Organization Of Leisure Time Research Articles

Health Concerns In Households

In a group of 330 participants from 147 different households, we examined the hypothesis that the importance of health concerns differs according to the kind of household task at hand and according to the position one takes in the household organization. Results show (1) that health concerns are generally more important than concern for other values; (2) that the importance of health concerns varies largely from one household task to another. Health is considered especially important in body care, nutrition and the organization of leisure time, but much less important in the domains of social contact, clothing and maintenance; (3) that the perceived importance of health differs according to the position one takes within the household, health being most important for household members with intermediate levels of responsibility. Results are interpreted as supporting the idea that health behaviour is partly regulated at a 'supra-individual' level of control.

A partial portrait

Just what does the student family represent? What are its typical features and moral character? On what principles are marriage relationships structured in student families? In order to answer these and other questions, we will attempt at least a schematic description, a "portrait" of the student family. But to do so we need to examine their most important social-demographic characteristics: their social origin, place of birth, national affiliation, age, relationships with parents, leadership in the family, and the allocation of the family budget. Finally, it will be necessary to make an assessment of the living conditions of the young family (housing, family budget, organization of leisure time).

Vacations for All: The Leisure Question in the Era of the Popular Front

One of the ironies of the 1930s was the democratization of the summer vacation in Europe. While neither the forty-hour week nor other proposals for economic security were successful, holiday-with-pay won nearly universal acceptance. The vacation was not merely mass escapism as Europe prepared for war; rather the paid holiday was a deeply felt social need which, after the war, became one of the most valued entitlements in Europe. The mass vacation appealed to both the cultural Right and the Left. The holiday-with-pay reflected a consensus that modern work required compensatory leisure in the form of extended periods of time to 'recover' lost values of family and community. Both the fascist dopo lavoro and the nazi Kraft durch Freude shared with the French Popular Front a common functional language of leisure: patriotism would emerge from touring historical sites and meeting fellow countrymen in different regions and walks of life; popular sports and the return to nature would renew national energies; vacations would give 'dignity' and 'joy' to the worker. Is this consensus a reflection of 'deep structures' which transcend politics? In one sense such a view is surely wrong. The political contest was still the animating factor in leisure policy; agreement was primarily over recognition of the growing cultural centrality of leisure as the terrain for the struggle over control of popular opinion. Especially after the first world war, when the eight-hour working-day became nearly universal, elites of both the Left and Right realized the potential political significance of organizing leisure time. For the French Popular Front, the holiday movement was an attempt (perhaps belatedly) to create an alternative to bourgeois or fascist control of leisure.

Stress in Relation to Satisfaction with Leisure Experienced by Those Performing in Therapeutic Recreation

Productive and satisfying use of recreation and leisure time has been identified as a potential coping strategy in reducing stress. The purpose of this study was to determine whether professional persons providing therapeutic recreation (organized leisure time activities for disabled persons) actually experience higher than normal stress and to estimate the association between stress and satisfaction with leisure. In this study 22 men and 64 women employed to provide therapeutic recreation services, were given the Personal Strain Questionnaire portion of the Occupational Stress Inventory (2). Scores were compared with scores of 909 persons fmm 130 different occupations (48.8% men, 51.2% women, mean age=44.5 yr.; mean tenure in current job = 6.5 yr.) which were obtained by Osipow and Spokane (2). The satisfaction of recreation therapists with their own leisure was measured on Beard and Ragheb's Leisure Satisfaction Scale (1). The association between satisfaction with leisure and perceived stress was estimated. Recreation therapists did not differ significantly from the normative population on any of the measures of vocational, psychological, interpersonal, or physical strain. On each scale the subjects' mean strain scores (vocational = 16.74, psychological = 18.95, interpersonal = 18.56, physical = 18.59) were well within one standard deviation of the mean for the normative population (2). Scores on the Leisure Satisfaction Scale ranged from 36 to 120, with a mean of 95.42 (n = 85, SD = 14.03). Correlations significantly different from zero were noted between scores on satisfaction with leisure and stress (n =85, p = .05), between Ieisure satisfaction and psychological strain ( - .3O), interpersonal strain ( - .24), and physical strain ( - ,391. A negative correlation between satisfaction with leisure and the total score on the Personal Strain Questionnaire was also noted (r = - .37). There was no evidence that persons employed in conducting therapeutic recreation for others experienced higher occupational stress than did individuals in other professions, based upon comparisons with the normative data. There is a small association between satisfaction with own leisure and level of stress; persons in this study having higher satisfaction with their leisure experienced lower stress.

Anxiety and depression in an urban population: results of the Mannheim Cohort Study

SummaryThe Mannheim Cohort Study, from which the results to be displayed below are taken, is an epidemiologic field survey on the prevalence of psychogenic disorders, i.e. the psychoneurotic, psychosomatic, and personality disorders listed as ICD items 300-306 in the 8th revision of the WHO. A representative sample of 600 randomly selected citizens from the city of Mannheim were examined twice from 1979-1985 by means of comprehensive sociological instruments in a semi-standardized psychoanalytical interview.Instead of a wide birth range, we decided to investigate age classes, and each time took a 200-person sample from the records of the municipal registration office for individuals (both sexes) born in 1935, 1945 and 1955. The aim of this research strategy was to determine the possible influence of various historical and social conditions of development on the pathogenesis of psychogenic disorders.The qualified interviewers involved in the project went to see the individuals at home. The examination, a biographical investigation which lasted for at least 3 hr, took the form of a semi-standardized structured interview as in dynamic psychotherapy. Thus, a quantity of findings concerning present and past morbidity, development, stress in infancy, aspects of present occupational and family life, and the organization of leisure time interspersed with sociological, psychological and psychoanalytical questions were included. A number of questionnaires (list of complaints, critical life events, personality inventories, measures of attitudes) were also inserted.The criteria to be met for assessment as a “case” (sick person) were:1,the temporal criterion of point prevalence, referring to the 7 days prior to examination;2,the qualitative criterion of assessing an ICD diagnosis (Nos 300-306; 8th revision;3,the quantitative criterion: grading the psychogenic impairment (Impairment Score = IS).Five points plus had to be scored, or over 20 points according to the Goldberg-Cooper Interview.The IS was designed as a conceptual complex rating in order to determine primarily psychogenic (non-organic) impairment on a somatic, psychic, and communication-related dimension. The individual's impairment is graded between 0-4 on each dimension, so that 3 single ratings add up to a maximum score of 12.According to this definition, 156 out of 600 individuals examined were assessed as cases in the first survey. This means a point prevalence of 26%.

Certain Problems in the Development of Methods for Investigating Education in the Family Setting

As a social, biological, and historical phenomenon, the family reflects in miniature the picture of the contrasts and contradictions through which society advances (K. Marx and F. Engels, Works [Sochineniia], Vol. 21, p. 70). As a result, the family is the object of study by a number of disciplines: philosophy, ethnography, sociology, political economy, psychology, medicine, and pedagogy. As a social cell, the modern Soviet family has certain functions: biological functions (reproduction and maintenance of offspring); economic functions (including consumption and everyday household activity, organization of leisure time, and attainment of the necessary conditions for rearing and maintaining offspring); the development and socialization of the individual; and the transfer of culture from one generation to another. The satisfaction of vitally important (spiritual and emotional) requirements is neither more nor less than the educational function of the family. Since the economic function of the family will...

Skummer kirken fløten? Ungdom i kirkelige ungdomsmiljø

Skimming the Cream? About Youth Involved in Church Youth work In 2012, the authors conducted a survey amongst appr. 1200 Norwegian young people in the post-confirmation age of 15-16 years. A series of 23 semi-clinical interviews of adolescents in the same age group preceded the survey, both including youth participating in church youth activities after confirmation, as well as confirmed youth without further church involvement. The study aims to find out and explain who the adolescents taking part in Church activities are and what motivates them. Do they have a Christian orientation and a Christian identity, and if so, what do those look like? It is evident that religious orientation and practice is somewhat more pronounced amongst participants than their non-participating counterparts, but not very different. The impotance of religious background and experience with church child work as predictors for church involvement in adolescence is confirmed. On average, church youth expose a stronger involvement in organized leisure time activities and general volunteering than their counterparts without church involvement, and they do slightly better at school. The data provide evidence that relational aspects of confirmation and youth work experience play a crucial role for further church involvement. Adolescent religiousness hasa relational nature, too. In contrast to an image of inclusivity and diaconal focus in Church youth work, our findings describe church-youth work as the playground for the better adjusted and more resourceful amongst adolescents. In the light of the positive effects of a large peer and adult network for adolescent development, the findings support a claim by King & Furrow that church involvement and religiousness relate to higher social integration amongst adolescents.