Leisure - Non Leisure Balance & Life Satisfaction

This paper proves the inverted u-shaped relationship between the time use concept, leisure - non-leisure balance (LNLB) and life satisfaction by investigating the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSEOP). 88% of the German working population refer to the non-leisure imbalance group and would increase life satisfaction by spending more hours on leisure tim or less hours on non-leisure time. The optimal ration between leisure and non-leisure time (LNLB) is achieved by spending approximately half of your total non-leisure time on leisure activities. Moreover, the inverted u-shape curve reveals that people (12%) can also spend too much time on leisure (leisure imbalance group). However, the analysis show that the magnitude of the effect on life satisfaction is very small. Thus, time matters, but only to a certain extent. This outcome has implications for policy makers, employers and individuals. Moreover, future research should concentrate on a more psychological approach than a sole time consideration to elaborate on the effect of balance on life satisfaction.