The Relationship Between Leisure Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction: A Meta-analysis Study of Years 1999-2019

Abstract

Studies which focused on relations between the perception of leisure and well-being concepts are observed frequently in literature. Studies that measure the relationship between “life satisfaction” and “leisure satisfaction” concepts are prominent within these studies. The aim of this study was to get a cumulative result by integrating the findings of the studies examining the same concepts through meta-analysis. For this purpose, academic studies published between 1999 and 2019 were screened and included from several databases. As a result, 21 studies were found fulfilling the inclusion criterion, set by the researchers, in order to retrieve studies presenting a correlation coefficient between variables “life satisfaction” and “leisure satisfaction”. This search resulted with a sample size of 83,632. The overall sample consisted of women, disabled individuals, residents of a defined district, university students, immigrants, and adults from various countries. Studies were analyzed by the free trial version of Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Software 2.0 (CMA 2.0). Findings indicated that leisure satisfaction and life satisfaction showed a positive relationship with a medium level of effect size. Future researchers who will address these concepts in their studies would benefit from conducting moderating analyses to explore how concepts in issue vary depending on the characteristics of the study, such as the sample characteristics.