The influence of leisure patterns on the subjective well-being of the floating population—A social integration perspective

ABSTRACTThis paper uses microdata from the 2017 China Time Use Survey (CTUS) to study the impact of leisure patterns on the subjective well-being of the floating population. We find that latent profile analysis (LPA) divides the leisure time allocation patterns of the Chinese floating population into five types: self-entertainment type, family-friendly type, sports fitness type, social-entertainment type and cultural-artistic type. The empirical results show that the sports fitness type and the cultural-artistic leisure type are the most conducive to the improvement of the subjective well-being of the floating population, followed by the social-entertainment type and the family-friendly type, whereas the self-entertainment type does not contribute to the improvement of subjective well-being. The analysis of the mechanism of action shows that social integration is the mediating variable of the leisure patterns promoting the subjective well-being of the floating population. The conclusion has implications for urban managers to better help the floating population in China integrate into the new environment and improve their quality of life.KEYWORDS: Floating populationleisure patternssubjectivewell-beingsocial integrationChina AcknowledgementsAppreciate the anonymous reviewers for their valuable revision suggestions.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Regarding the fundamental role of the hukou system in socioeconomic segmentation in China, see Liu (Citation2005), Wang (Citation2004), and Wu and Treiman (Citation2007). Inspired by Jiang et al. (Citation2012), there are three population groups in urban areas due to the China’s Hukou Registration Policy. The first group is the rural migrant group without urban hukou status. The second group are ‘native’ urban residents who have urban hukou from birth. The third group are ‘new citizens’ who had changed their hukou status from rural to urban or from small city to big city status.2. Leisure time, hour/per day.3. The income happiness puzzle refers to the fact that as income levels increase, individual happiness does not increase (Easterlin, Citation1995).4. Due to space limitations, this paper only presents the results that have significance.Additional informationFundingThis paper is supported by research from the Henan Provincial University Science and Technology Innovation Team (23IRTSTHN017), General Project of Humanities and Social Sciences in Higher Education Institutions of Henan Province (2024-ZZJH-162) , the General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42071198),the General Program of the National Social Science Foundation of China (23BGL174), the 2023 Henan Province Soft Science Research Project (232400410361), the 2023 Central Plains Talent - Central Plains Cultural Youth Talent Program and the 2023 Luoyang Normal University Youth Key Teacher Training Program.Notes on contributorsPengfei WangDr. Pengfei Wang (PhD) is an associate professor at the School of Land and Tourism of Luoyang Normal University. His main research areas include tourism economics, leisure economics, and leisure time allocation.Xiaodan CaoXiaodan Cao (MD) is a lecturer at the School of Land and Tourism of Luoyang Normal University, and her main research area is smart tourism.Zhaoyu GaoDr. Zhaoyu Gao (PhD) is a lecturer at the School of Government, University of International Business and Economics, and her main research areas include sports tourism and Olympic tourism.Xiaoyan SuDr. Xiaoyan Su (PhD) is a professor at Luoyang Normal University, specializing in the protection and utilization of cultural heritage.Xiang WeiDr. Xiang Wei (PhD) is a professor at the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, specializing in the fields of leisure economy and tourism economy.