Digital Leisure Orientation, Flow Experience, and Satisfaction with Digital Leisure Among Earthquake-Affected Adults in Hatay, Türkiye

Background: This study examined the associations among digital leisure orientation, flow experienced during digital leisure, and satisfaction with digital leisure, including the statistical indirect association through flow, among adults who experienced the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Hatay, Türkiye, about three years after the 6 February 2023 earthquakes (n = 402 adults aged 18–65 years). Digital leisure orientation, flow, and satisfaction with digital leisure were measured with self-report scales. Indirect effects were estimated with PROCESS Model 4 and with latent variable models including an unmeasured latent method construct (ULMC). Results: Digital leisure orientation was associated with flow (β = 0.733), and flow with satisfaction (β = 0.796). The indirect effect was significant in the observed-variable analyses (standardized = 0.583, 95% CI [0.520, 0.647]), also after adjustment for age and sex. Flow and satisfaction overlapped strongly (HTMT = 0.917). When the ULMC was modeled, the indirect effect was no longer significant. Conclusions: Among earthquake-affected adults, digital leisure orientation was positively associated with flow and with satisfaction in digital leisure. Given the strong measurement overlap between flow and satisfaction (HTMT = 0.917) and the sensitivity of the indirect effect to common method variance, the observed statistical indirect effect may largely reflect a shared, general positive evaluation of digital leisure rather than an independent psychological mechanism.