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The purpose of this study was to examine the association between extracurricular activities (EA) participation and youth delinquency while tackling an endogeneity problem of EA participation. Using survey data of 12th graders in South Korea (n = 1943), this study employed an instrumental variables approach to address the self-selection problem of EA participation as the data for this study was based on an observational study design. We found a positive association between EA participation and youth delinquency based on conventional regression analysis. By contrast, we found a negative association between EA participation and youth delinquency based on an instrumental variables approach. These results indicate that caution should be exercised when we interpret the effect of EA participation on youth delinquency based on observational study designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing public concern over Internet game use disorder, the popularity of Internet gaming has rapidly increased among adolescents. Since Internet gaming disorder has largely been investigated through the lens of serious psychiatric syndromes, most previous studies employed diverse psychopathological concepts like depression and anxiety. Unlike those studies, this study provides useful opportunities to better understand how adolescents' Internet gaming disorder is conceptually linked with their family environment and recreation experience. Using a large sample of South Korean high school students ( N = 2215), this study found that adolescents' levels of Internet gaming disorder were positively associated with their perception of constraints to recreation participation. The structural equation model additionally indicated that respondents' problematic engagement in the online activity was negatively related to the cohesive and adaptable characteristics of family system. According to the effect decomposition results, the concept of leisure constraints served as more important factor than family functioning and leisure satisfaction in determining respondents' degrees of problematic involvement in Internet gaming. This study also revealed that the exogenous variable of family functioning was significantly related to leisure constraints and leisure satisfaction with an opposite path coefficient sign. Based on study findings derived from the conceptual framework, several policy implications are discussed to decrease adolescents' excessive immersion in Internet games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationships among leisure competence, level of leisure activity, and life satisfaction in low-income older adults in rural South Korea. A sample of 137 older adults answered the study questionnaire, and significant differences in leisure competence were noted depending on age, religion, and perceived health status as well as level of leisure activity based on perceived health status and type of leisure activities. There were also notable differences in life satisfaction regarding religion and perceived health status, and a correlation among leisure competence, level of leisure activity, and life satisfaction; the influencing power of leisure competence and level of leisure activity on life satisfaction was 47%. The findings suggest that enhancement of older adults' leisure competence may increase participation in leisure activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines the perceived differences of stress and stress coping strategies between smoking and nonsmoking South Korean casino workers. Casino employees ( N = 621) were grouped into two groups (i.e., smokers and nonsmokers). Using logistic regression analysis with cigarette smoking as the dependent variable, investigators observed that nonsmokers were more likely to report stress related to work or job issues and identify their leisure activity as a form of personal development compared with smokers. Casino employees have a higher prevalence of tobacco smoking than the general population and smoking behaviors tend to cluster with alcohol use and gambling. These findings suggest that smoking cession programs might benefit from taking into account how to provide personal development as a type of leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]