Study on Elderly Leisure Activities and Life Satisfaction to Whether an Elderly Has a Spouse or Not

배우자 유무에 따른 노인의 여가활동 및 생활만족도에 관한 연구

This research investigates the effect of leisure activities on lifestyle satisfaction of senior citizens. The target of this research is 202 people over 60 years of age who live in Seoul. Collected data was analyzed using frequency, percentage, average, T-test, one-way ANONA, and logistic regression analysis. SPSS and the Excel PC Program were used for the analysis. The following is the summary of the result of this research. First - in terms of participation in leisure activities: more active participation is observed with the elderly who have a spouse than with those who do not in every kind of leisure activity (except for the pastime activities). Second - all of the variables indicating the level of satisfaction from activities of the seniors who have a spouse are by far higher than those of the elderly who have no spouse. Third - the leisure activities and the satisfaction from the activities prove affective variables on whether they have a spouse or not. Notably, the religious leisure activities are enjoyed more by those senior citizens who are married. Comparatively, the unmarried senior citizens participate more actively in recreational and pastime leisure activities. This study suggests various practical means to promote leisure activities to the elderly and to raise the level of satisfaction received from those activities, as well as to help those who are concerned with understanding and improving lifestyle satisfaction of the elderly population. Nonetheless, this analysis is limited due to the restriction on the number of objects and samples studied. Therefore, studies to analyze leisure activities by regions in order to account for a more balanced set of systematical tools should follow.