Leisure factors predicting the happiness of self-employed workers in South Korea

Abstract

South Korea’s employment status is characterized by a high rate of self-employment and many small-scale self-employed businesses with no employees. This study explored leisure factors relating to self-employed individuals’ subjective happiness based on data from the 2019 National Leisure Activity Survey. The extracted data (N = 2343) were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, Kendall’s τb coefficient, Eta correlation coefficient, phi coefficient, and Cramer’s V. And a three-step hierarchical regression analysis was performed to identify multidimensional variables that predict happiness more effectively. In Model 3, which additionally inserted positive and intrinsic factors into Model 2, the explanatory power was significantly increased. The predictors of subjective happiness among self-employed people identified in the final regression model were high economic status (β = 0.05), perceived health status (β = 0.32), financial constraints (β = −0.09), leisure recognition (β = 0.20), and work–life balance (leisure-oriented β = 0.09; work-oriented β = −0.13). This study’s findings will contribute to the establishment of basic data, to prepare empirical measures to improve self-employed individuals’ quality of life.