LEISURE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR AS PREDICTORS OF QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG RESIDENTS OF BENIN CITY, NIGERIA

Abstract

Quality of life is the standard of health, comfort and happiness, necessary for personal satisfaction, fulfilment and good health. However, extant literature has shown that some residents of Benin City, Nigeria have low quality of life. Previous studies largely focused on clinical issues such as cancer, stroke, and Alzheimer diseases with little emphasis on leisure knowledge, attitude and Behaviour. This study, therefore, was conducted to examine leisure knowledge, attitude and Behaviour as predictors of quality of life among the residents of Benin City, Nigeria. The study was anchored to the Sirgy and Uysal Theory of leisure well-being, while the mixed methods of exploratory survey design and phenomenology was used. Two Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Benin City (Oredo and Ikpoba Okha) were randomly selected out of the existing four LGAs. The simple random sampling technique was used to select four wards each from the two LGAs in Oredo (Ihogbe, Ibiwe, Ogbelaka and Nekpenekpen) and Ikpoba Okha (Aduwawa, Evbo Modu, Uteh and Idogbo). Eight hundred and forty-three participants were selected in the communities through convenience sampling technique. The Instruments used were Leisure Knowledge (r =0.91), Leisure Attitude (r = 0.78), Leisure Behaviour (r = 0.90) and Quality of Life (r = 0.92) questionnaires. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 respondents randomly selected from each of the two LGAs. Those purposively selected, met the inclusion criteria of being an indigene and resident in the area for at least 2 years. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance, while qualitative data were content-analysed. The respondents’ age was 41.7±1.70 years and 63.1% were females. The respondents exhibited high level of leisure knowledge ( 2.74), positive leisure attitude ( 2.72) and low level of leisure Behaviour ( 2.39) against the threshold of 2.50. Knowledge (r = 0.24), attitude (r = 0.41), and Behaviour (r = 0.36) had significant relationships with quality of life. Leisure knowledge, attitude and Behaviour had significant composite contribution to quality of life (F(3;839)= 67.258; (Adj R² =19.1), accounting for 19.1% of its variance. Leisure knowledge (β=.11), attitude (β=.29) and Behaviour (β =.14) had significant relative contributions to quality of life. Majority of the interviewees had cultural heritage that impacted positively on their leisure Behaviour. The participants’ cultural festivals and traditional activities provided fulcrum for relaxation and cultural bonding to gain more confidence in their personality and self-esteem with positive values. Cultural leisure activities were components of health and wellbeing, which led to significant improvement on the participants’ social interaction and emotional wellbeing with evidence of reduction in depression symptoms. However, minority of the interviewees had passive leisure activities pattern. Leisure knowledge, attitude and Behaviour influenced quality of life. Regular exercises, time for Leisure activities, access to public facilities and provision of Leisure Education by experts should be encouraged to improve quality of life.