Who benefits from which activity? On the relations between personality traits, leisure activities, and well-being.

Abstract

Leisure activities have been emphasized as an important predictor of well-being. However, little research has examined the effects of leisure activity enactment on well-being over time. Moreover, it is unknown which activities are most beneficial for whom. We integrate diverse theoretical accounts of person–environment relations and propose a generic Personality–Activity–Well-Being (PAW) framework, which highlights different relations between personality traits, activities, and well-being. To investigate these relations, we used 11 annual waves from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) panel (total N = 12,703 participants, N = 59,108 assessments), which included measures of the Big Five personality traits, 15 different leisure activities, and affective well-being and life satisfaction. Our preregistered multilevel models revealed three sets of findings. First, we observed on average small expected between-person associations between leisure activities and well-being (e.g., higher average levels of holidays, evening socializing, talking to close others, exercise, and cultural activities were associated with higher well-being). Annual within-person fluctuations in several leisure activities also predicted well-being in expected ways, but effect sizes were very small and varied strongly across participants. Second, personality traits were related to leisure activities in hypothesized ways, yielding on average small but also some moderate and large correlations. Third, Personality Trait × Leisure Activity interactions were only evident on the between-person level, very small in size, and in the opposite direction of our expectations. Personality traits did not moderate well-being benefits from leisure within persons. We discuss the implications of our findings and sketch an agenda for future work.

The relationship of diverse leisure activities with flourishing

“…Although our assessment of flourishing was not as thorough as Keyes’ measure ( Keyes, 2002 ), the population-based study that was drawn on for Keyes’ study did not have measures of diverse forms of leisure. Further, our findings are consistent with recent research that shows similar associations between diverse forms of leisure and wellbeing ( Kuper et al, 2022 ), but future research is needed to assess potentially causal associations between leisure and flourishing. We hope that the present research represents a starting point for further research on the potential links between leisure and flourishing and its important consequences for wellbeing and functioning.…”

“…It is worth noting that some of the forms of leisure we assessed (e.g., social leisure, Tables 3 , 4 ) were as strongly associated with languishing and flourishing as household income, helping to reinforce the value of leisure for health and wellbeing. We also found similar patterns to recent longitudinal research that found exercise, socializing, cultural activities and exercise were positively linked to wellbeing but computer gaming and television watching were not ( Kuper et al, 2022 ). Finally, the way we operationalized leisure participation also shows that structural approaches to assessing leisure participation have implications for subjective aspects of wellbeing.…”

“…However, which forms of leisure are most consistently associated with wellbeing? To help answer that, a recent longitudinal study that drew on data from multiple time points over a nine-year period with over 12,000 participants in a European sample showed that physically active leisure, socializing, engaging in cultural activities (e.g., attendance at theatre or musical performance), reading and taking holidays predicted greater happiness and life satisfaction ( Kuper et al, 2022 ). However, the same study showed that not all leisure activities were as beneficial.…”

“…Drawing on data drawn from a large community-based survey, we examine the ways multiple forms of leisure are associated with languishing, being moderately healthy and flourishing, with an index constructed from measures of subjective, eudaimonic, and social wellbeing. Recent research on leisure and wellbeing ( Kuper et al, 2022 ) suggests certain forms of leisure (e.g., exercise, socializing, cultural activities) may be more likely to be positively linked to wellbeing than others (e.g., computer gaming, TV watching) and this will be investigated.…”

Predicting wellbeing over one year using sociodemographic factors, personality, health behaviours, cognition, and life events

“…However, the majority of past research aiming to identify predictors of wellbeing have focused on links with subjective wellbeing only, and many have focused on cross-sectional research designs. Many longitudinal studies focus only on a single domain, such as personality 6 , lifestyle 7 , 8 , life events 9 , or leisure activities 10 separately, making it difficult to determine the degree to which these variables explain unique variance in mental wellbeing. Some longitudinal studies have been conducted which do consider multiple domains, but with a primary focus on older adults 11 – 13 , and the extent to which these results generalise to other stages of adulthood is unclear.…”