Perceptual & Motor Skills: Exercise & Sport 2013, 117, 2, 367-375. © Perceptual & Motor Skills 2013
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS, FAMILY SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS, LEISURE PARTICIPATION, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING1 HANK HUNG
CHIA WEN LEE
Leisure and Society Research Center Taipei, Taiwan
University of Taipei
Summary.—Relations between ethnic backgrounds, family socioeconomic status, leisure participation, and psychological well-being were explored. Participants returned 827 valid pencil-and-paper surveys. An increase in student-athlete leisure participation was associated with better psychological well-being and sense of accomplishment. Compared with Aboriginal student-athletes, Han studentathletes had higher passive leisure participation; there was no correlation between their families’ socioeconomic status and the student-athletes' leisure participation or psychological well-being.
Over the past few decades, the number of publications on the relationship between leisure participation and psychological well-being has increased dramatically (Kelly & Godbey, 1992; Scott & Willits, 1998; Crews, Lochbaum, & Landers, 2004; Muller, Dennis, & Gorrow, 2006; Fu, 2009; Huang, 2011). Leisure participation is beneficial for physiological health and social interactions, and improves feelings of happiness and life satisfaction (Tinsley & Tinsley, 1986; Driver, Brown, & Peterson, 1991; Crews, et al., 2004). Research indicates that people with lower socioeconomic status lack the opportunities and resources for leisure participation (Kelly & Godbey, 1992). However, leisure participation may not provide positive benefits for sport participants. Crews, et al. (2004) pointed out that participants in compulsory physical education may not gain physical and psychological benefits. In Taiwan, senior high school student-athletes have special characteristics compared with the general senior high school population. Athletes participate in sports training, thus reducing their time for leisure participation. In addition, because student-athletes must accept their dual role as both “students” and “athletes,” they are burdened with psychological pressures. The interruption of a student-athletic career due to an injury, failure to be academically competitive, college entrance problems, or personal issues such as low self-worth, can all reduce psychological well-being (Guillet, Sarrazin, Carpenter, Trouilloud, & Cury, 2002; Address correspondence to Chia Wen Lee, Department of Ball Sports at the University of Taipei, 101, Sec. 2, Zhongcheng Rd., Shilin Dist., Taipei 111, Taiwan or e-mail (hungleechia@ gmail.com). 1
DOI 10.2466/06.PMS.117x22z1
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Coakley, 2009). Leisure sports participation and psychological well-being among student-athletes are worthy of study. Although previous studies have demonstrated the influence of leisure participation on psychological well-being (Fu, 2009; Huang, 2011), the relationship between student-athlete leisure participation and their psychological well-being has yet to be fully explored. Hypothesis 1. Senior high school student-athletes with higher frequency of leisure participation will exhibit improved psychological well-being. Ethnic background and family socioeconomic status can influence opportunities for leisure participation (Kelly & Godbey, 1992; Ho, Sadidharan, Elmendorf, Willits, Graefe, & Godbey, 2005). In Taiwan, Aboriginal2 and Han student-athletes represent different socioeconomic backgrounds and may have different leisure participation behaviors. Hypothesis 2. Frequency of Han student-athletes' leisure participation will be higher than that of Aboriginal student-athletes. Hypothesis 3. Senior high school student-athletes from families of higher socioeconomic status will have higher frequency of leisure participation. METHODS Participants Student-athletes in senior high schools were chosen as participants, to examine the influence of ethnic background and family socioeconomic status on psychological well-being by assessing their leisure participation. This study used a questionnaire-based survey with a stratified random cluster sampling in 42 Taiwanese senior high schools that offer athletic training programs. The pencil-and-paper survey was administered in a classroom setting. A total of 827 student-athletes participated in the survey. Of the respondents, 601 (72.7%) were male, and 226 (27.3%) were female; 139 (16.8%) were of Aboriginal and 688 (83.2%) were of Han ethnicity.3 Family Socioeconomic Status Based on Sewell's research (1971), the socioeconomic status of participants was categorized using their fathers' educational level and occupation. “Aboriginal” as referred to in this research is a special minority group with its own culture and language, mostly living in rural areas, as defined by Taiwanese authorities; Han Taiwanese are the dominant cultural group in Taiwanese society. 3 The ratio of male and female sport teams in senior high schools is around 60:40, and is around 15:85 for Aboriginal and Han student-athletes in senior high schools (R.O.C. Department of Education, 2011; R.O.C. National Science Center, 2008). 2
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These education levels were elementary school, junior high school, senior high (vocational) school, two-year college degree, bachelor's degree, master's degree or doctoral degree. The original ordinal scale for the educational measurements was converted into the number of years of formal education: 6 years for elementary school, 9 years for junior middle school, 12 years for high (vocational) school, 14 years for a two-year college degree, 16 years for an undergraduate degree, 18 years for a master's degree and 21 years for a doctoral degree. Each respondent also provided the occupation and job title of his father, which was converted into a five-level socioeconomic status score based on Hwang's “New Scale of Occupational Prestige and Socioeconomic Status in Taiwan” (2003). The scores were calculated as follows: Category 1 comprised “non-skilled, agricultural, forestry, fishery, and animal husbandry workers”; Category 2 “machine operators and assembly workers, skilled workers, those in service, and trading staff”; Category 3 “business staff, technicians, and associate professionals”; Category 4 “general professionals, elementary and middle school teachers, and special education and kindergarten teachers”; and Category 5 “senior professionals, elected representatives, administrative authorities, and business executives and managers.” Leisure Participation According to the results of Phase 5, Wave 3 of the 2007 “Taiwan Social Change Survey”4 (TSCS) (Chang & Liao, 2008), the respondents referred to the seven most popular leisure activities, and responded to the question, “How frequently do you participate during your free time?” Ratings were assigned on a 5-point scale with labels 1: Never, 2: Several times or less per year, 3: Several times per month, 4: Several times per week. 5: Every day. In general, leisure participation can be divided into two types of activities, active and passive (Ma, Tan, Ma, & Liou, 2012). To confirm the division between participation in active and passive leisure, a factor analysis was used to organize the types of leisure participation into active and passive activities. The results of the factor analysis indicated that the two divisions were valid and explained 51.6% of the overall variance. The factor Active leisure participation included “visiting friends,” “shopping,” “traveling,” and “taking part in physical activities” (e.g., playing ball, swimming, biking and walking). In contrast, the factor Passive leisure participation included “watching TV/DVD/videos,” “spending time on the Internet/PC,” and “reading books” (Table 1). The factor score for “passive leisure participation” was negative: the higher the score, the lower the passive leisure participation.
TSCS presents with the long-term trends of social changes in Taiwan through national representative survey data. 4
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H. HUNG & C. W. LEE TABLE 1 PATTERN MATRIX OF FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR LEISURE PARTICIPATION (N = 787) Factor loading Item
Communalities
M
SD
Reading books
3.55
1.02
.14
−.50
.32
Watching TV/DVD/videos
4.16
0.88
−.12
−.89
.74
Active Leisure Participation
Passive Leisure Participation
Spending time on the Internet/PC 4.13
0.86
.01
−.80
.64
Traveling
2.40
0.79
.56
−.21
.44
Shopping
2.99
0.75
.76
−.09
.62
Visiting friends
3.07
0.94
.79
0.05
.60
Take part in physical activity (playing ball, swimming, biking, walking)
4.47
0.89
.48
0.08
.22
Explained variance 34.64% 16.52% Note.—Principal component analysis with oblique rotation and Kaiser normalization. Major loadings are in boldface.
Psychological Well-being The measure of psychological well-being included both positive and negative indices. The variables of psychological well-being in related studies have included “happiness,” “satisfaction,” and “hope,” in addition to many negative aspects such as “unhappiness,” “anxiety,” “depression,” “fatigue,” and “mental health issues” (Haworth & Lewis, 2005; Fuligni & Hardway, 2006; Akin, 2008; Nasser, Doumit, & Carifio, 2011). Huang and Hwang (2010) took three dimensions of depression, accomplishment and alienation of psychological well-being to develop a validly and reliably Taiwanese measurement tool (Huang, 2011). Therefore, based on the survey questionnaire from Huang and Hwang's measurement tool (2010), the questionnaire consisted of 10 items rated on a four-point scale with labels 4: Almost every day, 3: Once or twice a week, 2: Once or twice a month and 1: Never. The results of a factor analysis supported the three dimensions, explaining 68.5% of the overall variance. Although the measurement tool has been used in the previous study (Huang & Hwang, 2010), exploratory factor analyses were performed to assess their validity of the measured constructs. EFA provided a support for the stability of the three-factor structure, KMO was acceptable (.80) and Bartlett's test reached the significant level (χ2 = 4072.0, df = 45, p < .05). The results suggested that psychological well-being has three factors—depression, accomplishment and alienation—as indicated in Table 2. Design and Analysis The analysis methods included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The factor analysis of the leisure par-
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LEISURE PARTICIPATION AND ETHNICITY TABLE 2 PATTERN MATRIX FOR FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING (N = 805) Item
Factor Loading
Communality
M
SD
Doing anything is difficult
2.30
0.82
.78
.08
.04
.64
Cannot concentrate on doing the assigned work
2.27
0.82
.88
.06
−.02
.75
Have no interest in doing anything
2.16
0.82
.89
−.04
−.05
.77
Feel frustrated
2.17
0.86
.77
−.12
.06
.66
Have hope for the future
2.78
0.90
.04
.80
−.03
.65
Depression Accomplishment Alienation
Believe that I am better than others
2.28
0.97
−.03
.76
.13
.58
Feel that life is happy
3.10
0.91
−.01
.68
−.10
.49
Feel that others treat me unkindly 1.64
0.73
−.02
.04
.92
.82
Think that other people do not like me
1.64
0.73
.00
−.01
.90
.82
Think that I cannot trust other people 1.72
0.80
.05
−.03
.79
.67
Variance explained 36.78% 16.82% 14.91% Note.—Principal component analysis with oblique rotation and Kaiser normalization. Major loadings are in boldface.
ticipation scale was performed to separate the active from the passive leisure participation, and the factor analysis of the psychological well-being scale was performed to separate it into three factors: depression, accomplishment, and alienation. Multiple regression was performed using separate subfactors for the psychological well-being variable. In the regression analysis, the independent variables were sex, ethnic background, family socioeconomic status (father's education level and occupation), active leisure participation, and passive leisure participation. The psychological well-being (depression, accomplishment and alienation) were the dependent variables. Leisure participation and psychological well-being were analyzed via factor analysis. RESULTS Based on the results provided in Tables 3 and 4, the student-athletes had relatively high active leisure participation and passive leisure participation (the coefficient for passive leisure participation was negative and must be explained as the converse, “non-participation”), which had a statistically
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−0.02
0.01
Educational level of father, years
Father's occupational status
−0.13
.90
.45
.84
.30
.13
.004
−0.14
0.20
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.33
9.80
2.05
SE
F6, 533
0.04
0.04
0.04
0.02
0.12
0.09
−0.14
0.20
0.00
0.01
0.00
0.15
−3.16
4.63
0.02
0.25
−0.04
3.53
t
B
0.07
−0.01
−0.15
1.22
0.22
.002
.013
.002 −0.01
< .001 −0.05
.98
.80
.97
< .001 −0.10
p
0.05
0.04
0.04
0.02
0.12
0.10
SE
−0.01
−0.05
0.08
−0.03
−0.06
−0.04
β
t
−0.29
−1.05
1.71
−0.72
−1.23
−1.02
Alienation
.77
.29
.09
.47
.22
.31
p
Note.—Coefficients of the Alienation and Depression factors were negative, so the scores were described as “lack of depression” and “lack of alienation,” respectively. Mean educational level of fathers was 11.6 yr. (SD = 2.7); mean father's occupational status = 2.37 (SD = 1.22).
0.21
.012
0.22
Adj. R2
.089
−0.01
0.75
0.21
−1.03
−1.52
−2.93
.099
0.05
0.03
0.01
−0.05
−0.07
−0.13
SE
β
B
Accomplishment p
β t
Depression
.023
−0.01
0.04
0.04
0.02
0.12
0.10
SE
R2
Passive leisure (−)
Active leisure
0.03
−0.18
Aboriginal (Han as reference)
Leisure participation
−0.29
B
Male (female as reference)
Variable
TABLE 3 SUMMARY OF THE MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
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LEISURE PARTICIPATION AND ETHNICITY TABLE 4 SUMMARY OF THE MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR LEISURE PARTICIPATION Variable
Active Leisure B
SE
Male (female as reference)
0.10
0.10
Aboriginal (Han as reference)
β
Passive Leisure (–) β
p
B
SE
0.99
.33
−0.12
0.10
−0.04 −0.95
.34
0.55
0.12
0.20
0.04
t
t
−0.05 −1.24
p .22
−0.11
0.12
Educational level of father (years) 0.01
0.02
0.03
0.66
.51
0.00
0.02
0.00 −0.06
.95
Father's occupational status
0.04
0.08
1.78
.08
−0.03
0.04
−0.03 −0.68
.50
R2 Adj. R2
0.07 .015 .008
4.76 < .001
.048 .041
SE
0.22
0.21
F4, 548
2.06
6.85
Note.—The negative coefficients in passive leisure are explained as “relation to lack of Passive leisure.” All coefficients are small.
significant positive influence on the dimensions of accomplishment of psychological well-being. This result supported the dimensions of Hypothesis 1, in which the student-athletes with a frequency of higher leisure participation had better psychological well-being. However, the Aboriginal group had statistically significantly lower passive leisure participation compared with the Han group, which supports Hypothesis 2 in passive leisure participation. The Han group had higher leisure participation than the Aboriginal group. Family socioeconomic status did not affect active or passive leisure participation scores, so Hypothesis 3 was not supported. DISCUSSION For high school student-athletes, engaging in both active and passive leisure participation was associated with a higher sense of accomplishment. This result was especially true for passive leisure participation among the group of Han student-athletes, consistent with previous studies that associated leisure participation with the feelings of accomplishment and personal development (Kleiber & Rickards, 1985; Tinsley & Tinsley, 1986; Kelly & Godbey, 1992). This research suggests that during leisure participation, student-athletes feel happy about their lives and are hopeful for the future; therefore, when they have higher frequency of leisure participation, their sense of accomplishment of psychological well-being is increased. Of course, the opposite could be true—student athletes who have time for leisure activities may have a better sense of accomplishment for other reasons, e.g., better academic achievement or higher athletic accomplishments. It must
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also be acknowledged that the leisure activity ratings regression accounts for only 10% of the variance in sense of accomplishment. Compared with the group of Aboriginal student-athletes, the Han group had more frequent passive leisure participation in this study. Han parents tend to encourage their children to do their best in the classroom and to make good use of their leisure time by engaging in meaningful activities (Zeijl, te Poel, Du Bois-Reymond, Ravesloot, & Meulman, 2000); however, as Shaw, Caldwell, and Kleiber (1996) indicated, adolescents' selection of discretionary activities are affected by pressure from adults and friends. Ho, et al. (2005) noted that social networks might influence ethnic differences in leisure participation. Taiwanese student-athletes' choices of leisure activities are probably influenced by their peers. Therefore, further research is needed to investigate the differences in how the Han and Aboriginal student-athletes understand and pursue leisure activities. The family socioeconomic status of the student-athletes had no significant influence on their psychological well-being. This result is consistent with Huang and Hwang's (2010) findings and may be attributed to the fact that East Asian society is more inclined to collectivism rather than individualism (Hofstede, 1980). Higher recognition by their peers leads to a higher sense of happiness, perhaps because the most student-athletes come from low socioeconomic status families (Hung & Tang, 2011). REFERENCES
AKIN, A. (2008) The scales of psychological well-being: a study of validity and reliability. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 8(3), 741-750. CHANG, L. Y., & LIAO, P. S. (2008) Taiwan Social Change Survey 2007, Phase 5, Wave 3. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica. COAKLEY, J. (2009) Sport in society: issues and controversies. (10th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill. CREWS, D. J., LOCHBAUM, M. R., & LANDERS, D. M. (2004) Aerobic physical activity effects on psychological well-being in low-income Hispanic children. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 98, 319-324. DRIVER, B. L., BROWN, P. J., & PETERSON, G. L. (1991) Research on leisure benefits: an introduction to this volume. In B. L. Driver, P. J. Brown, & G. L. Peterson (Eds.), Benefits of leisure. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc. Pp. 3-12. FU, Y. C. (2009) Better together? Sociability in leisure and leisure satisfaction. Taiwanese Journal of Sociology, 42, 55-94. FULIGNI, A. J., & HARDWAY, C. (2006) Daily variation in adolescents' sleep, activities, and psychological well-being. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 16(3), 353-378. GUILLET, E., SARRAZIN, P., CARPENTER, P. J., TROUILLOUD, D., & CURY, F. (2002) Predicting persistence or withdrawal in female handballers with social exchange theory. International Journal of Psychology, 37(2), 92-104. HAWORTH, J., & LEWIS, S. (2005) Work, leisure and well-being. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 33(1), 67-79. DOI: 10.1080/03069880412331335902 HO, C. H., SADIDHARAN, V., ELMENDORF, W., WILLITS, F. K., GRAEFE, A., & GODBEY, G. (2005) Gender and ethnic variations in urban park preferences, visitation, and perceived benefits. Journal of Leisure Research, 37(3), 281-306.
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HOFSTEDE, G. (1980) Culture's consequences: international differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. HUANG, C. H. (2011) A model of relationship towards the recreational attitude, experience and well-being of university students. Leisure & Society Research, 4, 23-37. HUANG, M. F., & HWANG, I. J. (2010) The causal mechanism of effecting psychological well-being on the eighth graders in Taitung: which is more important, family socioeconomic status or social network? Formosan Education and Society, 21, 1-37. HUNG, H. C., & TANG, M. (2011) Standing at the career crossroads: a current situation analysis of high school athletic class students’ career choice in Taiwan. Journal of Leisure, Tourism, Sport, & Health, 1(2), 17-24. HWANG, Y. J. (2003) The construction and assessment of the “new occupational prestige and socioeconomic scores for Taiwan”: the indigenization of the social science and sociology of education research. Bulletin of Educational Research, 49(4), 1-31. KELLY, J. R., & GODBEY, G. (1992) The sociology of leisure. State College, PA: Venture Publishing. KLEIBER, D. A., & RICKARDS, W. H. (1985) Leisure and recreation in adolescence: limitation and potential. In M. G. Wade (Ed.), Constraints on leisure. Springfield, IL: Thomas. Pp. 289-317. MA, S. M., TAN, Y., MA, S. C., & LIOU, T. L. (2012) Relationship between sedentary and active leisure participation among Midwestern college students. South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, 34(1), 107-122. MULLER, S. M., DENNIS, D. L., & GORROW, T. (2006) Emotional well-being of college students in health courses with and without an exercise component. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 103, 717-725. NASSER, R., DOUMIT, J., & CARIFIO, J. (2011) Well-being and belief in a just world among rest home residents. Social Behavior and Personality, 39(5), 655-670. R. O. C. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. (2011) The statistical yearbook of physical education. Retrieved from http://140.122.72.62/Census/moreCensus?id=5cfeeed9e80bd3 27c9522% 2035f0a9eeb104e2f681631976. R. O. C. NATIONAL SCIENCE CENTER. (2008) Taiwanese aboriginals and sport. Retrieved from https://srda.sinica.edu.tw/search/scidown/4769. SCOTT, D., & WILLITS, F. K. (1998) Adolescent and adult leisure patterns: a reassessment. Journal of Leisure Research, 30(3), 319-330. SEWELL, W. H. (1971) Inequality of opportunity for higher education. American Sociology Review, 36(5), 793-809. SHAW, S. M., CALDWELL, L. L., & KLEIBER, D. A. (1996) Boredom, stress and social control in the daily activities of adolescents. Journal of Leisure Research, 28(4), 274-293. TINSLEY, H. E. A., & TINSLEY, D. J. (1986) A theory of attributes, benefits, and causes of leisure experience. Leisure Sciences, 8(1), 1-45. ZEIJL, E., TE POEL, Y., DU BOIS-REYMOND, M., RAVESLOOT, J., & MEULMAN, J. J. (2000) The role of parents and peers in the leisure activities of young adolescents. Journal of Leisure Research, 32(3), 281-303. Accepted September 20, 2013.
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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS, FAMILY SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS, LEISURE PARTICIPATION, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING1 HANK HUNG
CHIA WEN LEE
Leisure and Society Research Center Taipei, Taiwan
University of Taipei
Summary.—Relations between ethnic backgrounds, family socioeconomic status, leisure participation, and psychological well-being were explored. Participants returned 827 valid pencil-and-paper surveys. An increase in student-athlete leisure participation was associated with better psychological well-being and sense of accomplishment. Compared with Aboriginal student-athletes, Han studentathletes had higher passive leisure participation; there was no correlation between their families’ socioeconomic status and the student-athletes' leisure participation or psychological well-being.
Over the past few decades, the number of publications on the relationship between leisure participation and psychological well-being has increased dramatically (Kelly & Godbey, 1992; Scott & Willits, 1998; Crews, Lochbaum, & Landers, 2004; Muller, Dennis, & Gorrow, 2006; Fu, 2009; Huang, 2011). Leisure participation is beneficial for physiological health and social interactions, and improves feelings of happiness and life satisfaction (Tinsley & Tinsley, 1986; Driver, Brown, & Peterson, 1991; Crews, et al., 2004). Research indicates that people with lower socioeconomic status lack the opportunities and resources for leisure participation (Kelly & Godbey, 1992). However, leisure participation may not provide positive benefits for sport participants. Crews, et al. (2004) pointed out that participants in compulsory physical education may not gain physical and psychological benefits. In Taiwan, senior high school student-athletes have special characteristics compared with the general senior high school population. Athletes participate in sports training, thus reducing their time for leisure participation. In addition, because student-athletes must accept their dual role as both “students” and “athletes,” they are burdened with psychological pressures. The interruption of a student-athletic career due to an injury, failure to be academically competitive, college entrance problems, or personal issues such as low self-worth, can all reduce psychological well-being (Guillet, Sarrazin, Carpenter, Trouilloud, & Cury, 2002; Address correspondence to Chia Wen Lee, Department of Ball Sports at the University of Taipei, 101, Sec. 2, Zhongcheng Rd., Shilin Dist., Taipei 111, Taiwan or e-mail (hungleechia@ gmail.com). 1
DOI 10.2466/06.PMS.117x22z1
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ISSN 0031-5125
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H. HUNG & C. W. LEE
Coakley, 2009). Leisure sports participation and psychological well-being among student-athletes are worthy of study. Although previous studies have demonstrated the influence of leisure participation on psychological well-being (Fu, 2009; Huang, 2011), the relationship between student-athlete leisure participation and their psychological well-being has yet to be fully explored. Hypothesis 1. Senior high school student-athletes with higher frequency of leisure participation will exhibit improved psychological well-being. Ethnic background and family socioeconomic status can influence opportunities for leisure participation (Kelly & Godbey, 1992; Ho, Sadidharan, Elmendorf, Willits, Graefe, & Godbey, 2005). In Taiwan, Aboriginal2 and Han student-athletes represent different socioeconomic backgrounds and may have different leisure participation behaviors. Hypothesis 2. Frequency of Han student-athletes' leisure participation will be higher than that of Aboriginal student-athletes. Hypothesis 3. Senior high school student-athletes from families of higher socioeconomic status will have higher frequency of leisure participation. METHODS Participants Student-athletes in senior high schools were chosen as participants, to examine the influence of ethnic background and family socioeconomic status on psychological well-being by assessing their leisure participation. This study used a questionnaire-based survey with a stratified random cluster sampling in 42 Taiwanese senior high schools that offer athletic training programs. The pencil-and-paper survey was administered in a classroom setting. A total of 827 student-athletes participated in the survey. Of the respondents, 601 (72.7%) were male, and 226 (27.3%) were female; 139 (16.8%) were of Aboriginal and 688 (83.2%) were of Han ethnicity.3 Family Socioeconomic Status Based on Sewell's research (1971), the socioeconomic status of participants was categorized using their fathers' educational level and occupation. “Aboriginal” as referred to in this research is a special minority group with its own culture and language, mostly living in rural areas, as defined by Taiwanese authorities; Han Taiwanese are the dominant cultural group in Taiwanese society. 3 The ratio of male and female sport teams in senior high schools is around 60:40, and is around 15:85 for Aboriginal and Han student-athletes in senior high schools (R.O.C. Department of Education, 2011; R.O.C. National Science Center, 2008). 2
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These education levels were elementary school, junior high school, senior high (vocational) school, two-year college degree, bachelor's degree, master's degree or doctoral degree. The original ordinal scale for the educational measurements was converted into the number of years of formal education: 6 years for elementary school, 9 years for junior middle school, 12 years for high (vocational) school, 14 years for a two-year college degree, 16 years for an undergraduate degree, 18 years for a master's degree and 21 years for a doctoral degree. Each respondent also provided the occupation and job title of his father, which was converted into a five-level socioeconomic status score based on Hwang's “New Scale of Occupational Prestige and Socioeconomic Status in Taiwan” (2003). The scores were calculated as follows: Category 1 comprised “non-skilled, agricultural, forestry, fishery, and animal husbandry workers”; Category 2 “machine operators and assembly workers, skilled workers, those in service, and trading staff”; Category 3 “business staff, technicians, and associate professionals”; Category 4 “general professionals, elementary and middle school teachers, and special education and kindergarten teachers”; and Category 5 “senior professionals, elected representatives, administrative authorities, and business executives and managers.” Leisure Participation According to the results of Phase 5, Wave 3 of the 2007 “Taiwan Social Change Survey”4 (TSCS) (Chang & Liao, 2008), the respondents referred to the seven most popular leisure activities, and responded to the question, “How frequently do you participate during your free time?” Ratings were assigned on a 5-point scale with labels 1: Never, 2: Several times or less per year, 3: Several times per month, 4: Several times per week. 5: Every day. In general, leisure participation can be divided into two types of activities, active and passive (Ma, Tan, Ma, & Liou, 2012). To confirm the division between participation in active and passive leisure, a factor analysis was used to organize the types of leisure participation into active and passive activities. The results of the factor analysis indicated that the two divisions were valid and explained 51.6% of the overall variance. The factor Active leisure participation included “visiting friends,” “shopping,” “traveling,” and “taking part in physical activities” (e.g., playing ball, swimming, biking and walking). In contrast, the factor Passive leisure participation included “watching TV/DVD/videos,” “spending time on the Internet/PC,” and “reading books” (Table 1). The factor score for “passive leisure participation” was negative: the higher the score, the lower the passive leisure participation.
TSCS presents with the long-term trends of social changes in Taiwan through national representative survey data. 4
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H. HUNG & C. W. LEE TABLE 1 PATTERN MATRIX OF FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR LEISURE PARTICIPATION (N = 787) Factor loading Item
Communalities
M
SD
Reading books
3.55
1.02
.14
−.50
.32
Watching TV/DVD/videos
4.16
0.88
−.12
−.89
.74
Active Leisure Participation
Passive Leisure Participation
Spending time on the Internet/PC 4.13
0.86
.01
−.80
.64
Traveling
2.40
0.79
.56
−.21
.44
Shopping
2.99
0.75
.76
−.09
.62
Visiting friends
3.07
0.94
.79
0.05
.60
Take part in physical activity (playing ball, swimming, biking, walking)
4.47
0.89
.48
0.08
.22
Explained variance 34.64% 16.52% Note.—Principal component analysis with oblique rotation and Kaiser normalization. Major loadings are in boldface.
Psychological Well-being The measure of psychological well-being included both positive and negative indices. The variables of psychological well-being in related studies have included “happiness,” “satisfaction,” and “hope,” in addition to many negative aspects such as “unhappiness,” “anxiety,” “depression,” “fatigue,” and “mental health issues” (Haworth & Lewis, 2005; Fuligni & Hardway, 2006; Akin, 2008; Nasser, Doumit, & Carifio, 2011). Huang and Hwang (2010) took three dimensions of depression, accomplishment and alienation of psychological well-being to develop a validly and reliably Taiwanese measurement tool (Huang, 2011). Therefore, based on the survey questionnaire from Huang and Hwang's measurement tool (2010), the questionnaire consisted of 10 items rated on a four-point scale with labels 4: Almost every day, 3: Once or twice a week, 2: Once or twice a month and 1: Never. The results of a factor analysis supported the three dimensions, explaining 68.5% of the overall variance. Although the measurement tool has been used in the previous study (Huang & Hwang, 2010), exploratory factor analyses were performed to assess their validity of the measured constructs. EFA provided a support for the stability of the three-factor structure, KMO was acceptable (.80) and Bartlett's test reached the significant level (χ2 = 4072.0, df = 45, p < .05). The results suggested that psychological well-being has three factors—depression, accomplishment and alienation—as indicated in Table 2. Design and Analysis The analysis methods included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The factor analysis of the leisure par-
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LEISURE PARTICIPATION AND ETHNICITY TABLE 2 PATTERN MATRIX FOR FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING (N = 805) Item
Factor Loading
Communality
M
SD
Doing anything is difficult
2.30
0.82
.78
.08
.04
.64
Cannot concentrate on doing the assigned work
2.27
0.82
.88
.06
−.02
.75
Have no interest in doing anything
2.16
0.82
.89
−.04
−.05
.77
Feel frustrated
2.17
0.86
.77
−.12
.06
.66
Have hope for the future
2.78
0.90
.04
.80
−.03
.65
Depression Accomplishment Alienation
Believe that I am better than others
2.28
0.97
−.03
.76
.13
.58
Feel that life is happy
3.10
0.91
−.01
.68
−.10
.49
Feel that others treat me unkindly 1.64
0.73
−.02
.04
.92
.82
Think that other people do not like me
1.64
0.73
.00
−.01
.90
.82
Think that I cannot trust other people 1.72
0.80
.05
−.03
.79
.67
Variance explained 36.78% 16.82% 14.91% Note.—Principal component analysis with oblique rotation and Kaiser normalization. Major loadings are in boldface.
ticipation scale was performed to separate the active from the passive leisure participation, and the factor analysis of the psychological well-being scale was performed to separate it into three factors: depression, accomplishment, and alienation. Multiple regression was performed using separate subfactors for the psychological well-being variable. In the regression analysis, the independent variables were sex, ethnic background, family socioeconomic status (father's education level and occupation), active leisure participation, and passive leisure participation. The psychological well-being (depression, accomplishment and alienation) were the dependent variables. Leisure participation and psychological well-being were analyzed via factor analysis. RESULTS Based on the results provided in Tables 3 and 4, the student-athletes had relatively high active leisure participation and passive leisure participation (the coefficient for passive leisure participation was negative and must be explained as the converse, “non-participation”), which had a statistically
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−0.02
0.01
Educational level of father, years
Father's occupational status
−0.13
.90
.45
.84
.30
.13
.004
−0.14
0.20
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.33
9.80
2.05
SE
F6, 533
0.04
0.04
0.04
0.02
0.12
0.09
−0.14
0.20
0.00
0.01
0.00
0.15
−3.16
4.63
0.02
0.25
−0.04
3.53
t
B
0.07
−0.01
−0.15
1.22
0.22
.002
.013
.002 −0.01
< .001 −0.05
.98
.80
.97
< .001 −0.10
p
0.05
0.04
0.04
0.02
0.12
0.10
SE
−0.01
−0.05
0.08
−0.03
−0.06
−0.04
β
t
−0.29
−1.05
1.71
−0.72
−1.23
−1.02
Alienation
.77
.29
.09
.47
.22
.31
p
Note.—Coefficients of the Alienation and Depression factors were negative, so the scores were described as “lack of depression” and “lack of alienation,” respectively. Mean educational level of fathers was 11.6 yr. (SD = 2.7); mean father's occupational status = 2.37 (SD = 1.22).
0.21
.012
0.22
Adj. R2
.089
−0.01
0.75
0.21
−1.03
−1.52
−2.93
.099
0.05
0.03
0.01
−0.05
−0.07
−0.13
SE
β
B
Accomplishment p
β t
Depression
.023
−0.01
0.04
0.04
0.02
0.12
0.10
SE
R2
Passive leisure (−)
Active leisure
0.03
−0.18
Aboriginal (Han as reference)
Leisure participation
−0.29
B
Male (female as reference)
Variable
TABLE 3 SUMMARY OF THE MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
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LEISURE PARTICIPATION AND ETHNICITY TABLE 4 SUMMARY OF THE MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR LEISURE PARTICIPATION Variable
Active Leisure B
SE
Male (female as reference)
0.10
0.10
Aboriginal (Han as reference)
β
Passive Leisure (–) β
p
B
SE
0.99
.33
−0.12
0.10
−0.04 −0.95
.34
0.55
0.12
0.20
0.04
t
t
−0.05 −1.24
p .22
−0.11
0.12
Educational level of father (years) 0.01
0.02
0.03
0.66
.51
0.00
0.02
0.00 −0.06
.95
Father's occupational status
0.04
0.08
1.78
.08
−0.03
0.04
−0.03 −0.68
.50
R2 Adj. R2
0.07 .015 .008
4.76 < .001
.048 .041
SE
0.22
0.21
F4, 548
2.06
6.85
Note.—The negative coefficients in passive leisure are explained as “relation to lack of Passive leisure.” All coefficients are small.
significant positive influence on the dimensions of accomplishment of psychological well-being. This result supported the dimensions of Hypothesis 1, in which the student-athletes with a frequency of higher leisure participation had better psychological well-being. However, the Aboriginal group had statistically significantly lower passive leisure participation compared with the Han group, which supports Hypothesis 2 in passive leisure participation. The Han group had higher leisure participation than the Aboriginal group. Family socioeconomic status did not affect active or passive leisure participation scores, so Hypothesis 3 was not supported. DISCUSSION For high school student-athletes, engaging in both active and passive leisure participation was associated with a higher sense of accomplishment. This result was especially true for passive leisure participation among the group of Han student-athletes, consistent with previous studies that associated leisure participation with the feelings of accomplishment and personal development (Kleiber & Rickards, 1985; Tinsley & Tinsley, 1986; Kelly & Godbey, 1992). This research suggests that during leisure participation, student-athletes feel happy about their lives and are hopeful for the future; therefore, when they have higher frequency of leisure participation, their sense of accomplishment of psychological well-being is increased. Of course, the opposite could be true—student athletes who have time for leisure activities may have a better sense of accomplishment for other reasons, e.g., better academic achievement or higher athletic accomplishments. It must
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H. HUNG & C. W. LEE
also be acknowledged that the leisure activity ratings regression accounts for only 10% of the variance in sense of accomplishment. Compared with the group of Aboriginal student-athletes, the Han group had more frequent passive leisure participation in this study. Han parents tend to encourage their children to do their best in the classroom and to make good use of their leisure time by engaging in meaningful activities (Zeijl, te Poel, Du Bois-Reymond, Ravesloot, & Meulman, 2000); however, as Shaw, Caldwell, and Kleiber (1996) indicated, adolescents' selection of discretionary activities are affected by pressure from adults and friends. Ho, et al. (2005) noted that social networks might influence ethnic differences in leisure participation. Taiwanese student-athletes' choices of leisure activities are probably influenced by their peers. Therefore, further research is needed to investigate the differences in how the Han and Aboriginal student-athletes understand and pursue leisure activities. The family socioeconomic status of the student-athletes had no significant influence on their psychological well-being. This result is consistent with Huang and Hwang's (2010) findings and may be attributed to the fact that East Asian society is more inclined to collectivism rather than individualism (Hofstede, 1980). Higher recognition by their peers leads to a higher sense of happiness, perhaps because the most student-athletes come from low socioeconomic status families (Hung & Tang, 2011). REFERENCES
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