Sport Participation and Happiness Among Older Adults: A Mediating Role of Social Capital

Abstract

As the global population ages rapidly, from a positive aging view, promoting later life through sport participation has been recognized as strategies for maintaining and boosting the social and psychological health of older people. To better understand the role of sport participation among older adults, the primary purpose of the study was to explore the mediating role of social capital on the relationship between sport participation and happiness among older adults. A convenience sample of 208 pickleball participants aged from 50 to 83 years completed a survey. A level of pickleball participation was measured using Serious Leisure Inventory, social capital was measured by cognitive (i.e., feelings of trust and safety) and structural (i.e., community participation, neighborhood connections) social capital, and happiness was measured by a single item scale of general feelings of happiness. After controlling socio-demographic characteristics, results showed that (a) pickleball participation was significantly and positively predicted by general happiness, (b) pickleball participation was significantly and positively predicted by all three elements of social capital, (c) two elements of social capital (i.e., feelings of trust and safety, neighborhood connections) had a significant and positive mediating role on the relationship between pickleball participation and general happiness. We suggest that sport-based social capital intervention can add significant value to older adults’ general happiness for successful aging.

Full text

Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Happiness Studies
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00288-8
1 3
RESEARCH PAPER
Sport Participation andHappiness Among Older Adults:
AMediating Role ofSocial Capital
AmyChanHyungKim1 · JungsuRyu2· ChungsupLee3· KyungMinKim4·
JinmooHeo5
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
As the global population ages rapidly, from a positive aging view, promoting later life
through sport participation has been recognized as strategies for maintaining and boost-
ing the social and psychological health of older people. To better understand the role of
sport participation among older adults, the primary purpose of the study was to explore the
mediating role of social capital on the relationship between sport participation and happi-
ness among older adults. A convenience sample of 208 pickleball participants aged from
50 to 83years completed a survey. A level of pickleball participation was measured using
Serious Leisure Inventory, social capital was measured by cognitive (i.e., feelings of trust
and safety) and structural (i.e., community participation, neighborhood connections) social
capital, and happiness was measured by a single item scale of general feelings of happi-
ness. After controlling socio-demographic characteristics, results showed that (a) pickle-
ball participation was significantly and positively predicted by general happiness, (b) pick-
leball participation was significantly and positively predicted by all three elements of social
capital, (c) two elements of social capital (i.e., feelings of trust and safety, neighborhood
connections) had a significant and positive mediating role on the relationship between
pickleball participation and general happiness. We suggest that sport-based social capi-
tal intervention can add significant value to older adults’ general happiness for successful
aging.
Keywords Happiness· Social capital· Sport participation· Sport involvement· Older
adults· Successful aging
* Amy Chan Hyung Kim
kamy@fsu.edu
1 Department ofSport Management, Florida State University, 1026 Tully Gym, 139 Chieftan Way,
Tallahassee, FL32306-4280, USA
2 Department ofSport Management, Marshall University, Huntington, WV, USA
3 Department ofRecreation andLeisure Studies, California State University, LongBeach, CA, USA
4 Department ofKinesiology andSport Sciences, University ofMiami, CoralGables, FL, USA
5 Department ofSport Industry Studies, Yonsei University, Seoul, SouthKorea

A.C.H.Kim et al.
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1 Introduction
According to the World Health Organization (2019), it is expected that the number of
people aged 60years and older will outnumber children under 5years old indicating the
pace of population aging is getting more rapid. When it comes to successful aging, from
a positive aging view developed by Havighurst (1961) based on the activity theory, pro-
moting a physically active lifestyle has been emphasized for maintaining and developing
the social and psychological health of older people (Gilleard and Higgs 2002). Whereas
aging is considered an unavoidable declining process causing fewer social interactions
between the aging individual and others in the social system from the traditional medi-
calized view (Cumming and Henry 1961), a positive aging view recognizes that suc-
cessful aging is possible through being active and continuing social interactions. From
this perspective, many studies have been conducted on promoting later life as a period
of enjoyment, growth, creativity, independence and development, rather than simply
focusing on loneliness, disengagement, and decline (Gergen and Gergen 2001; Tornstam
2005). This line of positive aging literature has stimulated the health promotion move-
ment by government, non-profit organizations, and business corporations all across the
world reflecting a cultural emphasis on sport, physical activity, exercise, recreation, and
leisure as strategies for maintaining and boosting the social and psychological health of
older people (Gilleard and Higgs 2002; McPherson 1999).
In general, happiness refers to a subjective interpretation of one’s life or the situ-
ation one is living in (e.g., Diener etal. 2003; Keyes 1998; Layard 2005) which is an
individual’s comprehensive assessment of both one’s momentary emotions and a broad
cognitive appraisal of their life. Due to a strong connection with an individual’s health
and quality of life, happiness has been a matter of great interest for researchers to study
various populations including older adults. In the extant literature, the majority of the
empirical studies on the link between aging and happiness found a U-shaped relation-
ship among older adults even after controlling socioeconomic status (e.g., Blanchflower
and Oswald 2008; Frijters and Beatton 2012; Godoy-Izquierdo etal. 2013; Graham and
Ruiz Pozuelo 2017). In other words, happiness tends to decline from early adulthood to
the middle adulthood and turns back up as we age. The underlying mechanism of this
U-shaped relationship has been explained as higher aspirations of young adults than
older adults and better skills of older adults to adapt to the unmet aspiration situation
(Schwandt 2016). Nevertheless, Hellevik (2017) disputed that uncritically accepting
the U-shaped relationship between age and happiness without controlling life condition
variables is dangerous. Older adults are more likely to deal with significant life transi-
tions such as loss of a spouse (Holland etal. 2013), physical challenges (Fässberg etal.
2016), isolation or loneliness (Smith 2012), and lose of purpose or life interest (Chris-
tensen etal. 1999), which could impact their happiness.
In the area of public health, social epidemiology is a branch of epidemiology that incor-
porates the social context into explanations of one’s health status. From this perspective,
scholars recognize one’s social factors such as structural characteristics (e.g., social embed-
dedness, social network size, social institutions) or social behaviors or experiences (e.g.,
social support, social engagement, social attachment, social influence) significantly affect
a broad range of psychological states/behaviors and mental health outcomes such as self-
efficacy, self-esteem, depression/distress, emotional regulation, or happiness (Berkman and
Kawachi 2014; Cwikel 2006). Among many, social capital has been investigated as a cru-
cial predictor of general happiness in various populations (Leung etal. 2013).

Sport Participation andHappiness Among Older Adults: AMediating…
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The concept of social capital is much debated due to the nature of interdisciplinary
discourse yet has been considered a critical construct (Onyx and Bullen 2000). While it
has been poorly defined, most definitions of social capital highlight two features that it is
a resource and it is produced through social connections (Kawachi and Berkman 2014).
Thus, it can be defined as “the resources that are accessed by individuals as a result of their
membership of a network or a group (Kawachi and Berkman 2014, p. 291). More specifi-
cally, two key elements—cognitive (what people feel; e.g., trust) and structural (what peo-
ple do; e.g., social participation)—have been discussed and studied actively linked to psy-
chological well-being (Harpham etal. 2002; Marlier etal. 2015; Phongsavan etal. 2006).
For instance, in terms of cognitive social capital, the perceived trust and social support
produced stress-buffering effects by increasing the level of feelings of security, self-esteem
and confidence in one’s coping mechanisms. Interacting with each other, both cognitive
and structural social capital can promote perceptions of friendly, cohesive, and safe socie-
ties which may promote interactions among community members (Kawachi etal. 2004).
A substantial body of research has suggested that social capital is a resource for mental
well-being in older adults. General findings of research have indicated that social capital
was a predictor happiness (Cooper etal. 2011; Litwin 2001; Theurer and Wister 2010), life
satisfaction (Ajrouch etal. 2005; Pan 2018), and quality of life (Bowling and Dieppe 2005;
Chen etal. 2009; Greaves and Farbus 2006; Henriques etal. 2020; Nilsson et al. 2006;
Wiggins etal. 2004).
Compared to individual physical activity or exercise,1 sport participation tends to be an
effective tool for promoting positive social and psychological outcomes due to the social
nature of participation (e.g., Berg etal. 2015). Yet, there are some major gaps among pre-
vious literature on effects of sport involvement among older adults. First, many previous
studies have focused on the effects of physical activity (e.g., walking, gardening, occupa-
tional labor) or exercise (e.g., gym-based trainings) overlooking the effects of sport par-
ticipations among older adults (Kim et al. 2019). Second, while several studies investi-
gated the status and effects of sport participation for children/adolescents (e.g., Craig and
Bauman 2014; Bean and Forneris 2017; Gardner et al. 2017; Lee et al. 2018) or adults
(e.g., Bice etal. 2014; Green 2014), relatively fewer studies investigated its effects for older
adults empirically. Third, the findings are still inconsistent and fragmented due to the lack
of empirical studies (Webb etal. 2017) and more importantly, previous studies tended to
neglect the relationships between the social and psychological outcomes treating them as
two separate and unrelated outcomes of sport participation (e.g., Sato etal. 2016).To fill
these gaps, the primary purpose of this study was to explore the effects of sport participa-
tion (i.e., pickleball) on an individual’s happiness investigating the mediating role of social
capital from a social epidemiological perspective among older adults.
It has been reported that many older adults have participated in different types of sports.
In particular, pickleball has been one of the fastest-growing sports in the US and it is
estimated 2.8 million players are involved nationally (Chen 2017). Although the game is
played mostly as similar to tennis, the area of the court that players have to cover is smaller,
1 In the present study, we define physical activity as “bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles
that results in energy expenditure” (Caspersen etal. 1985, p. 126) and exercise as “physical activity that
is planned, structured, repetitive, and purposive in the sense that improvement or maintenance of one or
more components of physical fitness is an objective (Caspersen etal. 1985, p. 128). Sport is defined as “all
forms of physical activity which, through casual or organized participation, aim at expressing or improving
physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all
levels” (European Sports Charter 2001).

A.C.H.Kim et al.
1 3
and the ball is much lighter which makes it particularly accessible to older adults (Chen
2017). The Senior Olympics—a multi-sport event for older adults held annually in every
state in the US—has also contributed significantly to the growth of pickleball. The growth
of pickleball is attributed to an influx of baby boomers and to the activity’s mild learning
curve, which has opened doors for many older adults to participate in athletic competitions
(Williamson 2016).
2 Hypotheses Development
While no studies have examined the relationship between sport participation and happi-
ness, studies of physical activity and exercise have found a positive effect on happiness
among older adults. In the study of Khazaee-Pool etal. (2015), it was found that a physical
exercise program contributes to the level of happiness among older adults. While older
adults who participated in the 8-week physical exercise program significantly reported
improving happiness, the control group who did not involve in the program showed no
changes in happiness. In addition, Menec (2003) demonstrated that engaging in sports or
games is a significant predictor of happiness among older adults and Barreto (2014) found
that physical activity is indirectly related to happiness which was mediated by older adults’
social functioning and health status. According to Lera-López etal. (2017), leisure-time
physical activity is also positively associated with happiness among older adults and per-
ceived health mediates this association. Hence, the following hypothesis was established:
Hypothesis 1 One’s pickleball participation will be positively associated with general
happiness.
Along with the effects of sport participation on happiness, previous research has shown
the positive relationship between sport participation and social capital among older adults.
Toepoel (2013) found that sport activity significantly predicts social connectedness among
older adults. According to a qualitative study of Komatsu etal. (2017), it has also shown
that community-based regular physical activity is significantly related to social connect-
edness and mutual support among older adults. The participants reported that they feel a
sense of safety within the community as well as start supporting each other feeling socially
connected through the regular community-based physical activity program. Therefore, the
following hypotheses were established:
Hypothesis 2 One’s pickleball participation will be positively associated with social
capital.
Hypothesis 2‑a One’s pickleball participation will be positively associated with commu-
nity participation.
Hypothesis 2‑b One’s pickleball participation will be positively associated with feelings
of trust and safety.
Hypothesis 2‑c One’s pickleball participation will be positively associated with neighbor-
hood connections.

Sport Participation andHappiness Among Older Adults: AMediating…
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To date, the empirical evidences supporting the positive relationship between social
capital and happiness is overwhelming (e.g., Bjørnskov 2008; Dolan etal. 2008; Hudson
2006; Leung etal. 2011; Matsushima and Matsunaga 2015; Tsuruta et al. 2019). In sum,
the following hypotheses were established:
Hypothesis 3 One’s social capital will be positively associated with general happiness.
Hypothesis 3‑a One’s community participation will be positively associated with general
happiness.
Hypothesis 3‑b One’s feelings of trust and safety will be positively associated with gen-
eral happiness.
Hypothesis 3‑c One’s neighborhood connections will be positively associated with gen-
eral happiness.
Hypothesis 4 One’s social capital will positively mediate the relationship between pickle-
ball participation and general happiness.
Hypothesis 4‑a One’s community participation will positively mediate the relationship
between pickleball participation and general happiness.
Hypothesis 4‑b One’s feelings of trust and safety will positively mediate the relationship
between pickleball participation and general happiness.
Hypothesis 4‑c One’s neighborhood connections will positively mediate the relationship
between pickleball participation and general happiness.
3 Methods
3.1 Participants
A convenience sample was recruited from an annual international pickleball tournament
in a southern state in the United States. This tournament is known as one of the largest
pickleball tournament in the world. The researchers set up a booth to administer the survey
during the event. Respondents were approached to complete a paper and pencil survey. All
participants were invited to voluntarily participate in the study. Participants were briefly
introduced to the purpose and procedure of the study in which anonymity of the data were
ensured. It took approximately 10 to 15min to complete the questionnaire. The Institu-
tional Review Board at Texas A&M University approved this process.
Of the 218 surveys retrieved, 10 cases were excluded because of incomplete responses.
The final sample included 208 cases which consisted of 112 males (53.6%) and 96 females
(46.4%). Considering that the gender proportion of the event population was 57% of male
and 43% of female, the sample’s gender proportion was similar to the population. Age of
the samples ranged from 50 to 83years (M = 64.11, SD = 6.56). The age breakdown of the
samples was also somewhat similar to the age breakdown of the population in that nearly
half of participants were aged between 60 and 69. According to the association, a total of

A.C.H.Kim et al.
1 3
922 players (50years and older) participated in the event. Among them, a total of 37%
were aged between 50 and 59, a total of 46% were aged between 60 and 69, and a total of
17% were aged more than 70. In our sample, a total of 25% were aged between 50 and 59,
a total of 52.9% were aged between 60 and 69, and a total of 22.1% were aged between 70
and over. A majority of participants identified themselves as Caucasians (93.2%). A total
of 34.3% of the participants had a college education and 35.3% held a graduate degree.
Most participants were married (81.6%) and 77.9% of participants indicated that they were
retired. About 58.1% of participants identified as an intermediate player rating 3 or 3.5
for their skill ratings. The skill rating is a self-rated score ranging from 1.0 to 5.5 with
half-point increments and a higher rating indicates a higher level of skills (United States
America Pickleball Association 2019). More detailed demographic characteristics of the
respondents are presented in Table1.
3.2 Measures
3.2.1 Pickleball Participation
The level of pickleball participation was measured using six items adopted from Serious
Leisure Inventory Measures which has been widely used and validated by previous stud-
ies (Gould etal. 2008, 2011). Respondents were asked to rate, on a scale from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), the degree to which they were involved in and committed
to playing pickleball. Higher scores indicated more involvement in pickleball as a serious
participant. The six items assessed the central characteristics of serious leisure (i.e., per-
severance, career contingency, career progress, effort, unique ethos, identification). Sam-
ple items includes ‘I overcome difficulties in pickleball by being persistent’ (perseverance)
and ‘I try hard to become more competent in pickleball’ (effort). As noted by Gould etal.
(2011), the measure was used as an additive index to demonstrate variation in the levels of
seriousness. The total score of six items were averaged (M = 4.10, SD = 0.59). Internal con-
sistency reliability was established with Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.812).
3.2.2 Social Capital
Perceived social capital was measured by nine items adapted from the original 36-item
questionnaire developed by Onyx and Bullen (2000). Adopted items assessed both cogni-
tive (i.e., feelings of trust and safety) and structural social capital (i.e., community partici-
pation, neighborhood connections). This 9-item questionnaire was validated and employed
by the previous studies (e.g., Flores etal. 2013; O’Brien et al. 2004; Papastavrou etal.
2015; Phongsavan etal. 2006). The instrument was designed to measure three central con-
structs by three items each. The example questions include “Are you an active member of
a local organization or club (e.g., sport, craft, social club)?” (community participation),
“Do you feel safe walking down your street after dark” or “Do you agree that most peo-
ple can be trusted?” (feelings of trust and safety) and “If you were caring for a child and
needed to go out for a while, would you ask a neighbor for help?” (neighborhood connec-
tions and reciprocity). Each item was assessed with a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging
from 1 (no, not at all) to 4 (yes, very much). The Cronbach’s alpha values of the first-order
constructs were 0.717 (community participation), 0.750 (feelings of trust and safety), and
0.703 (neighborhood connections and reciprocity) respectively indicating acceptable con-
sistency (Hair etal. 2006).

Sport Participation andHappiness Among Older Adults: AMediating…
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3.2.3 Happiness
The single item scale developed and validated by Abdel-Khalek (2006) was used to
measure general feelings of happiness. Responses to one question “Do you feel happy
in general” were ranged from 1(minimum) to 10 (maximum). A higher score indicates a
greater level of happiness. As previous studies have argued, since we assessed a unidi-
mensional construct (i.e., how happy do you feel), this single item scale deemed appro-
priate (Cheung and Lucas 2014; Erreygers etal. 2019; Fisher and To 2012; Rodríguez-
Muñoz etal. 2014).
Table 1 Demographic
characteristics of the study
participants (n = 208)
Characteristics n%
Age
50–59 52 25.0
60–69 110 52.9
70 and over 46 22.1
Gender
Female 96 46.4
Male 112 53.6
Education
High school 21 10.2
College 108 52.2
Graduate school 73 35.3
Other 5 2.4
Occupation
Employed 45 21.6
Retired 162 77.9
Temporarily unemployed 1 0.5
Ethnicity
Caucasian 191 93.2
Hispanic 7 3.4
African American 2 1.0
Asian 4 2.0
Others 1 0.5
Marital status
Married/partnered 169 81.6
Divorced 19 9.2
Single 14 6.8
Widowed 5 2.4
Pickleball skill rating
Under 3 28 15.2
3 54 29.3
3.5 53 28.8
4 29 15.8
Over 4 20 10.8

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3.3 Covariates
Age, gender, education, marital status and occupation were included in the analysis as
control variables since those socio-demographic variables has been found to be asso-
ciated with happiness and social capital. While there is a lack of consensus on how
social capital varies across the life course, literature has shown the significant relation-
ship between age and social capital either positively or negatively (McDonald and Mair
2010; Nilsson etal. 2006). Gender difference in social capital has also revealed that the
associations vary based on different life experiences of men and women (Ajrouch etal.
2005; McDonald and Mair 2010). For education level, past research has shown that edu-
cation is strongly and positively correlated with individual social capital (Alesina, and
Ferrara 2000; Huang etal. 2009). Also, Nakhaie and Kazemipur (2013) showed a sig-
nificant relationship between social capital and employment while Shapiro and Keyes
(2008) found a significant association between marital status and social well-being.
Even though the effects of socio-demographic variables on happiness vary, the signifi-
cant relationships have been found (Fortin etal. 2015; Frey and Stutzer 2010; Helliwell
and Putnam 2004). According to the study of Gerdtham and Johannesson (2001), for
example, happiness is positively related to education level and negatively related to gen-
der (i.e., men), marital (i.e., single) and occupational (i.e., unemployed) status.
3.4 Analyses
Using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS, version 22), Pearson correla-
tion coefficients were calculated to examine the directionality of relationships between
the study variables. Regression analyses were used to estimate path coefficients. In each
analysis, path a connects the predictor variable Pickleball Participation (PP) with three
subconstructs of the mediating variable Social Capital (SC); path b links three subcon-
structs of the mediating variable SC (SC-Community, SC-Trust and Safety, SC-Neigh-
borhood) to the outcome variable Happiness; and path c’ links the predictor variable PP
with the outcome variable Happiness considering the mediating variable SC whereas
path c presents the total effect of the predictor variable PP on the outcome variable Hap-
piness. The indirect effect was assessed as the product of the a and b path coefficients.
In order to test the mediating effects, we implemented Hayes bootstrapping approach
using the PROCESS macro Version 3.3 (Hayes 2017). This approach uses 5000 boot-
strap samples for bias correction to set the 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A 95% CI
that does not include zero shows indirect effects that are significantly different from zero
(p < 0.05).
4 Results
Table2 presents descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients of the study
variables. Pickleball participation was significantly positively associated with three
subdimensions of social capital (r = 0.342, p < 0.001; r = 0.303, p < 0.001; r = 0.215,
p < 0.01) and general happiness (r = 0.263, p < 0.001). All three subdimensions of
social capital were significantly positively associated with general happiness (r = 0.242,
p < 0.001; r = 0.279, p < 0.001; r = 0.181, p < 0.01).

Sport Participation andHappiness Among Older Adults: AMediating…
1 3
The results of regression analysis showed that general happiness was significantly
predicted by pickleball participation (adjusted R2 = 0.113, F[7, 195] = 4.67, p < 0.001)
but not by community participation. In addition, general happiness was significantly
predicted by feelings of trust and safety (adjusted R2 = 0.136, F[7,195] = 5.53, p < 0.001)
and neighborhood connections (adjusted R2 = 0.127, F[7,195] = 5.18, p < 0.001). There-
fore, hypotheses 1 and 2-a through 2-c were supported whereas only hypotheses 3-b and
3-c were supported.
The Fig.1a through c shows the results of mediation analyses of social capital on pick-
leball participation and happiness. As shown in Fig.1a, because general happiness was not
significantly predicted by community participation, the mediation effect was not signifi-
cant. Hence, hypothesis 4-a was not supported. But the indirect effects of pickleball par-
ticipation to general happiness through feelings of trust and safety (ß = 0.099, SE = 0.0.46,
95% BCa CI [0.022, 0.203]) and neighborhood connections (ß = 0.060, SE = 0.0.44, 95%
BCa CI [0.002, 0.170]) were significantly positive indicating hypotheses 4-b and 4-c were
supported.
5 Discussion
The primary aim of this study was to explore the mediating role of social capital on the
relationship between sport participation and happiness among older adults. We investigated
the indirect effects of pickleball participation on general happiness through three subdi-
mensions of social capital including community participation, feelings of trust and safety,
and neighborhood connections after controlling socio-demographic characteristics (i.e.,
age, gender, education, occupation, marital status).
The findings suggested that pickleball participation was significantly and positively pre-
dicted by general happiness among older adults. This finding supports previous studies of
sport participation and positive psychological outcomes. For instance, sport participation
could predict older adults’ positive subjective well-being (Heo etal. 2018), positive mood
state, and fewer depressive symptoms (Bardhoshi etal. 2016; Muller etal. 2011; Ostlund-
Lagerstrom etal. 2015). Given that one of the most commonly identified outcomes were
fewer depressive symptoms among children/adolescents and reduced stress and distress
among adults who participated in sport programs (Eime et al. 2013a, b), some incon-
sistent results have been found among older sport participants. For instance, Hoar et al.
(2012) found that roughly 70 per cent of the sample composed of older master athletes who
Table 2 Descriptive statistics and person correlation coefficients of study variables
PP playing pickleball, SC-Com social capital—community participation, SC-Trust social capital—feelings
of trust and safety, SC-Nei social capital—neighborhood connections
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001
Variable 1 2 3 4 5 M(SD)
1. PP 1 .342*** .303*** .215** .263*** 4.10 (.59)
2. SC-Com 1 .289*** .210** .242*** 3.12 (.70)
3. SC-Trust 1 .225** .279*** 3.41 (.50)
4. SC-Nei 1 .181** 3.22 (.78)
5. Happiness 1 8.64 (1.13)

A.C.H.Kim et al.
1 3
participate in a Senior Games reported pre-competitive stress derived from performance,
logistics, novelty, preparation, and health. Even though the positive relationship between
pickleball participation and happiness was found in our study, it would be noteworthy to
investigate the level of stress depending on the various factors (e.g., personality, competi-
tion level) among older sport participants in the future.
The present study is distinctive from the previous studies in that we investigated the
mediating role of social capital on the relationship between sport participation and one’s
general happiness. While many previous studies investigated the effects of sport partici-
pation on either social outcomes or psychological outcomes treating these two separate
outcomes, we tested the potential link between social capital and happiness from a social
epidemiological perspective. Our findings suggest that two subdimensions of social capital
(i.e., feelings of trust and safety, neighborhood connections) has a significant and positive
mediating role on the relationship between pickleball participation and general happiness
among older adults. One subdimension of social capital – community participation was
Fig. 1 a Mediation analysis of social capital (community participation) on pickleball participation and gen-
eral happiness. This model presents nonsignificant indirect effects. b Mediation analysis of social capital
(feelings of trust and safety) on pickleball participation and general happiness. This model presents sig-
nificantly positive indirect effects: β = .099, SE = .0.46, 95% BCa CI [.022, .203]. *p < .05, **p < .01,
***p < .001. c Mediation analysis of social capital (neighborhood connections) on pickleball participation
and general happiness. This model presents significantly positive indirect effects: β = .060, SE = .0.44, 95%
BCa CI [.002, .170]. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001

Sport Participation andHappiness Among Older Adults: AMediating…
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not a significant predictor of happiness nor a significant mediator. This finding is some-
what consistent with the findings of Phongsavan etal. (2006). In their study, only two ele-
ments of social capital (i.e., feelings of trust and safety, neighborhood connections) were
significantly associated with levels of psychological distress after controlling for relevant
socio-demographic factor, health-related behavior and health status whereas community
participation was not a significant predictor. The present study did not assess the nature or
quantity of community participation. It is possible that this relationship was not observed
due to the way of assessment. Opportunities to participate in community activities may be
infrequent in some settings depending on the different geographical areas or different time
of the year. Differently designed assessments of this subconstruct may be able to observe
the relationship in future studies.
In our study, sport participants were recruited at the sport event. The finding was con-
sistent with previous studies showing that sport event participation as a participant can be
beneficial for one’s psychological well-being (e.g., Sato etal. 2016). Nonetheless, there
are many sport participants who are involved in local sport leagues or community-based
sport programs but are not necessarily involved in sport events. Considering the distinctive
nature of these programs such as regular and continuous involvement opportunities, these
sport participants may obtain different types of social benefits such as a sense of commu-
nity that can affect one’s psychological well-being in a different way. A sense of commu-
nity is defined as an environmental or community characteristic that results in individuals
feeling a sense of belonging at the group-level (Sarason 1974). A sense of community is
significant in that it can promote desirable health outcomes among older adults such as
life satisfaction (Zhang etal. 2017), lower incidences of depression, (Tang etal. 2015),
and higher levels of well-being (Zhang etal. 2018). There have been a few conceptual
studies and a scale development study that describe how a sense of community can be
shaped through sport participation and how it can be measured (Warner etal. 2013). How-
ever, there have been no empirical studies that investigate the relationship between a sense
of community shaped through sport program participation and the various resulting psy-
chological health-related outcomes. Distinguishing between the outcomes of sport event
participation and sport program participation at the local level would clarify the different
underlying mechanisms of “sport for health” among older adults.
This study provides empirical support that dimensions of social capital have strong con-
nections with psychological status and well-being, therefore increasing the power of the
construct for intervention purposes. In spite of many research on social capital and health,
there have been only a few intervention studies (Villalonga-Olives et al. 2018). Social
capital and health interventions that are designed to improve health through social capital
enhancement are promising yet an unexplored answer to address the influence of social
capital on health. When it comes to social capital interventions, there are two different
levels of target: the individual level social capital (e.g., increased informal interactions)
and the community level social capital (e.g., neighborhood spaces to enhance a community
identity) A systematic review of social capital interventions and health showed that various
types of interventions (yet only few) including environmental change at the school work,
and/or municipal level, interventions promoting management and leadership development,
network interventions, interventions based on dialogue and reflective thinking (see Villa-
longa-Olives etal. 2018). There was only one study that ran a 10-week physical exercise
program for promoting multilevel social capital. At the community level, workers partici-
pated in a 10-week group-based physical exercise program, and at the individual level, an
individual did physical exercise at home during leisure time (Andersen etal. 2015). Our
findings suggest that sport programs can be an effective tool as a multilevel social capital

A.C.H.Kim et al.
1 3
intervention for health among older adults and recognize the considerable need of future
sport-based social capital intervention research. At the community level, participating in
regular local-based sport programs or leagues can strengthen neighborhood network and
support. Furthermore, well-designed programs with purposeful strategies such as mentor-
based sport programs may boost individual social capital resulting in positive health behav-
iors and outcomes. For instance, using college students or peers to mentor older adults
sport programs may enhance individual health through increased physical activity or self-
esteem (Lee and Choi 2016).
In the similar context, even though this study found a positive relationship between the
level of sport involvement and general happiness after controlling some socio-demographic
factors such as age, gender, education, marital status and occupation, this study was cross-
sectional and non-experimental studies indicating lack of internal validity. Even though
there have been many physical activity or exercise-based intervention studies among
older adults or sport-based intervention studies for children/adolescents (Pan etal. 2016;
Werch etal. 2003; Williams etal. 2015), there is no sport-based intervention studies for
older adults so far. More rigorous research designs such as longitudinal and experimental
design need to be employed in the future in order to confirm the positive effect of sport
involvement.
The positive effect of sport participation on social capital appears self-evident because
sport can be an effective platform for people to socialize and broaden their social net-
works and relationships. Nevertheless, several scholars have cautioned that the relation-
ship between sport participation and social capital can be more complex highlighting the
dark side of it such as social segregation (Crow 2004). The networks formed via sport
involvement could serve as constraints excluding non-members because social solidarity
of groups has been linked to the exclusivity of group (Crow 2004). For instance, DeLuca
(2013) investigated how upper middle-class families obtain, transmit, and preserve their
social capitals through swim and tennis club membership using ethnographic approach.
The author argued that the sport club was a significant but hidden platform that these
upper middle-class members can facilitate their social class and race-based privilege.
Through enhanced level of a sense of community and belonging among members as well
as increased special social learning opportunities provided by the sport club, the members
could produce of their privileged habitus. This dark side of sport involvement for social
capital needs to be considered for sport-based interventions among older adults in order to
diminish negative health effects of social capital (Villalonga-Olives and Kawachi 2017).
In this study, we used the instrument for serious leisure to measure the level of sport
participation among older adults. Even though various instruments have been developed
and validated to assess the sport participation of children and adolescents such as Sports
Participation and Attitudes Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (Donaldson and
Ronan 2006), there has been no attempt to develop new instruments to assess the level of
sport participation and related behavioral patterns for older adults or to modify the previous
ones of younger generations to older generations. For instance, Kim and colleagues (2019)
recognized the unique values of sport participation among older adults such as resistance
to the negative view of aging and value of being competitive in sport activities. Neverthe-
less, there is no instrument that address these characteristics that can be derived from the
distinctive aging-related variables for sport participation. Therefore, further development
and use of instruments for older adults’ sport involvement is required.
In the similar context, several studies including the present study conceptualized and
operationalized the construct of serious leisure to study the older adults’ serious sport
involvement (e.g., Heo etal. 2018). The majority of study participants in our study was

Sport Participation andHappiness Among Older Adults: AMediating…
1 3
serious sport participants (M = 4.07, SD = 3.85). Serious leisure is characterized differently
from casual leisure based on six attributes: (a) need to preserve at the activity, (b) devel-
opment of a leisure career, (c) need to put in effort to gain skill and knowledge, (d) gain-
ing social and personal benefits, (e) unique ethos and social world, and (f) an attractive
personal and social identity (Stebbins, 2007). Despite the fact that this construct and rel-
evant instrument may be advantageous to for investigating the devoted sport participants,
it is challenging to explore the characteristics at the other end (i.e., casual leisure partici-
pants, newcomers). As Baker etal. (2010) argued, more studies need to investigate the
antecedents and consequences of individuals who are motivated to participate in sports in
their later years. For example, few studies found that competitive sport participation for
late starters tended to build a new or alternative personal identity as a winner and a highly
physically active person. Further studies are necessary to develop conceptual and theoreti-
cal frameworks and relevant instruments to explore what affects the advent of this new
identity and how it influences the late starters’ lives more in depth among newcomers and
casual older sport participants.
5.1 Study Limitations
First, because this study was cross-sectional and correlational, we cannot establish a causal
effect, or we cannot rule out the possibility of reverse causality between social capital and
happiness or sport participation and social capital. For instance, perceiving community to
be untrustworthy or the absences of social interactions with neighborhood can be a conse-
quence of happiness (Ljunge 2018). In the similar sense, individuals who perceive commu-
nity to be trustworthy and who tends to actively interact with neighborhood may be more
likely to play sports with other people. Therefore, as we discussed above, more interven-
tion-based studies and longitudinal studies should be conducted in the future to confirm the
causal relationships among sport participation, social capital, and happiness.
In addition, the findings were drawn from a convenience sample which was predomi-
nantly composed of Caucasians whose educational levels were relatively high. Even
though we could compare the gender and age proportions of our samples and the whole
event participants, any other demographic characteristics of all participants (e.g., ethnicity,
educational level) were not available. Nearly half of the event population and our sam-
ples were players aged between 60 and 69 which is categorized as relatively the “young-
old” population. Even though the age was included as a covariate in this study, it would be
beneficial to investigate if there is any different relationships between sport participation,
social capital, and happiness among the “middle-old” population (70 to 79years), and the
“old-old” (80years and older) population in the future. Additionally, it has been noted that
levels of social capital vary depending on geographical variations (Mohan etal. 2005).
While this study controlled significant socio-demographic variables, each participant’s
geographical location was not controlled because the research participants were recruited
at the international-level sport event. Future studies can benefit from demographically and
geographically diverse samples.
The present study recruited pickleball players to investigate the role of sport participa-
tion on happiness among older adults. Yet, as Asztalos etal. (2012) suggested, different
types of sport participation may have different effects on mental health. For instance, Asz-
talos etal. (2012) explored 19 different types of sports to examine the gender differences in
mental health status. Among these sports, some sport types may be also applicable to older
adults such as golf, ball games (e.g., softball, basketball, volleyball) or racket sports (e.g.,

A.C.H.Kim et al.
1 3
tennis, squash, table tennis). Future studies may explore the effects of sport participation
on psychological well-being among older adults according to the different types of sport
categories.
6 Conclusions
This study provides important insights into the role of sport participation in older adults’
happiness and the role of social capital in this relationship. Regression analyses disclosed
that sport participation and both cognitive social capital (i.e., feelings of trust and safety)
and structural social capital (neighborhood connections) significantly predict one’s general
happiness. Playing pickleball as a sport involvement would add significant value to older
adults’ daily psychological well-being status which can contribute to successful aging. In
the future, sport-based social capital intervention studies would be helpful to confirm the
causal effect of sport involvement on one’s happiness and other psychological well-being
indicators among older adults.
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