The role of health beliefs in moderating the relationship between leisure participation and wellbeing among older Chinese adults

Much research suggests that physical leisure activity contributes to wellbeing and that sedentary leisure activity diminishes wellbeing, but an increasing number of studies challenge this dominant discourse. To better understand the relationship and provide new insight to inconsistent findings, we examined how health beliefs concerning the benefits of leisure moderate the association between leisure participation and subjective wellbeing by drawing on data gathered in a self-administered survey conducted in southwest China with 329 older adults. The results suggest that health beliefs strengthen the association of greater participation in physical leisure activity with higher life satisfaction, and weaken the association of more participation in sedentary leisure activity to lower life satisfaction and increased negative affect. Thus, health beliefs impact the association between leisure participation and wellbeing in a Chinese context.