Young People's Leisure Research Articles

The Impact of Physical Activity Application Product Features on Improving Young People's Leisure Experiences

Objective: Leisure experiences play a significant role in individuals' lives. Accordingly, the current study aimed to determine the impact of physical activity application product features on improving young people's leisure experiences. Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional study was correlational. The research population included all youths in the northern and western areas of Tehran in 2021 who used the physical activity application (Samsung Health) on their mobile phones at least twice a week. The sample consisted of 410 individuals selected through purposive sampling and responded to personal information checklists and researcher-made questionnaires on physical activity application product features and leisure experiences. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in SPSS and SMART-PLS software. Findings: Results showed that physical activity application product features and all three of its components, including perceived dynamism, usefulness features, and pleasure-seeking features, had a direct and significant effect on young people's leisure experiences (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results indicate the effective role of physical activity application product features and all three of its components, including perceived dynamism, usefulness features, and pleasure-seeking features, in improving young people's leisure experiences.

Young trans people's experiences of leisure and mental health: Belonging, creativity, and navigation

There is a lack of research on young trans people's everyday leisure. This article analyses how leisure, defined within a broad spatial context beyond sport and physical activity, is perceived and experienced by trans youth in relation to their mental health and wellbeing. We draw upon theoretical concepts of cisnormativity and spatiality to our analysis of sixteen interviews with young trans people (16-25 years old) in Sweden. Three themes emerged. The first refers to how both queer- and non-queer-specific leisure spaces connect people with similar (and different) experiences regarding queer and trans identities and shows how these identities can shift in importance. The second highlights how creative spaces (e.g., theatre, cosplay) can offer opportunities to carve out a leisured space to explore different gender identity/ies and expressions that are often crucial and life changing. The final theme illustrates how leisure is avoided, postponed, waited for, and reclaimed by trans youth. Excluding mechanisms such as transphobia, cisnormativity, and the lack of access to gender-confirming care can hinder young people's leisure participation. Our analysis illustrates the complex connections between leisure and mental health among young people with trans experiences. Leisure can be a source of discomfort and distress but also of belongingness and affirmation of one's identity. Finding and accessing strengthening leisure spaces demands emotional investment, engagement, and navigation.

REFLECTING THE ROLE OF LEISURE AND LEISURE PREFERENCES OF YOUTH IN MODERN SOCIETY

Relevance: the transformations and integration processes taking place in the modern world are undoubtedly reflected in the leisure preferences of society, in the understanding of leisure itself, in the change in the socio-cultural situation in the sphere of leisure. Leisure for young people is one of the primary values, which gives them the opportunity to develop, realize, satisfy certain needs. Understanding of leisure, its role in the formation of personality and significance in society is a prerequisite for understanding the modern sociocultural situation.
 Purpose and methods of research: to determine the meaningful characteristics of leisure and leisure preferences of young people in modern society. To achieve this goal, we carried out a theoretical analysis of literary sources, which allows us to define leisure as one of the key values of human life, to identify its meaningful elements. The empirical block of work is presented by sociological research, which allows to determine the understanding of “leisure” and leisure preferences of modern youth.
 Results. The results obtained in the course of the study give us the opportunity to conclude that in the modern world there is a certain reassessment of the value of leisure as a philosophical and cultural category in the life of society. Leisure is changing its orientations, transforming from relaxation to the possibility of self-realization and self-development of one’s creative and intellectual potential.
 Scope of the results. The results obtained in the course of the research can be taken into account and applied within the framework of educational work in educational institutions, as well as in cultural institutions for organizing relevant events and festive programs.

'I just drink to feel abnormal for some time': Reconfiguring heavy drinking and intoxication as pleasurable.

The sociocultural norms moderating alcohol consumption in Nigeria were more permissive for men than women in the traditional era. Alcohol use among young people was taboo, and intoxication among men who occupy drinking spaces was punished. In contemporary Nigeria, heavy drinking and the 'culture of intoxication' are reified features of some young people's leisure lives. Drawing on the intersections of pleasure and intoxication, this study explores the interplay between deliberate heavy drinking and the positioning of intoxication experiences as pleasurable. We conducted 53 semi-structured interviews and 3 focus groups (N=26) with 18-24-year-old youths in Benin City, Southern Nigeria. Participants deliberately pursued heavy drinking and intoxication to experience 'altered bodily effects', to know the feelings of intoxication, and to master extreme drinking levels. Other explanations given for 'determined drunkenness' included fun and excitement. Participants sought pleasurable experiences of drinking through repeated deliberate drunkenness or by taking large quantities of spirits. 'Loss of control' experiences were described as fun and exciting, and participants laughed when friends showed them videos of their 'passing out' experiences. Gendered alcohol 'providing' rituals in peer networks that facilitated intoxication and loss of consciousness were used to enact friendships. Providing drinks for friends and consuming large quantities conferred a higher status on the buyer and drinker, respectively. Friendship networks performed double-edged roles by instigating heavy drinking and providing care for inebriated members. The emerging drinking culture in Nigeria suggests that the cultural prohibitionist approach to young people's drinking should be reconsidered. Policymakers should implement public health interventions that promote low-risk drinking practices to mitigate the risks of heavy drinking and intoxication.

Methods of Learning Performance Skills on Hammered Dulcimer Instruments

In this article, the more spiritually mature young people are, the stronger their immunity against various alien vices, so it is important to cover this issue and put it into practice, practical work at the Tashkent State Conservatory and the sources he wrote are clear examples of this and other problems are analyzed. Extensive conditions have been created for them to study and acquire a profession. At the same time, the organization of meaningful and effective leisure of young people is an important and urgent issue. The more spiritually mature young people are, the stronger their immunity to various vices will be, so it is important to cover this issue and put it into practice.

Хоббихорсеры: новые подходы в двигательной активности детей и подростков

Modern additional education and upbringing of children reaches a new level of social needs. In the article, the authors present a new leisure for young people – hobby horsing (jumping on a toy horse), which shows the aesthetics and beauty in the movements of teenagers. The method of conducting a master class on the production of horses for teachers of additional education and the method of opening the movement of horses on the basis of centers of additional education of children is proposed. In the course of scientific and pedagogical research, it was revealed that hobbyhorses perform a type of movement with a certain cycle. Moving movements allow not only to increase the motor activity of a person for a certain period of time, but also to develop coordination of movements. The practical significance of the study is that students of Kuban State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism promote a new sports movement of youth and offer to introduce it in institutions of additional education in various regions of Russia as a socially-oriented project that performs the function of health-saving education. Additional education of children with the participation of students can get a new practice-oriented stage in the development of motor activity and creative cooperation of young people of different ages.

The Role of Libraries in Organizing and Conducting Leisure Activities for Children and Youth in the Stalingrad Region in the Period of 1945 through the early 1950-ies

The article examines the conditions, tasks and main trends of the libraries in the Stalingrad region in the post-war period (1945 — early 1950s). Materials of periodicals and local history publications, as well as reporting materials related to the work of libraries in the specified period serve as a sourse base for the study.In the context of the revival of Stalingrad and the Stalingrad region, the priorities for the state and society were those aimed at restoring the socio-economic potential and the cultural sector. The author emphasizes that, in this development vector, an important aspect of the activities of cultural institutions was organization of leisure activities for children and youth.Libraries of the region were among the first cultural organizations that began to open their doors after the battle of Stalingrad and the end of the Great Patriotic War, so they had to carry out extensive political, mass, cultural and educational work for the population, including children and youth.In the wake of the devastation of the entire socio-cultural sphere and infrastructure of the city and the region, the poor resource base of educational and cultural institutions, it was important to create conditions for adaptation to peaceful circumstances, to counteract child homelessness, to unite the creative forces of young people and to increase their cultural and educational level. Urban and rural libraries, reading rooms and libraries at clubs become actively involved in solving socially significant problems through various forms, methods and means of organizing children’s and youth leisure and recreation.For the first time in a long time, libraries began to organize holidays and recitals, open readings of fiction for schoolchildren, and meetings with visiting and local cultural figures for young people. The important place in the leisure of young people was given to self-education and improving the culture of reading, that emphasized the special importance of the library as a centre of knowledge and a model of preservation of cultural norms.The author concludes that libraries have played a major role in the organization of leisure of children and youth, and their activities served as an important auxiliary resource of party cells and public organizations to restore the entire cultural sector of the city and region.

Back to the future: mapping a historic turn in youth studies

ABSTRACTTraditionally, the study of youth culture has been dominated by contemporary, sociological accounts of young people's leisure pursuits and identity-laden social practices. However, in recent years, it has become evident that there is an emergent scholarly interest in examining youth culture history. While many historians and sociologists situate the birth of youth culture as a post-WWII phenomenon, this essay contends that scholars from varying disciplines are expanding upon this popularly accepted timeline. Moreover, it is argued that there is now a historic turn in youth studies both in content and methodology. By providing an overview of what current youth history scholarship exists, and what methodologies enable such texts, this article advocates for further socio-historical work that foregrounds the longstanding, indelible influence and importance of young people's experiences within the tapestry of everyday cultural life.

Jovens praticantes de skate e seu cotidiano

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8042.2016v28n48p207Nessa pesquisa, focamos os jovens e seu cotidiano, trazendo elementos que discutem o lazer, família, educação e trabalho. Pesquisa realizada com um grupo de jovens skatistas, numa pista pública de skate na cidade de Porto Alegre - RS. Foram ao todo nove meses de observação direta, cada qual relatada em Diários de Campo. Procuramos compreender como o lazer dos jovens que se dava pela prática do skate, se relacionava como outros aspectos de seu cotidiano. Após concluir o trabalho, consideramos que - para se manter na prática do skate - os jovens necessitam conciliar as cobranças de suas famílias, além das rotulações e estereótipos impostas de fora do universo de praticantes desse esporte. Percebemos, ainda, que os jovens passam por tudo isso com o propósito de manter seus “projetos” no skate.

Are young people caught in the time bind? A sociological analysis of how young people in an upper secondary school view the issue of finding time to do sports or exercise in their spare time

New research shows that even young people, who are still undertaking an education, have difficulties with getting school, work, and family and leisure life to form a synthesis. The article reveals that young people's relationship to sport and physical activity in leisure time is related to the young people's experience of time pressure in the everyday life. Based on 12 group interviews with secondary school students (N = 120; taken over four years), the topic of how young people relate to and manage the time pressure between school, work and leisure life is analysed. The analysis establishes a link with the time strategies outlined by Hochschild. The young people's understanding of everyday life and their experiences of the requirements for their involvement in the three spheres of their lives (school, work and leisure time) is creating varied new knowledge on young people's leisure.

The Leisure of Young People in Contemporary Society

This paper examines how the leisure of young people in Western Europe has changed since the 1950s. It considers the effects of the extension of the youth life stage, the shift into a post-industrial era, and the steep increases in leisure spending that have occurred. The paper considers the ways in which youth cul- tures have now become milieu where social relationships and divi- sions are changed rather than reproduced, argues that this is most plausible in relation to gender, for some but not all ethnic divisions, and wholly implausible in relation to social class. It is argued that class differences in childhood leisure socialisation which result in the acquisition of different amounts and types of cultural capital, plus the social relationships formed among social equals, enable class differences to be maintained throughout the youth life stage even though young people on most social class trajectories share much leisure in common.

Propinquity, sociability and excitement: exploring the normalisation of sensible drug use among 15–16-year-olds in north-west England and north-east Wales

This paper explores normalised drug use as an aspect of young people's leisure careers. Qualitative data generated by 24 single-sex focus groups with 153 (85 males; 68 females) 15–16-year-olds attending seven schools in north-west England and north-east Wales revealed that young people's drug use tended to be both heterogeneous and situation specific. Indeed, rather than being actively sought out, 15–16-year-olds’ drug use was often characterised by propinquity – either in terms of place (e.g. parties), relationships (in particular, friends and peers), similarities of outlook and style (e.g. engagement in drug-oriented leisure) and time (in the sense of age cohorts) – and by sociability – especially as a means of enhancing friendships – as well as a search for pleasurable excitement in the company of others. Thus, the paper concludes that the illicit use of drugs by 15–16-year-olds can only be meaningfully understood when viewed in light of these leisure preferences that are among the social processes through which drug use can become normalised in some young people's leisure.

‘What about Us?’ Examining popular music and leisure interrelationships in the post‐industrial city.

This paper centres on the dynamic interrelationship between popular music and leisure, drawing on the concepts of soundscapes (Bennett, 2000), urban mythscapes (Bennett, 2002), and symbolic use (Gilroy, 1993). The paper draws from two local authority (public sector funded) popular music projects supported by Leeds City Council in the north of England, Urban Fusion and Urban Breeze which operated in 2007. Qualitative research data gathered via observations and semi‐structured interviews is used to highlight the significance of popular music as part of young people's leisure; it also demonstrates how individuals negotiate continuing and evolving involvement with popular music as their ‘lifescapes’ develop and change. Discussion developed throughout highlights the need for further theoretical engagement with how leisure and popular music interrelate. Consideration is also given to how urban regeneration strategies that often champion popular cultural/arts forms could benefit from incorporating a ‘leisure lens’ to inform cultural policy initiatives.

Young people's leisure time: Gender differences

Over the last three decades, topics relating to young peoples leisure time have become increasingly more present in academic literature. Among the numerous studies that delve into this subject, results point towards a relationship between the way teenagers spend their leisure time and their gender. In this study we wanted to answer the question if gender differences were evident in the way secondary school students in Serbia spent their leisure time. This problem was not looked into in more detail among secondary school students in Serbia. We conducted a survey on a sample of 922 secondary school teenagers from the 1st to 4th grade (ages 15-19) from nine Serbian towns. Research in this field commonly uses the rating scale. In this paper we have constructed an instrument that represents a methodological innovation in approaching a particular set of problems. It was a questionnaire. The task was to name all the activities they participated in, and the time frame in which the activities took place, over the course of one weekday and the Saturday of the previous week. The activities which best differentiate these two groups of surveyed teenagers are: sports, studying, computer use, spending time at friends' homes and grooming. We did not discover differences in participating in creative activities while foreign studies show that such activities are more typical for girls.

Todo empieza con «E»: Exclusión, etnicidad y formación de élites en el mundo actual de las discotecas inglesas

Early Club Studies emphasised the inclusiveness of club cultures and the PLUR ethos of 'peace, love, unity and respect' alongside a polarised characterisation of nightlife contexts, as either commercial, alcohol-oriented nightclubs offering 'mainstream' pop music, or 'authentic'/'alternative' underground dance clubs associated with widespread illicit drug use. This paper adds to the growing body of research problematising these simplistic characterisations of club cultures and leisure venues across the night-time economy, emphasising elements of fragmentation and segregation alongside the continued importance of social structure and resultant social and spatial exclusion. The authors explore how informal processes - such as club launches, internet promotions and dress codes - together result in the production and reproduction of two contrasting forms of English clubland elites: 'cultural elites' produced through the social, cultural and spatial exclusion of electronic dance music of black origin and its minority ethnic, working class and lower income followers from Manchester city centre dance clubs; and 'consumer elites' produced through the economic and cultural exclusion of working class and lower income club-goers from nightclubs in London's West End. The complex and interweaving practices of cultural distinction and structural discrimination which produce such elites are often closely intertwined with the formal and informal regulation, marginalization and criminalization of specific cultural forms. The paper therefore argues for the construction of more nuanced conceptual understandings of the social divisions and inequalities within nightlife and in studies of young people's leisure opportunities more generally.

Preferences for active recreation and perceived constraints to regular active recreation participation: A cross‐cultural study of Hong Kong and Australian university students

The present study adopted the trans‐theoretical model of behavioural change (Prochasksa & DiClemente, 1984) as a conceptual framework to compare the extent of active recreation participation, preferences for active recreation, and the perception of constraints to participation in regular active recreation of university students in Hong Kong and Australia. A total of 1,336 Hong Kong and 1,282 Australian university students completed self‐administered questionnaires. Findings of the study indicated that Hong Kong students were generally less active, and had lower intention to become more active, lower preferences for active recreation, and higher levels of interpersonal constraints, physiological constraints, and competence constraints but had lower levels of financial constraints than the Australian students. For both cultural groups, enduring participants had a higher preference for active recreation, lower preference for time‐consuming sedentary leisure, and perceived lower levels of constraints to active recreation participation than the transitional participants and non‐participants. The transitional participants generally had a broad interest in a range of leisure pursuit whereas the non‐participants were characterized by low interest in and preference for active recreation rather than a broad leisure interest. The study suggests that social and cultural environments were important factors that influence young people's leisure interest and active recreation participation.

‘Hanging out in Runescape’: Identity, Work and Leisure in the Virtual Playground

This article explores young people's practices in the virtual spaces of online gaming communities. Based on a three-year field-study of virtual worlds, it considers how young people construct and maintain identities within virtual social systems. The article discusses the relationship between the material and virtual aspects of young people's leisure. It suggests that the boundaries between these domains are porous. Virtual worlds offer spaces for the imagination and can enhance agency and, potentially, resistance. However, virtuality is no ‘liberated space’ and it incorporates norms and practices that often mirror those of the material world.

‘You can't wrap them up in cotton wool!’ Constructing risk in young people's access to outdoor play

Policy approaches towards risk in relation to young people's leisure activities are characterized by uncertainty. While some organizations have sought to emphasize the need to reduce or even eliminate the risk of ‘unintentional injuries’ in outdoor play, others highlight the dangers in excessively restricting young people's access to the outside world. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with families in the South Wales area, this paper argues that while parents are not in the grips of ‘paranoia’ (Furedi 2001) they are wrestling with competing sets of social expectations, as well as their own rational and emotive judgements. Young people tended to respond to their parents' concerns by demonstrating their street-wisdom, claiming sanctuary behind the notion of ‘accident’ and asserting their moral right to access the outside world.

Young People's Leisure Contexts and their Relation to Adult Outcomes

Leisure activity plays a significant role in identity formation during the teens, both reinforcing previous developmental trends and shaping new ones. The context for leisure activity—youth club, church club, sports club, and so on—is important in signifying the probable social mix and interactions of the young people participating. This paper summarises findings from exploratory research using age-16 data from the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study (BCS70) to investigate the relation of age-16 leisure contexts to later adult outcomes, taking account of the family background and individual characteristics that predict participation in these contexts. Using logistic regression modelling, a range of binary outcome variables indicating experience of social exclusion at age 30 were regressed on variables measuring frequency of participation in different types of leisure activity, holding constant prior family circumstances and developmental characteristics. The analysis demonstrated the attraction of youth clubs, compared with other out-of-school activities, for young people with disadvantaged backgrounds and poor school achievement. Over and above these latter factors, youth club participation, compared with other forms of activity, was associated with increased probability of social exclusion outcomes, up to the age of 30, including lack of qualifications, unemployment, smoking, drinking, and crime. Other settings such as sports clubs and church clubs showed no associations of this kind or associations in the opposite direction. It was concluded that youth clubs are important settings for positive influence and inhibiting social exclusion processes, but more development of the provision in more structured directions is needed.

In Defence of Subculture: Young People, Leisure and Social Divisions

This paper represents a further contribution to recent debates in the Journal of Youth Studies about subculture theory and ‘post-subcultural studies’. Specifically, we argue that the particularised focus of the latter on youth culture in relation to music, dance and style negates a fuller, more accurate exploration of the cultural identities and experiences of the majority of young people. Celebratory and broadly postmodern theories have been utilised as a means for understanding the ‘scenes’, ‘neo-tribes’ and ‘lifestyles’ that ‘post-subcultural studies’ describe. Such studies tend to pay little attention to the importance, or otherwise, of social divisions and inequalities in contemporary youth culture. Almost unanimously, post-subcultural studies reject the previously pivotal significance of class-based subcultures, as theorised by the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at Birmingham, in their attempts to explain new forms of youth cultural identity. We argue that this critique of subculture is premised on a partial interpretation of the theoretical objectives of CCCS and that, in fact, some of the theoretical and methodological propositions of the latter remain relevant. This argument is supported by a brief review of some other, very recent youth research that demonstrates the continuing role of social divisions in the making and shaping of young people's leisure lives and youth cultural identities and practises. In conclusion, we suggest that the ambition of the CCCS to understand not only the relationship between culture and social structure, but also the ways in which individual youth biographies evolve out of this relationship, remains a valuable one for the sociology of youth.