Leisure activities of middle‐school pupils of St Helena before and after the introduction of television

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a survey of the leisure activities of the middle‐school pupils of St Helena (an island of 5644 inhabitants, isolated in the mid‐South Atlantic) before and after the introduction of broadcast television. Previous studies had shown that these children exhibited very low levels of in‐school ‘problem’ behaviour. It was considered that a variety of factors might account for this, amongst which the absence of television on the island was thought likely to be significant. A diary survey was undertaken in 1994, before television was introduced, in 1995, when there was limited reception, and in 1997 when full satellite coverage was available. The children of St Helena seem to have taken to watching television enthusiastically, but not for the great majority to the extent where their lives have become dominated by it, even in the early days after its inception when interest might be expected to be at its height. They continue to engage in a wide range of out‐of‐home and in‐home activities, with no great shift from one to the other to cope with their viewing time. Overall, 9‐ to 12‐year‐olds in 1997 spent somewhat less time in ‘unorganized outdoor play’, ‘sleeping’, ‘eating’, ‘unorganized indoor play’ and ‘walking’ (together falling by 9.68 per cent of the total time‐slots) than their equivalents in 1994, but they also spent a total of 4.12 per cent more of their time‐slots engaged in ‘active participation in sports’, ‘reading books' ‘indoor hobbies’, ‘swimming’ and ‘Sunday school/church/Kingdom Hall’. The ‘losers’ seem to have been some activities which involve little prior organization, or which, like sleeping and eating, already take up large amounts of time where losing a little makes small difference, and ‘watching video’ (which lost 5.38 per cent of the total time indicated), a close equivalent which preceded broadcast television.