title: Leisure participation and subjective well-being: Exploring gender differences among elderly in Shanghai, China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the association between leisure participation and subjective well-being and the role gender in this issue among elderly Chinese in Shanghai, China.
  
  
  METHODS
  Principal components analysis and logistic regressions are used to analyze the cross-sectional data of the 2013 Shanghai Elderly Life and Opinion Survey that contains 2884 respondents (60+ with a mean age of 72.6) recruited from a multistage cluster sampling design. Subjective well-being is measured by happiness and life satisfaction, and leisure participation is examined by the type and diversity of leisure activities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Principal components analysis identifies four major types of leisure activity that elderly Chinese are actively engaged in-detachment-recovery, aesthetic, social, and performing-arts activities. Among them, social activities and performing-arts activities have the most relevance to subjective well-being. Females are more likely to engage in social and performing-arts activities whereas males are more likely to engage in detachment-recovery and aesthetic activities. Performing-arts activities promote subjective well-being only for females. Social activities are beneficial for both gender groups, but more so for males than for females. While increased levels of leisure diversity are linearly related to increased odds of subjective well-being for females, moderate level of leisure diversity is found to be the most important for males.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Leisure participation is positively related to subjective well-being among elderly Chinese, and thus could play a critical role in promoting healthy aging. The major gender differences as observed suggest the need to further explore gender-specific barriers in leisure participation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, College of Social Sciences, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 2424 Maile Way, Saunders Hall 239, Honolulu, Hawai'i, 96822, USA. Electronic address: weizhang@hawaii.edu.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, AS1 #04-30, 11 Arts Link, 117570, Singapore. Electronic address: socfq@nus.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Qiushi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, College of Social Sciences, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 2424 Maile Way, Saunders Hall 247, Honolulu, Hawai'i, 96822, USA. Electronic address: joyl247@hawaii.edu.
authors.forename: Joy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lacanienta
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, 99 Shangda Road, Baoshan District, Shanghai 200444, China. Electronic address: zhenzhihong2002@vip.163.com.
authors.forename: Zhihong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Elderly; Gender; Leisure activities; Leisure diversity; Leisure types; Subjective well-being