More than just a game: Informal learning benefits and multidimensional wellbeing in game‑based leisure among older adults in Taiwan

Later-life learning increasingly takes place in everyday community settings as well as in formal programs. This article conceptualizes low-stakes, community-based game activities as an informal learning context for older adults and examines how multidimensional perceived benefits relate to subjective wellbeing in Taiwan. Survey data from 314 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 and above who regularly engaged in mahjong, board and card games or small-amount public lottery play were analyzed with a multivariate path model linking physiological, psychological and social leisure benefits to four wellbeing facets: life satisfaction, interpersonal relationships, physical and mental health and self-actualization. Psychological benefits carried the largest coefficient for life satisfaction (β = .411), although this coefficient was not statistically distinguishable from that of social benefits. Social benefits carried the largest coefficients for interpersonal relationships (β = .500), physical and mental health (β = .364) and self-actualization (β = .325); Wald tests separated social from psychological benefits only for interpersonal relationships. Physiological benefits contributed uniquely only to physical and mental health (β = .204), reflecting their overlap with psychological benefits (r = .80). The findings show how game-based leisure operates as a multidimensional informal learning environment and inform later-life learning policy in super-aged societies such as Taiwan.