Leisure Time Sports Activities and Life Satisfaction: Deeper Insights Based on a Representative Survey from Germany
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Leisure Time Sports Activities and Life Satisfaction: Deeper Insights Based on a Representative Survey from Germany Michael Mutz 1
& Anne
K. Reimers 2 & Yolanda Demetriou 3
Received: 1 May 2020 / Accepted: 1 September 2020/ # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Observational and experimental studies show that leisure time sporting activity (LTSA) is associated with higher well-being. However, scholars often seem to assume that 1) LTSA fosters “general” life satisfaction, thereby ignoring effects on domain satisfaction; 2) the effect of LTSA on well-being is linear and independent of a person’s general activity level; 3) the amount of LTSA is more important than the repertoire of LTSA, i.e. the number of different activities; 4) all kinds of LTSA are equal in their effects, irrespective of spatial and organisational context conditions. Using data from the German SALLSA-Study (“Sport, Active Lifestyle and Life Satisfaction”), a large-scale CAWI-Survey (N = 1008) representing the population ≥ 14 years, the paper takes a closer look on these assumptions. Findings demonstrate that LTSA is associated with general life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction (concerning relationships, appearance, leisure, work and health), but that the relationship is most pronounced for leisure satisfaction. Associations of sport with life satisfaction, leisure satisfaction and subjective health are non-linear, approaching an injection point from which on additional LTSA is no longer beneficial. Moreover, findings lend support to the notion that diversity in LTSA matters, as individuals with higher variation in sports activities are more satisfied. Finally, results with regard to spatial and organizational context suggest that outdoor sports and club-organized sports have additional benefits. Keywords Well-being . Quality of life . Physical activity . Exercise . Health
* Michael Mutz [email protected]–giessen.de
1
Institute of Sport Science, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
2
Department of Sport Science and Sport, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Nuremberg, Germany
3
Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
M. Mutz et al.
Introduction Sports, exercise and physical activity have become major issues in well-being research over recent years. Previous studies have consistently shown that physical activity is, amongst others, positively associated with happiness, health-related quality of life and satisfaction with life (e.g., Brown et al. 2015; Dolan et al. 2014; Höner and Demetriou 2012; Huang and Humphreys 2012; Richards et al. 2015; Sigvartsen et al. 2016). Positive links between physical activity and well-being were found in all age groups, including youths (McMahon et al. 2017), students (Jetzke and Mutz 2019), adults (Downward and Dawson 2016; Marques et al. 2016) and the elderly (Lera-López et al. 2017). Recent reviews based on observational and intervention studies (Wiese et al. 2018; White et al. 2017; Zhang and Chen 2019) conclud
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