Leisure attitudes, motivation, participation, and satisfaction: Test of a model of leisure behavior

Past leisure behavior research has been concerned with single variables, relationships between two variables, or comparison of leisure variables with demographic variables. It is important to understand the causal relationships and interrelationships among leisure behavior variables and to construct models to guide theoretical research and leisure service delivery.;The purpose of this study was to construct a linear relationship model to explain leisure attitudes (cognitive and affective components), motivation, participation, and satisfaction. Another purpose was to test the variables in this model with a structural equations modeling.;The Leisure Attitude Scale (cognitive and affective components), Leisure Motivation Scale, Leisure Satisfaction Scale (Beard & Ragheb, 1983, 1982, 1980), and Leisure Participation Scale (Ragheb & Griffith, 1982) were used to measure the four leisure variables. Five hundred three students were selected from National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan during May and June 1998. LISREL (Linear Structural relationships) was used to test the model. A two-stage procedure and cross-validation were also applied to estimate the model fit.;Five hypotheses were tested. The results showed: (1) Leisure attitude (cognitive component) has no direct significant effect on leisure motivation. (2) Leisure attitude (affective component) has a direct significant positive effect on leisure motivation. (3) Leisure motivation has a direct significant positive effect on leisure participation. (4) Leisure participation has a direct significant positive effect on leisure satisfaction. (5) Leisure attitude (affective component) has a direct significant positive effect on leisure satisfaction.;One path was added from the alternative model which was leisure attitude (cognitive component) has a direct significant negative effect on leisure satisfaction.;Propositions based on the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and the theory of causal chain of motivation-participation-satisfaction (Crandall, 1980) were supported by the alternative model, except for the effect of the leisure cognitive component on the leisure motivation.