Relationships between yoga and purpose in life among women: testing a moderated mediation model

Although yoga may connect to experiences of flow, activity attachment, and purpose in life, it is not clear how flow and activity attachment relate to purpose in life among women with different levels of education. To address this question, we examined a sample of 335 women who completed in-person surveys measuring their education level, flow, activity attachment, and purpose in life. Because structural equation modelling is useful when examining relationships between variables used to develop a model, we implemented this method to analyse data. Results indicated that flow correlated positively with activity attachment and that activity attachment correlated positively with purpose in life. In addition, activity attachment fully mediated the correlation between flow and purpose in life, whereas education level moderated the correlation between flow and activity attachment. We discuss implications of these results in terms of fostering purpose in life by supporting women, particularly those who do not have high levels of education, to achieve a balance between their skills and activity challenges to facilitate flow and activity attachment.