The relationship of baby boomers' participation motivation in leisure sports with recovery resilience and life satisfaction.

This study aimed to provide basic materials for resolving the problems of baby boomers, emerging as a social issue by identifying the effect of baby boomers' participation motivation in leisure sports activities on recovery resilience and life satisfaction empirically. Using the convenience sampling method, the subjects were conducted by baby boomer's 323 person lived in Seoul and Gyeong-in, 2012, excluding the missing question paper of 27 person. For accomplishing this purpose of the study, the survey questionnaires were used to collect data. Collected data was processed by factor analysis, reliability analysis, multiple regression, SPSS for Win V 18.0 program. From the analysis of this study, the following conclusion were obtained: First, among participation motivation factors of baby boomers in leisure sports activities, psychological stability and health pursuit had a significant effect on all factors of recovery resilience, while among motivation of personal relationships had a significant effect on the sub-factors of recovery resilience; empathy, optimism, and self-efficacy. Second, among participation motivation factors of baby boomers in leisure sports activities, psychological stability, personal relationships, and health pursuit had a significant effect on life satisfaction.

INTRODUCTION

Academic and public attentions to the baby boomers have been increasing in Korean society. A baby boomer is a person who was born between the years 1955 and in 1963, when the birth rate sharply increased after the severe economic downturn. Currently, the retirement of approximately 7.25 million baby boomers began to emerge, so that it is expected that socioeconomic wavelength will be great accordingly (Ryu, 2011). Baby boomers think that old age is the start of their third life, but the preparation for retirement has not been made as they expect (Na et al., 2008). Therefore, the retirement of baby boomers is not the only problem of baby boomers themselves. Rather, it is the social issue of all society members (Han, 2010).

According to the report on the present condition of leisure life of people in their 50’s and policy assignments by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (2012), About fifty percent of 453 between 50–59 in their age were involved with leisure activities once or twice per month. Their major leisure activities include religious gathering and social gathering (34.5%), which were followed by sports outside activities (24.9%), cultural activities (19.4%), and travelling (7.5%). The cases of joining active leisure were comparatively low. This demonstrates that most baby boomers in their 50’s enjoy monotonous leisure activities and their participation rates in sports, traveling, and volunteering activities are low.

Baby boomers who have taken the financial responsibility for their family come to lose their confidence and feel a sense of alienation due to the loss of their role after retirement. Moreover, they can experience that their whole life is shaken when they are retired without preparation such as economic and health status (Kim, 2007).

To solve these problems, the first thing that should be considered for the baby boomers’ participation in leisure sports is participation motivation. Their motivation to participate in sports is crucial to determine the needs and direction of leisure sports (Son, 1999). Accordingly, to identify the participation objective and intention of baby boomers through the participation motivation is needed for encouraging the activities of leisure sports and enhancing recovery resilience at the time of difficulties.

The concept of recovery resilience was originally used for describing the flexible characteristics of things, but this concept is also used for explaining the ability to overcome physical, mental, and social hardships and adapt to a new environment successfully. That is, recovery resilience is the ability to be required for anyone and it is the basic factor, affecting self-control, positiveness, and personal relationship (Kim, 2009; Lee and An 2010; Reivich and Shatté, 2003).

The concepts of recovery resilience are composed of several factors. In regard to these composing factors, scholars have explained in a complicated way (Keon and Lee 2010). Reivich and Shatté (2003) presented the control power of impulse, the control power of emotion, optimism, analytical skills, empathy, self-efficacy, and aggressive challenge as sub-factors. These factors are working both individually and simultaneously, affecting personal life and internal side of men. Put simply, the increase of recovery resilience through the activities of leisure sports contributes to the psychological stability of baby boomers and the expansion of their personal relationships as well as maintaining their health, leading to life satisfaction with the positive life attitudes.

Life satisfaction is the subjective and cognitive judgment and evaluation about happiness, representing individual aspiration and harmonious satisfaction (Chekpla, 1975). Therefore, the life satisfaction, obtained from the activities of leisure sports is the result of choice and participation, which is recognized as a product of needs satisfaction in social affinity, interaction, and personal relationships and has a positive effect on physical, social, and mental health (Ragheb and Griffth, 1982). Im (2006) maintains in his study on “the Well Being and Life Quality of the Elderly who Participate in Leisure Sports,” leisure sports activity increases life satisfaction and satisfies personal needs, leading to confidence and happiness. Kim (2005) argues that the leisure activity of the elderly can give an opportunity to enhance one’s confidence, improve physical health, and maintain social relationships. In other words, to offer appropriate programs of leisure sports for retired men can help them to improve their health and life quality. These outcomes will contribute to the social and national security (Ko, 2009), which eventually plays a crucial role in improving the quality of the elder’s life.

In this aspect, as a method to overcome social isolation and maintain a health life in old age, studies on life satisfaction, which can change adversity into a good luck, are keenly required through recovery resilience and the evaluation of subjective and cognitive happiness.

In the meantime, there have been considerable studies on life satisfaction through the physical activities in the field of physical education (Choi et al., 2007), a sense of loneliness according to the elder’s participation in leisure sports (Lee and Keon, 2003), depression (Im et al., 2007), psychological happiness (Kang and Kim, 2006), social support, social relationship network, social support and self-respect (Choi, 2007), the relations of social support, sports satisfaction and a sense of isolation (Kim and Yun, 2007).

Most studies mentioned above appeared to have a positive effect on the improvement of life satisfaction, the reduction of isolation, psychological happiness, social support, social relationship network, social support and self-esteem, and sports satisfaction. These factors also had a crucial role in the successful old age, the reduction of life stress and the improvement of life quality in the research results of Lee (2012) “in the Relationship between the Participation of the Korean Elderly in Leisure Activities and Well-being,” and “A Study on the Effect of the Participation in Leisure Sports on Successful Old Age by Focusing on the Mediating Effect and Buffering Effect of Recovery Resilience (Lee and An, 2010),” and the research on the relationship between life stress and depression according to the participation of leisure sports activity.

These previous studies demonstrate that leisure sports activities of the elderly had a positive effect on the health and life quality of the elderly. Put simply, the elderly who are engaged in leisure sports activity had a better physical, social, mental, and emotional health and higher happiness and life satisfaction. Therefore, if programs which can promote appropriate activities in daily life are offered to the elderly, the elderly relevant problems will be resolved to some degree (Cho and Kim, 2008).

However, studies on the life satisfaction and recovery resilience, which help baby boomers adapt to a new environment as a way to overcome the loss of role and the improvement of a healthy life, have been deficient so far. Accordingly, this study puts the purpose in providing basic materials to contribute to the problem-solving of baby boomers, which have emerged as a social problem in our society by identifying the participation motivation of baby boomers in leisure activity on recovery resilience and life satisfaction.

To achieve the study purpose, it sets questions to solve the problems concretely. First, the participation motivation of baby boomers in leisure activities might have a correlation with recovery resilience and life satisfaction. Second, resilience might be different according to the participation of baby boomers in leisure sports. Third, life satisfaction might be different according to the participation of baby boomers in leisure sports.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Research subjects

The subjects of this study were baby boomers, born from 1955 to 1963, residing in Seoul and Gyeongin region as of 2012. Convenience sampling of non-probability sampling methods was used and questionnaire surveys were conducted. A total of 350 subjects were selected as samples, and 27 copies of 350, which were incomplete in response to questions, were omitted and 327 copies were used for the actual data analysis. Finally, the demographic characteristics, used in this study are shown in the Table 1.

Table 1

The general characteristics of the study subjects

Variables	Division	Frequency	%
Gender	Male	175	54.2
	Female	148	45.8
Birth year	1955	25	7.7
	1956	49	15.2
	1957	31	9.6
	1958	28	8.7
	1959	25	7.7
	1960	49	15.2
	1961	37	11.5
	1962	50	15.5
	1963	29	9.0
Household income	less than 200	17	5.3
	less than 300	19	5.9
	less than 400	149	46.1
	less than 500	100	31.0
	over 600	38	11.8
Health status	Health	125	38.7
	Average	159	49.2
	Weak	39	12.1

Investigation tools

In this study, questionnaire papers performed a role of tools for data collection. As concrete question contents, background variables; gender, the year of birth, household income, and health status were set as 4 questions, 12 questions were about the participation motivation in leisure sports, 16 questions were about recovery resilience, and 5 questions are about life satisfaction. Like this, totals of questions were 37 as shown in the Table 2. Each scale was composed according to the advice of the panel of experts appropriately, and each question was restructured through preliminary surveys. As to the participation motivation in leisure sports, the scale of participation motivation by Kim (2006) and Kim (2008) was revised and complemented. The participation motivation questions were divided into 3 sub-factors; psychology, relationship, and health with 12 questions; 4 questions in psychological stability, 4 questions in personal relationships, and 4 questions in heath pursuit. The questions about recovery resilience was developed by Reivich and Shatte (2003) and introduced by Shin, Choi and Kim (2009) in accordance with the Korean situation, and these questions were complemented for the purpose of this study. Recovery resilience questions were composed of 16 questions; 4 questions in empathy, 4 questions in optimism, 4 questions in self-efficacy, and 4 questions in aggressive challenge. Satisfaction within life scale (SLS) was developed by Diener et al. (1995) and adapted by Lee in Korean version. Questions of this scale have been used by Lee (2004). The questions of measuring life satisfaction were 5 questions. As to the response to the questions about the relations of Baby Boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports with recovery resilience and life satisfaction, Likert Scale was used with 5 points in “strongly agree” and with 1 point in “Not at all.”

Table 2

The composition of questionnaire papers

Composition index	Composing contents	Question No.
Demographic variables	Gender, Birth year, Household income, Health status	4
Participation motivation in leisure sports	Psychological stability	4
	Personal relationships	4
	Health pursuit	4
Recovery resilience	Empathy	4
	Optimism	4
	Self-efficacy	4
	Aggressive challenge	4
Life satisfaction	Ideal life, Living conditions, Life satisfaction and regret, Achievement	5

Validity and reliability

To test the validity of questionnaire papers, expert meeting, composed of two professors in the department of health management, one Ph.D. degree earner of sports sociology, and one Ph.D. degree earner of sports rehabilitation, was held and the validity of contents and appropriateness of questions were discussed and complemented after reviewing questionnaire surveys.

To verify the validity of measurement tools, exploratory factor analysis was conducted. To minimize the numbers of factors, principle component analysis was used. As a rotation method, varimax rotation was used, and factors over 1 in eigen value were extracted, and commonality in all questions was confirmed with over 0.5.

In the first place, 3 factors were extracted from the results of the factor analysis about 12 questions in regard to the participation motivation in leisure activities. Except for 3 questions, which are low in factor eigen value, total explanatory power was 82.818% as shown in the Table 3. To verify reliability, Cronbach’s Alpha was calculated as a reliability coefficient showing internal consistency and it was as 0.801–0.932. This was equivalent to the level of the previous study (0.919–0.963), which was judged to be reasonable. As a result of the factor analysis about 16 questions in regard to recovery resilience, 4 factors were drawn, and total explanatory power except for 3 questions which are low in factor eigen value was 86.00% as shown in the Table 4. To verify reliability, Cronbach’s Alpha was calculated as a reliability coefficient showing internal consistency and it was 0.714–0.868. This was equivalent to the level of the previous study (0.653–0.792), which was judged to be a reliable scale.

Table 3

The factor analysis on the participation motivation and the analysis of reliability

Questions	Participation motivation
	Psychological stability	Personal relationships	Health pursuit
10. Coziness	0.959	0.081	−0.074
4. Relaxation	0.928	0.229	0.053
1. Forgetting of complicated reality	0.882	0.158	−0.257
7. Overcoming anxiety	0.782	0.352	−0.208
11. A sense of belonging	0.193	0.929	−0.136
8. Join with people	0.072	0.816	−0.003
5. Social activity	0.316	0.714	−0.092
3. Physical Health	−0.003	−0.115	0.922
6. Vitality of life	−0.263	−0.049	0.904
Eigen value	3.381	2.262	1.811
Variance (%)	37.570	25.130	20.118
Cumulation (%)	37.570	62.699	82.818
Cronbach’s alpha	0.932	0.801	0.835

Table 4

The factor analysis and reliability analysis about recovery resilience

Question	Recovery resilience
	Empathy	Optimism	Self-efficacy	Aggressive challenge
Understanding of colleagues’ anger	0.901	0.115	0.186	0.163
Understanding of facial expression	0.881	0.032	0.318	0.118
Understanding of others’ mind	0.832	0.147	0.349	0.067
Sympathize with movie	0.776	0.000	0.071	0.410
Non-apprehension of health	0.114	0.867	0.249	0.188
Non-apprehension of evaluation	0.389	0.831	0.061	0.102
Recognition of controlled situation	0.386	0.784	0.033	0.353
Conviction of success	0.542	0.696	0.202	0.041
Work well	0.134	0.171	0.937	0.218
Confident	0.502	0.143	0.696	0.071
Problem-solving	0.437	0.211	0.605	0.542
Challenging	0.047	0.296	0.099	0.838
Curiosity	0.022	0.438	0.287	0.807
Eigen value	3.952	2.951	2.191	2.086
Variance (%)	30.402	22.699	16.856	16.046
Cumulation (%)	30.402	53.101	69.956	86.002
Cronbach’s alpha	0.868	0.714	0.858	0.777

Research procedures and data analysis

Three assistant researchers as well as researcher visited investigation areas and explained the purpose of questions and contents to subjects. After distributing questionnaire papers to the research subjects and instructed them to answer with a self-administration method. For baby boomers who had difficulty in writing, researcher and assistant researchers helped them with face-face surveys. As a data processing method, data which were incomplete and unreliable in responses were excluded from the analysis. After inputting the data available to the analysis, analysis was conducted by using SPSS 18.0. First, to verify the composition validity of questionnaire papers, exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were conducted. Second, to examine the correlation of variables, the correlation analysis was conducted. Lastly, to analyze the relations of baby boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports with recovery resilience and life satisfaction, multiple regression analysis was conducted.

RESULTS

A correlation analysis on the baby boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports with the recovery resilience and life satisfaction

The relationships of baby boomers participation motivation in leisure sports activities with recovery resilience and life satisfaction are illustrated in the Table 5. In the relationships of baby boomers participation motivation factors in leisure sports activities with recovery resilience and life satisfaction, psychological stability motivation factors had a correlation with empathy, self-efficacy, aggressive challenging, and optimism, which are factors of recovery resilience factors. In particular, the relations with empathy factors appeared to be the highest with r=0.392 (P<0.01) and life satisfaction was r=0.291 (P<0.01).

Table 5

Analysis results of correlation

Division	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1. Psychological stability	1
2. Personal relationship	0.432b)	1
3. Health pursuit	0.289b)	0.209b)	1
4. Empathy	0.392b)	0.301b)	0.089	1
5. Self-efficacy	0.273b)	0.079	0.293b)	0.608b)	1
6. Aggressive challenge	0.117a)	0.042	0.430b)	0.125a)	0.279b)	1
7. Optimism	0.254b)	0.164b)	0.510b)	0.111a)	0.264b)	0.223b)	1
8. Life satisfaction	0.291b)	0.457b)	0.195b)	0.596b)	0.552b)	0.115a)	0.035	1

P< 0.05,

P< 0.01.

The pursuit motivation of personal relationship had a correlation with empathy, and optimism factors. In particular, the relation with empathy appeared to be the highest with r=0.301 (P< 0.01) and the relation with life satisfaction appeared to be r= 0.457 (P<0.01).

Health pursuit motivation had a correlation with self-efficacy, aggressive challenge, and optimism, which are factors of recovery resilience. In particular, the relation with optimism factor was the highest with r=0.510 (P<0.01) and the relation with life satisfaction was r=0.195 (P<0.01).

The effect of baby boomers’ participation motivation in the leisure sports on the recovery resilience

The effect of baby boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports activity on recovery resilience is shown in the Table 6. Examining the results, As sub-factors of baby boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports activities, psychological stability (β=0.448), personal relationships (β=0.221), and health pursuit (β=0.361) had an effect on empathy, psychological stability (β=0.270), personal relationships (β=0.384), and health pursuit (β=0.515) had an effect on optimism, psychological stability (β=0.266), personal relationships (β=0.324), and health pursuit (β=0.232) had an effect on self-efficacy, and psychological stability (β=0.248), and health pursuit (β=0.499) had an effect on aggressive challenge. In terms of the independence variables used for the regression analysis, among sub-factors of recovery resilience, empathy, optimism, self-efficacy, and aggressive challenge explained 36.3%, 38.6%, 15.4%, and 25.8/5 of total variance respectively.

Table 6

The effect of the participation motivation in leisure sports on recovery resilience

Variables		Recovery resilience
		Empathy		Optimism		Self-efficacy		Aggressive challenge
		β	t	β	t	β	t	β	t
Motivation	Psychological stability	0.448	8.818a)	0.270	5.403a)	0.266	4.537a)	0.248	4.505a)
	Relationships	0.221	4.397a)	0.384	7.782a)	0.324	5.595a)	0.058	1.070
	Health pursuit	0.361	7.824a)	0.515	11.370a)	0.232	4.352a)	0.499	10.019a)
	R	0.604		0.622		0.392		0.508
	R2	0.363		0.386		0.154		0.258
	F	60.907a)		66.928a)		19.296a)		54.839a)

P< 0.001.

The effect of baby boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports on life satisfaction

The results of the effect of baby boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports on life satisfaction are shown in the Table 7. Examining the results, among sub-factors of baby boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports, psychological stability (β=0.145), personal relationships (β=0.302), and health pursuit had a significant effect on life satisfaction, and independent variables, used in the regression analysis had an explanatory power of 18.2% in the entire variance of life satisfaction.

Table 7

The effect of participation motivation in leisure sports on life satisfaction

Variables		Life satisfaction
		B	SEB	β	t
Participation Motivation	(constant)	3.097	0.317		9.782
	Psychological stability	0.104	0.041	0.145	2.519b)
	Personal relationships	0.162	0.031	0.302	5.296c)
	Health pursuit	0.129	0.064	0.106	2.026a)
R			0.427
R2			0.182
F			23.651c)

P< 0.05,

P< 0.01,

P< 0.001.

DISCUSSION

At the point of time when various problems of baby boomers who are the preliminary aged people in our society have been emerging, detailed matters based on the analysis results about the effect of baby boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports on recovery resilience and life satisfaction are discussed in this paper. However, studies on the recovery resilience and life satisfaction of baby boomers have little conducted in existing studies so far. Therefore, this study deals with the effect of self-control, personal relationships, and optimism, composing factors of recovery resilience. The things to discuss based on the effect of each sub-factor are as follows: First, among participation motivation factors of baby boomers in leisure sports, psychological stability and health pursuit had a significant effect on recovery resilience, while personal relationship motivation had a significant effect on empathy, optimism, and self-efficacy, which are sub-factors of recovery resilience.

First of all, psychological stability motivation had an effect on all factors of recovery resilience. This result is consistent with the result of the research, which was conducted by Choi (2007) in which psychological stability through sports activities can reduce a sense of isolation, felt in life, leading to a positive emotion. In addition, this is also consistent with the results of Lee and Keon (2003) in which the elder’s participation satisfaction in sports activities can reduce a sense of isolation and has a positive effect on the quality of life, and the findings of Ko (2009) which demonstrate that the motivation factors of health, physical strength, society-involvement, and psychological stability had a positive effect on the physical health. Subsequently, the result that health pursuit motivation had a positive effect on recovery resilience is indicated in the study of Cho and Kim (2008) in which the motivation factors of the retired elderly in health pursuit had a positive effect on human exchange. This result is also consistent with the study result of Won, demonstrating that the motivation factors of the retired elderly in health pursuit have a positive effect on re-socialization. In addition, the study of Cho also revealed that the elderly have a desire for leisure activities and physical activities for their health and personal relationships. The study findings demonstrate that the pursuit motivation of personal relationships had a significant effect on empathy, which is an ability to understand others’ feeling, emotional status and internal experience; optimism, which is a faith based on the idea that adversity can be overcome because failure is in a temporary process; and self-efficacy, self-efficacy, which is the belief of one’s competency and ability. These are partially consistent with the study results of Ko (2009) and the research of Jung and Won (2012) in a sense that leisure sports activities help people to establish close relationships with others, have an aggressive citizenship and play a social role. In addition, the study results of Kelley that leisure sports activities help people have empathy, self-efficacy, and optimism through participating in activities together with others support the results of this study to some degree.

Second, the effect of baby boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports on life satisfaction shows that psychological stability, personal relationships, health pursuit motivation had a significant effect on life satisfaction. This can be interpreted that psychological stability, the expansion of personal relationships and health pursuit have a positive effect on life satisfaction because baby boomers feel a sense of isolation and loneliness due to the deviation from their groups, and they recognize themselves as weak. Like this, leisure sports activities are judged to prove the positive effect of leisure sports activities in the face of the role loss or isolation of baby boomers. This is consistent with the study results of Jeon (2003) and Jung and Won (2012) to some degree. These studies revealed that the participation motivation of the retired elderly in leisure sports has a positive effect on overcoming of powerlessness and isolation after retirement, and leisure sports activities help the retired elderly enhance the awareness of their life and satisfy their strong needs, leading to an active performance of a role as a member of the society and higher life satisfaction. In addition, according to Schike (1991), the leisure sports activities of the elderly help the elderly overcome their isolation and feel life satisfaction and happiness. The report of McPherson (1991) that social relationships and opportunities in the participation of leisure sports activities has a significant effect on psychological stability, the expansion of personal relationships, and health pursuit through are demonstrated in the results of this study.

In particular, physical, social, and psychological health, the expansion of personal relationships, and psychological stability have been recognized as essential factors in the life satisfaction of old age. Since the most important factor which determine such healthy and happy life is the participation in leisure sports activities, the study results, drawn from this study are meaningful.

Therefore, stability in emotion such as psychological stability, health maintenance and increase, and the expansion of personal relationships is obtained through leisure sports activities will be helpful in improving the quality of life. In addition, the positive attitudes which see one’s life positively going beyond health maintenance and health increase through the leisure sports activity of baby boomers and the habituation of thankful attitudes about surrounding people play an essential role of enjoying a happy life.

As mentioned above, this study tried to identify the relationships of baby boomers’ participation motivation in leisure sports with the recovery resilience and life satisfaction empirically, it has the academic significance in that it may contribute to the accumulation of social and psychological theories of approximately 7.2 million baby boomers and the rehabilitation exercise of the elderly. Accordingly, the handy-on efforts in supporting a happy old life of baby boomers aggressively, which is a social issue based on the results of this study are required.

Since the results of this study set baby boomers residing in Seoul and Gyeongin-region as targets, future study needs to expand the range of target for more specific study. In addition, the development of programs which can enhance recovery resilience with more qualitative study for the different ages of baby boomers and comprehensive studies which can verify the effect of study are expected.