Leisure Activity Engagement and Subjective Well-Being Among Older Adults: Evidence from an Ordered Logit Model with Fixed Effects

This study examines the relationship between leisure activity engagement (LAE) and subjective well-being (SWB) among older adults in South Korea. Using panel data from the Korea Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA, N = 40,830), we employ an ordered logit fixed effects model to address potential bias from Likert-scale outcomes and control for unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity. This study applies Blow Up and Cluster (BUC) and BUC-τ estimates to investigate the relationship between LAE and SWB. Results demonstrate that LAE is significantly associated with improved well-being across multiple dimensions. Findings show that LAE increases self-reported health (Coef. = 0.287, OR = 1.333, p < 0.01) and life satisfaction (Coef. = 0.199, OR = 1.219, p < 0.01), while reducing depressive symptoms (Coef. = −0.288, OR = 0.749, p < 0.01). These findings suggest that leisure participation may be a promising avenue for supporting healthy aging.