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Alegría! Flow in Leisure and Life Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Event Satisfaction Using Data from an Acrobatics Show

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Abstract

The aim of the current study was to examine the role of satisfaction-with-event as a mediator in the relations between flow and life satisfaction based on the bottom-up theory (Andrews and Withey in Social indicators of well-being: Americans’ perceptions of life quality. Plenum, New York, 1976; Lee et al. in J Macromarketing 22(2): 158–169, 2002). Four hundred and thirty-four participants with a mean age of 35.60 (SD = 11.76) were recruited from the audience of a “Cirque du Soleil” acrobatics show, performed in Taiwan in 2009. Participants completed the flow scale (Csikszentmihalyi in Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row, New York, 1990), a satisfaction-with-event scale (Lin and Hsu in Mark Rev 3(4): 497–528, 2008), and a satisfaction-with-life scale (Diener et al. in J Pers Assess 49:71–75, 1985) immediately after viewing the show. Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine our hypothesis that satisfaction-with-event levels would fully mediate the relationship between flow and overall life satisfaction. Results supported our prediction and are discussed in terms of bottom-up theory. Implications of the study are also provided for the leisure managers.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partially supported by a grant form the National Science Council (NSC98-2410-H179-005) to Mei-Yen Chen. We are also grateful for the anonymous reviewer’s insightful comments for our manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, P.O. Box 59182, Taipei, 100, Taiwan, ROC

    Lung Hung Chen

  2. Graduate Institute of Physical Education, National Taiwan Sport University, 250, Wen Hua 1st Rd., Kueishan, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, ROC

    Yun-Ci Ye

  3. Department of Recreation and Leisure Industry Management, National Taiwan Sport University, 250, Wen Hua 1st Rd., Kueishan, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, ROC

    Mei-Yen Chen

  4. Department of Leisure Management, Tungnan University, No. 152, Sec. 3, PeiShen Rd., ShenKeng, Taipei, 220, Taiwan, ROC

    I-Wu Tung

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  1. Lung Hung Chen
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Correspondence to Mei-Yen Chen.

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Chen, L.H., Ye, YC., Chen, MY. et al. Alegría! Flow in Leisure and Life Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Event Satisfaction Using Data from an Acrobatics Show. Soc Indic Res 99, 301–313 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9581-z

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