An Examination of University Students’ Attitudes Towards Leisure Activities

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the university students’ attitudes towards leisure activities and to compare the participants' attitudes levels according to different variables. In total, 261 (nfemale=147; age=21.20±2.21, nmale=114; age=22.31±2.80) university students that study in different universities in the Central Anatolia participated in the study. “Leisure Attitudes Scale” (LAS) developed by Ragheb and Beard (1982) and adapted to Turkish by Akgül and Gürbüz (2010) was used in the study. The attitudes of the participants towards the leisure time activities are evaluated by the Likert type scale over 5. LAS is made up of 36 articles and 3 sub-dimensions such as cognitive (12), affective (12), and behavioral (12). In order to determine whether the attitude scores of the participants vary depending on the independent variables, t-test and MANOVA were used for independent groups in the analysis of the data. In the light of the findings of the study significant differences were detected in the attitude scores of the participants according to their sex and ages (p<.05).  The scores of attitudes of the women and the participants between ages 18-22 are more on the positive side towards the leisure activities compared to the rest of the participants. Moreover, according to the results of the analysis, the attitudes of the individuals who take part in the physical activities are more positive than the one who do not. Overall, highest attitude scores of the participants towards leisure activities are on the cognitive aspect.

Keywords

• Leisure, attitude, university students

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