Basic psychological need satisfaction and affect within the leisure sphere

Research on leisure and well-being in non-Western contexts is rare. Our study addresses this issue by investigating whether satisfaction of three basic psychological needs - autonomy, competence and/or relatedness - influences four types of affective well-being - high-arousal positive (HAP) affect, low-arousal positive (LAP) affect, high-arousal negative (HAN) affect and/or low-arousal negative (LAN) affect - within the leisure sphere. Telephone survey data were collected from 583 Hong Kong Chinese employees. Structural equation modelling indicated that (1) autonomy, competence and relatedness need satisfaction were all significantly and positively correlated with HAP affect; (2) autonomy need satisfaction alone was significantly and positively related with LAP affect; and (3) autonomy need satisfaction alone was significantly and negatively associated with both LAN and HAN affects. Taken together, these results suggest that fulfilment of basic psychological needs, especially the need for autonomy, contributes to people's overall affective well-being, within the leisure sphere. We discuss our findings in terms of two frameworks: basic psychological needs theory and the DRAMMA leisure model. We also explicate the practical implications of our study and provide future research recommendations.