Comparison of the influence of participation in screen golf on self-esteem, loneliness, depression, social isolation, and life satisfaction between people with and without disabilities in Republic of Korea

Abstract

Screen golf is a product of the combination of modern technology and leisure. This new form of sport can provide people with disabilities opportunities for positive life experiences through sport participation. This study aimed to investigate differences in the effect of screen golf participation on psychosocial factors (self-esteem, isolation, depression, loneliness, and life satisfaction) in people with and without disabilities. With 293 survey respondents in this study, the Multivariate Analysis of Variances (MANOVA) was performed twice to measure differences between groups after ensuring the validity and reliability of the instrument. Participation in screen golf demonstrated a positive effect for all factors for people with disabilities. Results also showed a more positive effect on self-esteem and life satisfaction for people without disabilities with screen golf experience than for those without any screen golf experience. This study demonstrated that screen golf, as a physical leisure activity, was helpful to all study participants, with greater positive effects observed for participants with disabilities. This finding suggests that ubiquitous leisure activities such as screen golf made possible by advancements in modern technologies offer desirable benefits to many. This study is highly meaningful since it demonstrated how technologies could be helpful to people with disabilities who historically have has less access to leisure activities than able-bodied people.

Associations between Leisure Preferences, Mindfulness, Psychological Capital, and Life Satisfaction

“…Thus, H4 was partially confirmed, evidencing that mindfulness and psychological capital mediate links between leisure preferences and life satisfaction. These results signify that leisure preferences and life satisfaction are interrelated constructs mediated by psychological variables, as indicated by previous studies [ 17 , 21 , 28 , 45 , 132 , 137 , 141 , 143 , 146 , 147 , 148 , 149 , 150 ]. However, these associations’ details concerning particular leisure preferences require a more grounded approach, preferably including personality traits as predictors [ 96 ] and psychological needs satisfaction [ 134 ] as covariates in further research.…”

“…Besides, this instrument did not include leisure options like “social media”, “gaming”, “SPA services”, or many others, which are “the must” to be included in future research. Besides, recent studies have suggested analyzing “screen-based” recreational activities [ 147 , 154 , 155 , 156 ]. Next, in future research, it will be important to adjust for demographic variables such as age to ensure that the results were not confounded.…”

Golf and Health, More than 18 Holes—A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Already in 2021, we found a large number of publications, as in 2020, specifically, 28 publications that related golf and health [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 183 , 184 , 185 , 186 , 187 , 188 , 189 , 190 , 191 , 192 , 193 , 194 , 195 , 196 , 197 , 198 ], 6 of them in both databases [ 71 , 73 , 100 , 102 , 185 , 190 ]. The main line of research continues to be the health benefits of sport [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ] and studies on injuries [ 145 , 146 , 177 , 178 , 179 ] or risks to players on the golf course [ 183 , 187 ].…”

When It Comes to Screen Golf and Baseball, What Do Participants Think?

“…In particular, as the technology develops and hardware devices become cheaper, VR is being used as a solution to bestow an optimal sports experience [ 1 ]. These days, myriad sports games have been developed that provide users with various benefits, including fitness care, game playing, and physical training [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ], and this trend is advancing at a rapid pace [ 8 ].…”