Serious leisure and flow experience of teenagers - A case study on the activities of orchestra

Abstract

This study is to explore the serious leisure and flow experience of teenagers by using the members of Taichung Classic Orchestra as a case study. In this study, we select 9 teen members and use in-depth interviews based on “Serious Leisure” and “Flow Experience” theory for data collection. The result of the research shows: (i) Durable benefits, significant personal efforts, unique ethos and identities are presented in characteristics of serious leisure for most of the members. Due to the high pressure from the school, only half of the members show the perseverance. In addition, as the members are teenagers, only few of them show the career. (ii) The teen members have clear goals in their flow characteristics. The majority of them can get instant feedback from the activities of the orchestra. They are highly self-confident and very optimistic to find a way to break through when they face a challenge. Though sometimes they are distracted, most of them concentrate on the task, have the merging of action and awareness, pay full attention in activities. Therefore, they always feel time flies when they attend the activities of the orchestra. Most of members feel the pleasure from the activities and have strong motivation to continue participation. (iii) The teen members present only five states of flow, including boredom, relaxation, arousal, control and flow. Arousal, control and flow are presented in the members with different skill levels. The level of challenge and skill is totally determined by the individual’s self-awareness. Just like some of them prefer to practice songs with middle level of difficulty while others want to take challenges. Nevertheless, both groups of members will always try to find a balance between skills and challenges. Therefore, the flow experience comes.