The relationship between sport event experience and psychological well-being: the case of a “Sailing Marathon”

Abstract

The special nature of recreational sport services, orientates the contemporary research interest to the holistic nature of sports event experience, emphasizing their relationships with psychosocial factors contributing to participants' well-being. The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to analyze the dimensions of sport event experience in the context of a sailing marathon event and (2) to investigate the contribution of the sport event experience factors to participants’ psychological well-being. The study was conducted in Greece, where the participants of the event filled out the PERMA Profiler Questionnaire (Pezirkianidis, Stalikas, Lakioti & Yotsidi, 2019) and a multidimensional Sport Event Experience scale, designed especially for the study purpose. The results provided support for the holistic and multilevel nature of sport event experience construct in the case of a recreational sailing event, as it was theoretically defined. The regression analysis showed that participants' psychological well-being was significantly predicted by the event sport experience, where the dimensions of social environment, brand, and services environment of the event had the most significant contributions. These results show the value of sport events with a recreational nature in contributing to the development of individual well-being. The PERMA model is an acceptable one for measuring perceived well-being. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. Keywords: sports services, leisure activities, sports experience, sailing marathon, well-being