2.1. Literature Review
Pickleball, which was invented in 1965, is a paddleball sport that combines the elements of tennis, badminton, and billiards [
15]. With the promotion of USAPA, the game of pickleball is gradually growing in popularity worldwide. According to Hsu, Lu, and Wang [
16], pickleball combines the rules of tennis, billiards, and badminton, and is easier to pick up than other sports, even for people with no previous experience, which makes it a sport that can be enjoyed at any level of intensity, and promotes physical fitness and social interaction. In addition to the ease of acquiring pickleball skills, the promotion of pickleball-related organizations around the world also plays a major role. According to the data of USAPA 2017, the United States, the birthplace of pickleball, not only hosts large and small pickleball tournaments around the country, but, in recent years, has held a lucrative U.S. Open Tournament to draw pickleball players from around the world, with prize money increasing from USD 150,000 for the 2017 champion to USD 300,000 for the 2018 champion. Chinese Taipei’s pickleball tournaments are gradually being organized by the relevant associations, such as the 2018 International Pickleball Qualifying Tournament, the 2019 International Pickleball Qualifying Tournament, and the 2020 Asian Pickleball Professional Elite Selection Tournament. These events not only foster more pickleball players, but also boost the spread of pickleball games. As the number of participants increases year by year, it is worthwhile to further investigate the level of involvement, satisfaction, and well-being of the participants in the sport, which could serve as a catalyst for the promotion of pickleball in Chinese Taipei.
Leisure involvement is an imperceptible state of motivation, arousal, or interest that lies between the individual and the recreational activity, destination, or associated equipment, and can be triggered by specific stimuli or conditions [
17]. In other words, leisure involvement can be a behavioral sign or a psychological state for the player. In the case of pickleball, in terms of the behavioral sign, a high level of involvement can be a result of long-term practice or a high investment in related equipment. In terms of the psychological state, it can refer to the attractiveness of pickleball to the player. Godbey [
18] stated that, according to sociologist Hobson Bryant, there are four stages of leisure involvement. Stage 1: The initial stage: A newcomer starts with a few expectations of the behavior, and some people may stop at this stage, such as a novice fisherman whose goal is to catch a fish by any means necessary. Stage 2: Learning begins to occur. Stage 3: Professional Stage: Individuals begin to develop professional skills for different aspects of the behavior, such as technology, equipment, relevant rules, and other more specialized objects that become important to the participant. Stage 4: The highest professional stage, in which the individual builds their own style in the activity field, and the love of the activity is for one’s self. Nevertheless, for pickleball participants, these four stages are not necessarily experienced, especially when pickleball is promoted to the elderly for the purpose of successful aging, rather than to the professional stage. Therefore, Kyle, Graefe, Manning, and Bacon [
19] divided leisure involvement into the following five dimensions:
Attractiveness: Is this activity the most enjoyable of all leisure activities?
Centrality: I realize that almost all aspects of my life are connected to this activity. If I were to change this activity, it would require serious consideration for me.
Social Bonding: Whether participation in this leisure activity provides me with the opportunity to make friends, or I enjoy discussing this leisure activity with my friends.
Identity Affirmation: When I participate in this leisure activity, I feel like myself; or when I participate in this activity, I don’t care how others perceive me.
Identity Expression: Participation in this leisure activity allows me to express myself, or I like the way people view me as I perceive myself to be.
According to the above, the classification of Kyle, Graefe, Manning, and Bacon [
19] seems to be an appropriate framework to probe into the leisure involvement of the general public.
However, when people get involved in a certain leisure sport, they often encounter different internal and external obstacles, and when such obstacles occur, participants are often forced to give up participating, and cannot continue to play. Jackson, Crawford, and Godbey [
20] proposed two new concepts on the basis of constructing the leisure hindrance model, namely negotiation and balance. The concept of negotiation refers to the decision of an individual’s behavior whether or not to engage in a certain leisure activity, which is not based on the assumption that the individual can participate only after overcoming various obstacles, but rather that the individual will adjust among various obstacles. Obstacles that have been overcome in the negotiation process may arise (overcome, or not perceived) again in the form of a feedback loop. In the process of negotiation, the interaction and intensity between activity obstacles and participation motivation are related, which means that the concept of balance refers to the result of negotiation. There is interplay between obstacles and motivation; it is easy to start playing pickleball, and the venue and equipment are relatively simple compared with other sports. Therefore, regarding the degree of leisure involvement of pickleball players, participants have passed personal internal obstacles, and have a preference for pickleball sports. At the same time, due to the low structural obstacles, the players show a high degree of leisure involvement. In addition, pickleball players may also negotiate against the obstacles encountered in the process; for example, if they cannot find enough players to play doubles, they may turn to singles or pure ball practice. These related factors are worthy of further exploration.
Leisure satisfaction is a subjective relative comparison among related criteria, which may be prior experience, the individual’s own expectations, achievements from it, or feelings of satisfaction during leisure activities [
21]. In other words, leisure satisfaction is a general term that refers to the gap between an individual’s perceived actual performance and his or her goal. In the case of pickleball, the smaller the gap in the player’s goal, the higher the satisfaction of the participant, e.g., the smaller the discrepancy between the arrangements of the pickleball tournament and the prior expectation, the higher the satisfaction with the tournament event. As such, leisure satisfaction is a tool used to measure people’s perceptions of the desirability of leisure activities when they participate in them. Mannell and Kleiber [
22] also suggested that leisure satisfaction is influenced by a combination of motivational needs, such as the emotional, cognitive, and personality traits of leisure participants, and presents different satisfaction outcomes. From this point of view, there are many factors that affect the dimensions of leisure satisfaction to be considered, and this view is also reflected in the measurement of leisure satisfaction. Beard and Ragheb [
5] developed the “Leisure Satisfaction Scale”, which is based on the view that the needs of individuals are satisfied in leisure activities, and its dimensions include (1) psychological, (2) social, (3) physiological, (4) educational, (5) relaxation, and (6) aesthetic dimensions.
The term “well-being” originally represented an emotion, meaning the individual’s subjective cognitive and emotional evaluation of his or her life, with the cognition being an evaluation of the overall life satisfaction, and the emotion being a response to positive emotions, as well as an experience of happiness and pleasure. In other words, well-being depends on a person’s perception of what is happening in his or her life, and this perception has an impact on his or her emotions and mental health. Well-being is likely to improve when people have more positive emotions about something, which, in turn, satisfies their psychological state. Keung, and Goswami [
6] also held a similar view, and stated that well-being is a multifaceted concept that encompasses emotional and cognitive components: (1) pleasant emotional experience (positive effect); (2) negative emotion, such as sadness and dissatisfaction (negative effect); (3) quality of life self-assessment (including overall life satisfaction and satisfaction with specific items). For pickleball players, the process of participation may be a way to improve their quality of life, either by connecting with friends or through the physiological and psychological benefits of participating in the sport, which leads to a feeling of psychological well-being. Since well-being encompasses both psychological states and perceptions of things, a multidimensional approach is adopted to measure well-being, as suggested by Ryff [
23], who assessed individuals’ well-being from six different psychological dimensions: self-acceptance, positive relations with others, environmental mastery, autonomy, purpose in life, and personal growth. According to the relevant literature compiled by this study, leisure activities have a positive impact on the well-being of participants [
24,
25,
26]; for example, the research results of Trainor, Delfabbro, Anderson, and Winefield [
27] supported previous personality research which suggests that how spare-time is used may be related to well-being only insofar as individuals who are psychologically healthy tend to be involved in structured leisure activities. Pickleball is regarded as one of the fastest growing sports in the United States. It is possible that because pickleball is easy to learn and the equipment is relatively simple, participation will improve leisure satisfaction and further affect well-being. In other words, the characteristics of pickleball and the nature of participation are worthy of further empirical research on leisure satisfaction and well-being.
Regarding the relationship among the variables, relevant studies point out the influence of leisure involvement on leisure satisfaction [
28,
29,
30]; for example, Chen, Li, and Chen [
28] used quantitative research to study 701 adolescents in Central Taiwan to explore the relationship between leisure motivation, leisure involvement, and leisure satisfaction. The research results found that leisure motivation had no significant effect on leisure satisfaction when leisure involvement was included in the model, but leisure motivation had a significant effect on leisure involvement. Tsai and Guo [
29] studied the correlation between the leisure involvement and leisure satisfaction of elderly people in Taipei, and found that leisure involvement has a positive and significant relationship with leisure satisfaction. Taking senior citizens as the research subject, this paper discussed the relationship among leisure involvement, leisure satisfaction, and the well-being of senior citizens. Lo [
31] conducted a questionnaire survey with senior citizens over 55 as the research subjects, and found that leisure involvement has a significant impact on leisure satisfaction, and the influence of leisure involvement on well-being has also obtained relevant empirical results; for example, Mehmet [
32] investigated the leisure involvement and well-being levels of individuals with a fitness center membership. According to the findings, a positively significant relationship was determined between the level of well-being and leisure involvement. Pan, Wu, Morrison, Huang, and Huang [
30] conducted a study to investigate the relationship of leisure involvement with the well-being of professional sports fans; and the possible mediating effect of organizational commitment, which is a career-related characteristic, on well-being. Some 406 fans of the Brother Elephants Baseball Team in Taiwan were surveyed, and the results showed that leisure involvement positively and significantly influenced fans’ well-being. In addition, the influence of leisure satisfaction on well-being has also been demonstrated [
33,
34]; for example, the purpose of Kaya’s [
35] study was to examine the effect of the participation of college students in leisure activities, as well as their level of leisure satisfaction on their well-being, according to various parameters. A total of 1464 college students participated in Kaya’s [
35] study, and the results showed a significant and positive relationship between all dimensions of leisure satisfaction on well-being. Liu [
34] examined the relationships among personality, leisure satisfaction, and subjective well-being in a sample of participants (
N = 193) in seven arts groups at a key eastern Chinese university, and the results indicated that leisure satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with SWB. In addition, relevant studies have illustrated that leisure satisfaction often plays an intermediary role; for example, Huang [
36] took employees of the Taiwan Power Company as the research subjects, and found that leisure satisfaction had a mediating effect on sociability, competence and proficiency, leisure motivation, and well-being. This study also explored whether leisure satisfaction has an intermediary effect on the relationship between leisure involvement and well-being.
Based on the above literature, it can be seen that most studies have adopted quantitative studies, and the relationship between variables in this study is also supported by the above literature. According to the relationships among the variables, the following four research hypotheses are formulated in this paper.
2.2. Research Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1 (H1). For participants in pickleball sports, leisure involvement has a significant effect on leisure satisfaction.
Hypothesis 2 (H2). For participants in pickleball sports, leisure involvement has a significant effect on well-being.
Hypothesis 3 (H3). For participants in pickleball sports, leisure satisfaction has a significant effect on well-being.
Hypothesis 4 (H4). For participants in pickleball sports, leisure satisfaction has a mediating effect on the relationship between leisure involvement and well-being.
As pickleball is still in the promotion stage in Chinese Taipei, it is not as popular as basketball or badminton; thus, there is a lack of related research on the leisure participation behavior of pickleball, and at present, there are no more than 20 relevant discussions. Moreover, most of the current studies in Chinese Taipei focused on the promotion of this sport towards the elderly; for example, Hsu, Lu, and Wang [
16] conducted semi-structured qualitative in-depth 1-on-1 interviews with 24 older pickleball players to understand their experience and acceptance of participating in pickleball sports. The results showed that pickleball is simple and easy to play, with a sense of match achievement, low injury risk, and low cost of consumables. There is also a study on the tournament system of pickleball in Chinese Taipei. Chen, Ma, Yu, and Chiu [
37] used the case study method, qualitative research, direct observation, and in-depth interviews to explore the establishment of pickleball tournaments to popularize it among the public, promote it into a national sport, and jointly experience the fun of sports, which is used as the promotion direction to evaluate the feasibility of pickleball tournaments in Chinese Taipei. Regarding the participation behavior of participants in pickleball, it is rarely discussed. As pointed out by Hsu, Lu, and Wang [
16], as pickleball was only recently introduced to Chinese Taipei, there are few coaches, it is difficult to find players, and there are few venues, and these factors may affect the involvement of pickleball players in this activity and leisure satisfaction. In addition, the impact of leisure involvement on well-being and leisure satisfaction on well-being has been empirically demonstrated by relevant studies. Therefore, one of the key points of this paper is to understand the impact of pickleball players on well-being after investment. The above statement illustrates why this paper selected pickleball players’ leisure involvement to determine its impact on leisure satisfaction and well-being, and why the leisure satisfaction of pickleball participants has a significant impact on their well-being.