Farnoosh Tehrani Adib - Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
Zinate Nikaeen - Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Islamic Azad University, central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
Ali Zarei - Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Islamic Azad University, central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran

Background: Paying attention to sports psychology and positive emotions such as happiness is a vital issue. Investigating the effects of leisure time on the ballet athlete happiness is the subject of the present study. Materials and methods: The statistical population of the present study consists of 700 female ballet athletes who are exercising in ballet clubs at 3, 7 and 12 districts of Tehran of whom 120 people were randomly selected as an adequate sample size. The research method is descriptive-correlative. Moreover, this study uses a researcher-made questionnaire used by Ershadi in 2011 with a Cronbach alpha of 0.93 which includes 30 items with 6 subscales assessing leisure satisfaction, cultural influences, the role of the university in leisure time, academic achievement, health and leisure time. Furthermore, Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) with a Cronbach alpha of 0.90 has been standardized by Hadinejad (2010) and includes 29 items with Self-esteem, satisfaction, subjective well-being and positive mood subscales. Results and Discussions: The results indicate that there is a significant correlation between leisure and its components and happiness and its components in ballet athletes. Besides, there is a significant correlation between leisure time and happiness in ballet athletes. There is also significant multiple correlations between leisure time and happiness in ballet athletes. In addition, parts of the ballet athletes happiness levels was directly explained by active leisure time, academic achievement, health and leisure satisfaction with an error rate of 0.083. Conclusion: Life satisfaction and happy leisure time alongside our rich and invaluable Islamic society with its proper socio-cultural norms and standards of good morals will bring youths to happiness and perfection. It is recommended to replace happiness with another variable and investigation its relationship with leisure time via a sport-oriented approach. In future research, other assessment tools can be used on the study of leisure.

Leisure time, Happiness,Ballet athletes