The Association of Heath, Leisure and Family Happiness: an Empirical Research in Beijing

• In Event: 220 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Family, Work, and Leisure

Abstract

There is large literature on the positive impacts of recreation on individual’s health state. Though leisure can be measured from both objective and subjective aspects, few studies have examined the impacts of subjective leisure experience on individual’s health. This article focuses on the impacts of subjective leisure experience on citizens’ health in Beijing, and also utilizes the data of Beijing Families' Happiness Survey to conduct tests on the direct and indirect influence of social relationship and family happiness on health under the theoretical framework of leisure constraints. The results show that better subjective leisure experience does have positive impacts on people’s health and also expand previous research by indicating that the direct influence of family happiness is stronger than its indirect impacts on individuals’ health via leisure, which can partly be explained by the pattern of difference sequence and the essential role of family in Chinese society.

Author

• Menghan Zhao, University of Pennsylvania