title: Sport and Recreation Are Associated With Happiness Across Countries.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Preliminary findings suggest sport participation is positively associated with happiness. However, it is unknown if this association is universal and how sport compares to other leisure activities in terms of an association with happiness. This study had 3 objectives: (a) to test if sport membership is associated with happiness, (b) to test if this relationship is universal, and (c) to compare sport membership to other leisure activities.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hierarchal Bernoulli modeling was used to analyze the 6th wave (2014) of the World Values Survey (nSs= 67,736, ncountries= 48). The critical variables included measures of membership in different leisure activities (e.g., sport membership) and self-reported happiness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Even when controlling for known covariates such as perceived health, those who report sport/recreation membership are more likely to report being happy compared with non-sport members (OR = 1.38; 95% CI [1.24, 1.53]). Being a member of a sport organization had a greater association with happiness than did being a member of other leisure activities. Follow-up analyses suggested that this association is nearly universal.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study offers initial evidence that sport membership elicits happiness across many different societies. Although the causal direction remains unclear, this study establishes a positive association between happiness and sport membership. Future research should target the mechanism(s) of this effect, which we hypothesize are meaningful social relations.
authors.affiliation: a Dalhousie University.
authors.forename: Shea M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Balish
authors.affiliation: a Dalhousie University.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Conacher
authors.affiliation: a Dalhousie University.
authors.forename: Lori
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dithurbide
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011998:Recreation / Q000523:psychology*; D012067:Religion; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013177:Sports / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cross country; mood; quality of life; sport participation