An Exploration of Leisure Motivation as Cultural Practices: A Cross-Cultural Approach

Abstract

Positioning leisure as a cross-cultural construct, this study aims to explore leisure motivation as cultural practices. Kelly’s conceptualization of leisure was carefully repositioned within the framework of individualism-collectivism to investigate the culturally shaped dimensions of leisure motivation. We examined this issue in a cross-cultural study of 298 Korean and 297 French subjects using a survey-based questionnaire employing the Recreation Experience Preference scales. Results from an exploratory factor analysis identified four components of cultural leisure motivation: Unconditional, recuperative and compensatory, relational and role-determined. Results from a regression analysis revealed cultural differences: Recuperative and compensatory motivation for leisure participation was the most significant predictor of overall satisfaction for Korean respondents; the overall leisure satisfaction for French participants was significantly explained by unconditional motivation. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings were discussed.

Keywords:

• Cross-cultural study
• individualism-collectivism
• leisure motivation
• satisfaction
• temporary and permanent motivation

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2019S1A5C2A02082896). This research was supported by a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: HI16C1453).