therefore, to provide practitioners with information to help older adults enhance well-being, we examined a mediated model in which singing commitment is predictive of flow, and flow is predictive of MIL. A total of 305 older adults participated in our study. Participants completed an in-person survey including singing commitment, flow, and MIL scales. We analysed data using structural equation modelling. Results indicated that high levels of singing commitment predicted high levels of flow, and high levels of flow predicted high levels of MIL. The relationship between singing commitment and MIL was fully mediated by flow, and there were no residual direct effects. We discuss implications of these results in terms of increasing meaning in later life, in particular, facilitating flow through singing commitment among older adults who do not have high levels of singing skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Karaoke
• singing commitment
• flow
• meaning in life
• older adults

Disclosure statement

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

Description of authors’ roles

Liang-Chih Chang designed the study, performed some of the statistical analyses, and wrote the final manuscript. John Dattilo gave critical comments, assisted in the writing process, and edited the final manuscript. Fei-Hsin Huang constructed the analytical sample and performed the statistical analyses.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Liang-Chih Chang

Liang-Chih Chang is a Professor in the Department of Living Sciences, National Open University, New Taipei City, Taiwan. He specializes in Gerontology, Leisure Education, and Leisure Psychology.

John Dattilo

John Dattilo is a Professor of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management in the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State University, USA. With his research he strives to understand variables that enable and constrain leisure experiences and collaboratively examines effects of services facilitating leisure experiences. He synthesizes research by developing models of understanding presented in books such as Inclusive Leisure Services: Grounded in Social Justice, Leisure Education Program Planning, Facilitation Techniques in Therapeutic Recreation, and Inclusive Leisure Services for People with Disabilities all distributed by Sagamore Publishing at http://www.sagamorepub.com/

Fei-Hsin Huang

Fei-Hsin Huang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Tourism and Leisure, Lunghwa University of Science and Technology, Taoyuan City, Taiwan. She specializes in Leisure Activity Planning, Leisure and Healthy Management, and Leisure Education.