Leisure in later life : a case study in Korea

Ho Cha, Joon (2012) Leisure in later life : a case study in Korea. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

Socio-economic, -demographic, and cultural factors have a major impact on the elderly's leisure patterns. Korea has developed rapidly in a short period of time which makes it hard for the contemporary elderly to keep up with the changes. This can affect their leisure lives after retirement and thus their satisfaction with life. This-research examines how the elderly's leisure patterns change following retirement, and its role alongside socio-economic and demographic factors influencing life satisfaction. The socio-economic anddemographic factors included in the analysis are gender, age, occupation education, cohabitation, irregular work, health status, and income. The data is intended to be a foundation and stepping stone for developing an elderly leisure policy and an elderly leisure education system for Korea , The research comprised a survey of 120 persons in the Gang- N am region of Seoul in South Korea. Male and Female participants aged 50 and over were selected as a sample. For measuring leisure participation, 20 leisure activities 'were utilised from the White Paper on Leisure 2008 conducted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and they were further grouped into 7 categories by Classification of Leisure Activities based on Edginton, Compton, and Hanson's (1990) research. The main findings are as follows. Continuity is the most common trend in leisure activity after retirement rather than developments predicted by activity and disengagement Theories. Socio-economic factors such as income, occupation, education, cohabitation, and health condition influence the elderly's leisure activity patterns as well as their life satisfaction. Men seemed to be more leisure active than women, the younger compared to the older, and the better educated than the less educated. All the various groups in the research reported increased levels of activity since they had retired. Life satisfaction scores were the lowest among those who were / living alone, and those with chronic health conditions. However, as with leisure participation, all the groups reported an upward trend in life satisfaction after retirement. The increased satisfaction was mainly due to increased social participation. It was mainly the individuals who continued or increased their participation in leisure activities which they practised prior to retirement who showed a boost in their life satisfaction.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	19 Oct 2023 17:53
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2023 18:02
DOI:	10.17638/03174246
Copyright Statement:	Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis and any accompanying data (where applicable) are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3174246