Daily experience of serious leisure, flow and subjective well-being of older adults

The purpose of this study was to investigate how serious leisure and flow contribute to subjective well-being (SWB) in the daily lives of older adults. Twenty-two older adults were recruited from a local aging agency in a midwestern city in the USA. Experience Sampling Method was used to collect data on the daily experiences of the older adults. Hierarchical Linear Modelling was used to predict levels of SWB from experience variables (i.e. serious leisure, flow) and individual difference variables (i.e. gender, retirement). One-way analyses of variance, random coefficient, and intercepts and slopes-as-outcomes models were tested. Serious leisure was positively associated with positive affect (PA), and flow had a significant negative relationship with PA. The results of this study confirm previous findings that SWB is an important consequence of serious leisure in everyday life.