The Effect of Leisure Activities on Life Satisfaction: The Importance of Holiday Trips

Abstract

Does active leisure make life more satisfying? If so, what kind of leisure activity is the greatest contributor to happiness? These questions are answered by means of data from four waves of a large-scale continuous study of the general public in Germany. Cross-sectional analysis does not show much of a relationship between happiness and last year’s leisure activities, with the exception of holiday trips. People who took one or more holiday trips appeared to be significantly happier, even when income, health, and personality were controlled for. Over-time analysis suggests that the correlation is due to an effect of holiday trips on happiness rather than an effect of happiness on holiday tripping. If holiday trips boost happiness, the effect is short lived. This is not to say that the effect is trivial. Holiday trips accounted for about 2% of the variance in happiness, which is comparable to observed effects of some happiness training programs and financial windfalls.

Keywords

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Appendices

Appendix 1. Same-Time Correlations of Leisure Activities and Life Satisfaction

Leisure activities	r				Partial r  a
	1990	1995	1998	2003	1990	1995	1998	2003
Holiday trips	.15**	.15**	.18**	.19**	.11**	.09**	.19**	.16**
Eating and drinking	.08**	.00	.04**	.05**	.01	.00	–.03	–.02
Visiting neighbors	.07**	.02	.03**	.02**	.06**	.01	–.01	–.02
Visiting family	.05**	.01	–.01	.00	.03	.00	.01	–.03
Card and board games	.06**	–.01	–	–	.05**	–.02	–	–
Local politics	.03**	.00	–.01	.01	.01	.00	–.02	–.02
Volunteer work	.06**	–.02**	.02*	.02**	.01	–.03	.01	–.02
Attend church	.05**	–.02	.06**	.04**	.06**	–.04**	.00	.02
Watch television, video	.02**	.01	–.02*	–.01*	.04*	.01	–.01	.01
Private computer use	–	–	.00	.03**	–	–	–.01	–.01
Private internet use	–	–	–	.03**	–	–	–	–.01
Reading	.07**	–.01	–	–	.02	–.02	–	–
Artistic, musical activities	.07**	–.02*	–	.03**	.05**	–.02	–	.01
Tinkering and garden work	–	–	–.02*	–.01	–	–	–.02	–.01
Car repairs	–	–	–.01	–.01*	–	–	.00	–.02
Handicraft, home repairs	.07**	–.03**	–	–	.04*	–.02	–	–
Participate in sports	.12**	–.01	.00	.03**	.05**	–.02	.00	–.03
Attend sports events	.07**	–.01	.01	.02*	.02	.00	–.01	–.03
Attend cinema, concerts	.07**	.00	–.01	.01	.01	.02	.00	–.02
Attend opera, theater	–	–	.00	.04**	–	–	–.03	–.01
Attend cultural events	.07**	–.02*	.00	–	.02	–.01	.00	–

‘–’ = No measurement *p<.05; **p<.01 ^aPartial correlations are controlled for age, sex, marriage, education, work, income, personality and health

Appendix 2. Over-Time Partial Correlations of Earlier Life Satisfaction and Later Leisure Activities

Leisure activities	1989–1990	1994–1995	1997–1998	2002–2003
Holiday trips	.02	–.01	.00	–.01
Eating and drinking	–.03*	–.01	.01	.01
Visiting neighbors	–.02	.002	.00	–.01
Visiting family	.02	–.02	.01	.00
Card and board games	–.01	–.02	–	–
Local politics	.00	–.01	.01	.01
Volunteer work	–.01	.01	.01	–.01
Attend church	.01	.00	–.01	.00
Watch television, video	.00	.01	–.02	.02
Private computer use	–	–	.00	–.01
Private internet use	–	–	–	–.01
Reading	.00	–.04**	–	–
Artistic, musical activities	–.03	–.05**	–	–.01
Tinkering and garden work	–	–	.00	.01
Car repairs	–	–	.01	.01
Handicraft, home repairs	–.03	.00	–	–
Participate in sports	–.05**	–.03*	.00	–.01
Attend sports events	–.03	–.01	.00	–.01
Attend cinema, concerts	–.03	–.04**	–.01	.00
Attend opera, theater	–	–	–.01	.00
Attend cultural events	–.02	–.04	.01	–

‘–’ No measurement; Partial correlations are controlled for age, sex, marriage, education, work, income, personality and health *p<.05; **p<.01

Appendix 3. Over-Time Partial Correlations of Earlier Leisure Activities and Later Life Satisfaction

Leisure activities	1990–1991	1995–1996	1998–1999	2003–2004
Holiday trips	.00	.04*	–.01	.00
Eating and drinking	.00	.04*	.02	.00
Visiting neighbors	–.01	.05*	–.02	.00
Visiting family	–.01	.02	.00	.00
Card and board games	–.03	–.03	–	–
Local politics	–.03	.00	–.04*	–.02
Volunteer work	–.01	.02	–.01	.01
Attend church	–.01	.03	.01	.01
Watch television, video	.01	.00	.00	.02
Private computer use	–	–	.00	.00
Private internet use	–	–	–	–.01
Reading	–.01	.00	–	–
Artistic, musical activities	.00	.03	–	.01
Tinkering and garden work	–	–	.02	.02
Car repairs	–	–	.03	.01
Handicraft, home repairs	–.01	–.04*	–	–
Participate in sports	.00	–.03	.01	–.02
Attend sports events	–.01	.02	.01	.01
Attend cinema, concerts	.01	.00	.02	.00
Attend opera, theater	–	–	.01	.02
Attend cultural events	.00	–.01	.00	–

‘–’ No measurement; Partial correlations are controlled for age, sex, marriage, education, work, income, personality and health *p<.05; **p<.01