Factors Affecting Leisure Time (A Meta-analysis of Existing Research)

In recent years, due to the importance of leisure time in Iran, several studies have been conducted in this field. Because of the abundance and diversity of research conducted in the field of leisure time the need for combined research in this area, such meta-analysis, is deeply felt. The main question of this research is: what are the most important factors affecting leisure time research conducted in Iran? The research method of this paper is meta-analysis. The statistical population of the study incudes all scholarly scientific papers on leisure time published in the years 2001-2013. We used the Comprehensive Meta-analysis software to conduct the meta-analysis of the articles. The results show that social-economic status (SES), age, education and satisfaction with leisure facilities, compared to other variables, have a significant impact on leisure activities in Iran, an impact anticipated in the theories of Bourdieu, Smith and Dumazedier. The results also indicate that the relationship between socio-economic status and leisure time in the studies reviewed is positive and significant (effect size=0.41). Also the relationship between age and leisure time in the studies reviewed is negative and significant (effect size= -0.35). The results of the combined effects reveal that the relationship between education and leisure time in the reviewed studies, about 0.27, was positive and significant.