Comparison of the influence of participation in screen golf on self-esteem, loneliness, depression, social isolation, and life satisfaction between people with and without disabilities in Republic of Korea

Screen golf is a product of the combination of modern technology and leisure. This new form of sport can provide people with disabilities opportunities for positive life experiences through sport participation. This study aimed to investigate differences in the effect of screen golf participation on psychosocial factors (self-esteem, isolation, depression, loneliness, and life satisfaction) in people with and without disabilities. With 293 survey respondents in this study, the Multivariate Analysis of Variances (MANOVA) was performed twice to measure differences between groups after ensuring the validity and reliability of the instrument. Participation in screen golf demonstrated a positive effect for all factors for people with disabilities. Results also showed a more positive effect on self-esteem and life satisfaction for people without disabilities with screen golf experience than for those without any screen golf experience. This study demonstrated that screen golf, as a physical leisure activity, was helpful to all study participants, with greater positive effects observed for participants with disabilities. This finding suggests that ubiquitous leisure activities such as screen golf made possible by advancements in modern technologies offer desirable benefits to many. This study is highly meaningful since it demonstrated how technologies could be helpful to people with disabilities who historically have has less access to leisure activities than able-bodied people.