Later‐life leisure: Beginning a new agenda

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Two issues have dominated research on leisure activity and aging in the past two decades: (1) What is the relationship of aging to participation in nonwork activities? and (2) What is the relationship of such participation to satisfaction in later life? A general consensus has developed that supports a nonlinear reduction in activity engagement in later years and a significant correlation between activity participation and life satisfaction. Further questions are proposed that provide the basis for continued research on leisure as an index of resources, the types of activity that contribute most to satisfaction, motivational orientations, and leisure as a context for the development of personal and social identities. A mailed survey was conducted of 380 adults in a Midwest city. The kinds of activities that make an independent contribution to later life were found to differ from one adult life period to another and are a context for the expression of leisure‐based identities. Further agendas for research on leisure and aging are suggested.