Exploring Leisure Involvement, Perceived Health, and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from Recreational Physical Activity Participants in Turkey

Abstract

Leisure grows in importance for many developing countries, such as Turkey, since it affects individuals’ health and satisfaction with life. This study explored the relationships among leisure involvement, perceived health outcomes of recreation (mediating variable), and life satisfaction. The study group consisted of 786 Turkish adults participating regularly in physical activities in Ankara. Structural Equational Modelling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships among variables and test hypothesis models. This analysis resulted in respectively leisure involvement had direct effect on both life satisfaction and perceived health outcomes of recreation. Perceived health outcomes of recreation had a direct effect on life satisfaction. In addition, leisure involvement had an indirect effect on life satisfaction, with a partial mediating effect of perceived health outcomes of recreation. These results suggested that there could also be an increase in Turkish participants’ life satisfaction thanks to the health outcomes that they perceived as a result of leisure involvement. © 2025 The Author(s) available online at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/psbd.