Disability and Patterns of Leisure Participation Across the Life Course

Patterns of healthy leisure are dependent upon age, but people with disabilities are particularly susceptible to passive and disengaged types of activities. This study evaluates how individuals with disabilities spend their time in passive, active, social, and isolated forms of leisure over the life course, and how these patterns vary by age.

I analyze nationally representative data from 70,165 respondents ages 15 and older in the 2008, 2010, and 2012-2016 American Time Use Survey. Linear regression models estimate the association between disability and leisure time, net of self-rated health and sociodemographic controls. Interactions between age and disability are also evaluated, as well as the robustness of results by sensory, cognitive, physical, and multiple disability status.

People with disabilities report significantly more, and poorer quality, leisure than people without disabilities. This includes more than 2 hr more time in passive leisure as well as a disproportionate amount of isolated leisure spent at home, alone. These differences are not fully explained by health and sociodemographic controls. The isolated leisure time of people with disabilities is most different from people without disabilities in later life-whereas differences in total and passive leisure time, by disability status, are greatest in midlife.

People with disabilities spend less time in health-promoting forms of leisure at all ages, but these patterns are unique across midlife and older age.