Experiencing flow in different types of serious leisure in later life

ABSTRACT

As people are living longer, there is an emphasis on adding life to years instead of years to life. Flow is regarded as an optimal experience, which contributes to the quality of life. Such flow experiences are likely to occur in serious leisure settings. Thus, this study explored the relationship between serious leisure types and a flow experience (frequency and quality) among older adults. Respondents were recruited from six different community programmes and a total of 113 surveys were used in the study. Serious leisure activities were classified into five types (i.e. “physically & socially centred stimulating” activity, “cognitively centred stimulating” activity, “diversely low stimulating” activity, “diversely high stimulating” activity, and “cognitively & socially centred stimulating” activity) based on the physical, cognitive, and social stimulation. The findings indicated that people who engage in serious leisure activities that emphasize the cognitive stimulation were significantly more likely to experience higher frequencies of flow. On the other hand, there was no significant difference among the different types of serious leisure in terms of quality of flow. This might indicate that what matters the most to experiencing flow is not what we do, but how we do it.

노후에 참여하는 다양한 진지한 여가유형에서 경험하는 몰입 초록

기대수명이 늘어나면서, 사람들은 얼마나 더 살 것인가보다 어떻게 더 오래 살 것인가에 더 많은 관심을 보이게 되었다. 이런 분위기속에서, 몰입은 삶의 질에 지대한 영향을 미치는 최상의 경험으로 인식되면서 많은 학자들의 관심을 불러일으키고 있다. 특히 몰입은 진지한 여가상황에서 자주 일어나는 경향이 있는 것으로 알려져있어서, 본 연구에서는 노인들을 대상으로 진지한 여가 유형과 몰입 경험의 관계를 이해하려고 했다. 참여자들은 총 113명으로 6개의 지역 프로그램에서 모집되었다. 진지한 여가는 신체적, 사회적 그리고 인지적 요소을 고려해서 총 5 형태로 나눠졌으며 이는 각각 신체적-사회적 자극 중심의 여가활동, 인지적-사회적 자극 중심의 여가활동, 인지 자극 중심의 여가활동, 전방위적으로 낮은 자극 중심의 여가활동, 그리고 전방위적으로 높은 자극 중심의 여가활동으로 명명되었다. 결과를 통해 인지적인 부분이 강한 여가활동일수록 더 많은 몰입을 경험하는 경향이 있는 것이 나타났지만 몰입의 질적인 부분은 여가 유형에 영향을 받지 않는 것으로 발견되었다. 이 연구는 노인들이 어떤 여가활동을 하느냐보다 어떻게 여가활동을 하느냐에 더 관심을 갖도록 유도하는 것이 그들의 삶의 질에 더 의미가 있다는 시사점을 주고 있다.

KEYWORDS:

• Older adults
• serious leisure
• cognitive stimulation
• frequency of flow and quality of flow

키워드:

• 노인 진지한 여가
• 인지적 자극
• 몰입 경험의 빈도
• 몰입 경험의 질

Acknowledgement

My deepest thanks and sincere appreciation go to my advisor, Dr Laura Payne. Also, I want to thank Champaign and Urbana Park District and people in the Congregate Meal Program who helped me collect samples.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Chungsup Lee is a Doctoral student in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research centers upon leisure and older adults, particularly the role of leisure in retirement transition and how leisure contributes to their health and well-being. Also, his research interest includes the role of leisure on international student adapting to their life transitions. Lastly, he has presented his works at the domestic and international conferences, including a presentation at the NRPA.

Laura L. Payne is a Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism and an Extension Specialist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Her research examines the effects of leisure behavior on aspects health and well-being (e.g., psychosocial, physiological) among older adults. Specifically, she examines the role of leisure in coping with chronic disease and how leisure education can improve the health and quality of life for people with chronic disease.