24 KINESIOLOGIASLOVENICA3 (1997)1: 24-29 POSITION OF SPORI IN LEISURE-TIME ACTIVITIES OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC Irena Slepičkova • MESTO ŠPORTA V PROSTOČASNIH DEJAVNOSTIH MLADINE V ČEŠKI REPUBLIKI Abstract The main purpose was to highlightthe presentstruc- ture of leisure tirne of 16 to 17 year-old youth, main- ly the position of sport and exercise in their leisure- time activities. More than 500 secondary school stu- dents and apprentices answered our questionnaire. We were interested in their hobbies, their participa- t ion in organ ized and non-organized sports and physical activities. We examined wh ich leisure tirne and sports activities dominate and are preferred in this age group. Attention was paid to the respon- dents' opinion on sport and physical activities as parts of the ir life. 1 n this respect, gender differences were also analysed. Keywords: leisure tirne, youth, sport, gender, Czech Republic • Department of the Fundamentals of Kinanthropology of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, Prague IZVLEČEK Glavni namen dela je bil osvetliti trenutno strukturo prostega časa mladine med 16. in 17. letom sta rosti, predvsem mesto športa in telesnih aktivnosti v nji- hovih prostočasnih dejavnostih. Vprašalnik je izpol- nilo več .kot 500 srednješolcev in vajencev. Vprašan- ja so se nanašala na njihove hobije ter udeležbo v or- ganiziran ih in neorganiziranih športih in drugih telesnih aktivnostih. Ugotavljali smo katere pros- točasne in športne aktivnosti prevladujejo, oziroma so najbolj zaželjene v tej starostni skupini. Zanimala so nas tudi mnenja respondentovo športu in telesnih aktivnostih, kot integralnem delu njihovega življen- ja. tu smo anal izirali tudi razlike med spoloma. Kjjučne besede: čas, mladina,šport, spol, Republika Ceška Irena Slepičkova POSITION OF SPORT IN LEISURE-TIMEACTIVITIES OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC 25 INTRODUCTION In the period of adolescence, the biological devel- opment completes, the va lue system and life style shape. This is important not only for this age butal- so for the future life of the individual. Variety of in- terests and sufficient exercise are essential for a healthy li fe style. In consequence this wi ll reflect in the overall state of health of the population. As vari- ous studies show (11 , 3), in this period of life there are severa l important sources of exercise - sport, non-competitive exercise (e.g., dancing, keep-fitac- t ivit ies). Sport and exercise bring about a speli of rest and en- tertainmentand they are a source of new knowledge and skills. They allow being a member of a group which is a feature of team sports. Spending leisure tirne in a group is very attractive far young people even if in the form individual sports or exercises. In such a group, a young person learns to co-operate, respect each other and many other social skills. Sports and exercise develop various motor skills and abilities which apply not only in these activities but also in everyday life. The fact that a person is able to do a certain activity makes it easier for him to get in- volved in active sport activities and exercise in adult- hood (2). These skills do not reflect themselves only in sports and physical training part of life. Mastering these skil ls improves self esteem and increases self confidence (1 ). Skills received from sport activities have a positive impact on fulfilling labor conscrip- tions (6) because those who take active part in sports have a lower accident and illness-related absence rate. Th is is the reason why we paid interest to t he way young people spend their free tirne and what is the role of sports and exercises in their leisure tirne. OBJECTIVES OF THE SURVEY Since more and more young people prefer passive spending of leisure t irne which brings about insuffi- cient exercise, the objectives of this survey are a sci- enti fic verification of this situation on selected groups of young people . We surveyed the leisure tirne structure of activities of young people and the place of sports and exercise in their leisure tirne. We paid special interest to which activities young people prefer, which kinds of activities are attractive to young people and what keeps them from deeper involvement in leisure tirne activities. METHODS Here presented data create one part of our larger survey w hich examined sports and leisure tirne asa prevent ion of drug use/abuse (1 O). In compl iance with the purposes of our survey, we useda method of questionnaire investigation. In th is field a universal methodology does notexist in ou r country because authors consider problems of leisure tirne spending, sports and exercises from the perspect ive of their own fields of interest and tasks of studies. We can see the similar situation in other countries. The problem of missing general method- ology in this area gives very small possibility to use and compare results of various researches. In this sit- uation, we constructed a questionnaire especially suitable for our purposes. But many items were the same or based on studies with a similar topic (5, 7, 8, 9, 12). Respondents chose one option, in some cas- es even three offered opt ions (closed questions), or fi lled in the required information. Some questions were in a form of a gam ut. Extent of involvement in individual activities was evaluated by frequency o f occurence. Two statistic characteristics were used to describe leisure tirne spending of the study sample: percents and chi-square test. Asa cri teria for find ing differences between groups being observed we chose gender and regular participation in sports and exercises within the framework of organ ized forms. Obtained data were processed w ith the help of the EPI INFO. This statistic PC programme developed and freely given by World Health Organisation is suitable for epidemiological tasks. DATAGATHERINGAND ENSEMBLING In the fall of 1994, the questionnaires were dis- tri buted to third years of j unior and techn ical high schools in Prague and other large cities in central and north regions of Bohemia who were interested in co- operating. We have used members of the research team and also the help of teachers who received in- structions and a brief description on how to fill in the questionnaires. There were 540 students ques- t ioned, 275 females and 265 males. There were 43.3% of students of high schools, 28.7% were tech- nical high school students and the rest (28%) were vocational school students. 26 Irena Slepičkova POSITION OF SPORT IN LEISURE-TIME ACTIVITIES OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC RESULTS ANO DISCUSSION Leisure tirne activities Table 1 shows the share of individual interest activi- ties in leisure tirne spending of the observed group. Dividing the leisure tirne activities into groups results from studies focusing on this topic (5, 9, 12). According to the frequency of individual activities we considered the extent of interest in them and their place in leisure t irne structu re. It is obvious that respondents spend most of thei r leisure tirne watching television and listeningto radio etc. However, we should also consider the fact that young people often use recorded music asa back- ground for other activities. The data corresponds with information received from Teply's similar study (12) and with information presented on the adult population (e .g. 13). The third most frequent activi- ty is reading books and magazines. Another leisure tirne activity which takes an impor- tant place in lives of observed individuals is contact and spending tirne with friends and peers. Almost 40% of respondents spend their tirne in a group w ith their peers or friends more than three times a week. This confirms that people of this age have a tenden- cy to be a part of some group. Getting involved in creative and artistic activities falls far behind the above-stated activities. In this group, interest in music (playingan instrument, singing) has the largest representation (31.9%). Approximatly 30% of questioned individuals showed a positive ap- proach towards nature because they are animal lovers, they are interested in conservationism, etc. About a quarter of respondents are interested in art and manual activities such as painting, crafts, mod- ell ing. Only a small number of respondents shows serious interest in it (i.e. more than 3 times per week). We have also observed whether boys and girls have a different way of spending tirne. We have found great differences in reading books and magazines, going to movies, music related activities, interest in nature and computer science. We found that 10% more girls than boys include reading into their leisure tirne and among girls there are also less girls who do not read at all (Chi-square= 19,5 5). A similar situa- tion occurs in nature- related hobbies where 10% more girls include these into their weekly pro- gramme and 10% more boys do not include this in their programme atal l (Chi-square=9,74) . As far as music-re lated activities are concerned, there is a much bigger group of boys (52 .8%) than girls (36.2%) who do notshowany interestatall (Chi- square= 30,61 ). By contrast, boys prefer more go to the movies (Chi-square= 14,63). They go there weekly more frequently (18% versus 8.1 %). We have found a very striking difference in an activity which is fairly new in the structure of young population's leisure tirne - working with a computer or playing computer games (or slot machines). Here we find that boys show higher intensity of interest than girls (Ch i-square=77,60). There are 31.8% boys versus 9.4% girls who include this activity into their weekly programme. There are also more girls (65.7%) than Table 1: Leisure tirne activities (excl. exercise and sportactivities) interest frequencv of occurence (%) more than 1-2x weekly at least less than never 3x a week aweek 1xa moth 1xa month watchingTV 77.2 20.7 97.9 1.3 0.6 0 .2 listeningto radio, tapes 82.1 13.8 95.9 1.5 1.0 1.6 reading 50.1 35.7 85.8 8.7 2.1 3.4 peers 36.8 39.0 75.8 8.7 7.0 8.5 music (si nging, playi ng,e. i.) 16.5 15.4 31 .9 9.9 13.8 44.4 nature 16.8 13.6 30.3 10.4 17.3 42.0 artistic and manual activ. 7.1 16.5 23.6 16.3 21.6 38.5 computers, computer game: 7.6 13.1 20.7 10.9 19.7 48.7 movies, theatre 2.6 10.1 12.7 38.5 40.4 8.4 Irena Slepičkova POSITION OF SPORT IN LEISURE-TIME ACTIVITIES OFYOUNG PEOPLE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC 27 Table 2: Obstacles for involvement in interest activities and sports and exercises what makes greater involvement aifficult leisure tirne activities first three places boys noth ing 21.4 1 am sufficiently involved 14.2 lack oftime 49.8 1 do not know where the activity is o rganized 6.5 the course is full 0.7 1 do not have friends to do this activity with 6.9 there is no place in my home or close to it 10.5 lack of money 30.5 health problems - boys (3 2 .1 %) who do not work or play w ith com- puters in t heir leisure t irne. We did not consider whether it was working or playing with a computer. Respondents were asked which other activity they would like to do in their leisure t irne or which activ- ity they would like to do more frequently. Obtained answers show w ishes of young people and the mea- sure of their sat isfaction w ith the leisure tirne con- tents. About 70% ofthe examined boys and 87% of the girls answered this question. Most of the respon- dents would like to spend thei r leisu re tirne doing sports, exercises and dancing (more than 30%, same w ith girls and boys). Almost 20% of the girls, but on- ly about 10% of the boys would like to include more creative and artistic activit ies, like playing a musical instrument, drawing, acting, taking photographs, etc. These are followed by culturally perceptiona l hobbies like reading, going to theatres and exhibi- Tables 3: Participation in sports and physical education fo rm of sport more than 1-2x or exercise 3x a week aweek school- obligatory 10.8 85 .2 school club 1.6 7.2 competitive 20.0 6.1 sport in clubs non-competitive 7.6 9.1 sport in clubs spontaneous 23 .4 39.0 o/o of respondents sports and exercise activities girls boys girls 14.2 28.7 20.0 6.7 16.0 17.7 66.4 47.2 52.8 6.8 2.2 6.4 1.8 3.6 9.8 7.1 3.6 11.3 10.9 9.5 10.5 20.0 17.8 14.4 - 2.1 8.9 tions. Some would like to get further education, study languages. This has been stated especially by girls (about 6%). The biggest obstacle to interest activities is, accord- i ng to the respondents' answers, unequivocally a lack of free t irne. This is the main problem for 40% of the respondents. To show the potential obstacles we present their frequency on the first three places of the relevance scale. As far as activit ies that they would like to spend their t irne on are concerned, there is an interesting factthat boys usually th ink that their structure of leisure tirne is adequante and they see less obstacles to be involved than girl s. About 30% of the boys and 20% of the gi rls have men- tioned financial problems. These concern one half of respondents who consider thei r family as very pooror poor. This question was answered by 95% of the boys and girls. frequency of activity (o/o) weekly less than never 1x a week 96.0 0.8 3.2 8.8 8 .9 82.3 26.1 3.6 70.3 16.7 7.5 75.8 62.4 24.6 13.0 28 Irena Slepičkova POSITION OF SPORT IN LEISURE-TIMEACTIVITIES OFYOUNG PEOPLE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC Sports and exercises Close analysis of gathered data and Table 3 show how involved respondents get in sports and exercis- es, including exercise activities like dancing. Spontaneous activities get the b iggest share. However, only about one quarter of the respondents state that they are involved in three or more times a week. We can understand this frequency asa sign of a very intensive participation in sports and exercis- es. Of course, there is a question whether respon- dents were not exaggerating these facts. Only a little more than a fifth of the respondents do organized sports and exercises very intensively be- cause they go to sport clubs three and more times a week. There is one half of boys and 41 % girls who use the opportunity of organized sport and exercise activities on a regular basis, i.e. at leastonce a week. Boys prefer competitive sports because 31 % of them are organized there, and only 21 % of the girls. Girls mostly attend non-competitive sports and exercises. Altogetherthere are 47% of the boys and 46% of the girls who attend organized forms of sports and exer- cises. As an organized form of sport we also under- stand participation in school sport clubs. Their share of participation of the observed group is small. Nowadays, i.e. in the 1994, the situation is worse in comparison w ith the situation ten years ago. Less than 10% of the 16-17 year-old youth are involved there. The table 3 shows the share of the students' involvement in the obligatory physical education, even though the leisure sports activities are analysed in this study. The reason isto give a complete view of the organized sports forms. The analysis of ali these forms brings a notable warning fact. O utside obligatory school physical education there are 24% of the boys and 1 8% of the girls who do not do sports or exercises, spontaneous or organized, ona regular basis, i.e. at least once a week. Examin ing prefered kinds of sports and exercises we find some differences between boys and girls (re- spondents could state three sports that they like best). Similar findings appear in other works, too (3). Boys definitely like team bali games the most. For 25.4% of the boys, soccer was the most popular sport among the three which they stated. Basketball fol lows with 17.1 % and ice hockey is the thi rd (16.1 %) . These are followed by individual sports and sports depending on weather - cycl ing (15.3%), ski- ing and snowboarding (14.4%), tenn is (13 .0%). Volleyball (12%) took the last position before really individual sports like body building and working out (11.6%), swimming (9.0%) and martial arts like karate, judo, aikido, etc. (9,0%). Almost 8% of the boys did not state any sport or exercise. Girls are more interested in activities related to body and moti on cultivation. Girls prefer swimming (29%) and physical condition oriented exercises with mu- sic (aerobics, calanetics - 24%). The most popular team sport is volleyball (25.8%) in the second place and basketball is the fourth (17.3%). These games are most often taught in high schools. These are fol- lowed by mostly individual sports and activities- ski - ing (17.3%), dancing (16.6%). Cycling is getting pop- ular (13.5%). Running is also slightly more popular with girls. Girls (especially from agricultural schools) showed interest in horse-racing (10.2%). Above mentioned boys' and girls' differences are usual and often named (e. g. 4). It is obvious that boys show greater interest in team sports, competi- tive activities and excitement. Girls like more keep- fit activities especially with their positive influence on body image. The presented differences in sport and exercise ac- tivity preferences between boys and girls are proba- bly connected w ith their passive interest in sports. Almost twice as many boys than girls watch sport commentary ona regular basis or often. They also read sport press, which is in these days main ly fo- cused on informat ion about top competitions and sportsmen, especially about team sport competi- tions. On the contrary, there are twice as many girls than boys who pay interest to sports only sometimes. When asked about the obstacles to participation in sports, respondents sta te that the biggest problem is a lack of tirne. It is the same with other leisure ti rne activities. Respondents do not consider the objec- tive obstacles (the course is full, there is a lack of fa- cilities, etc.) as very relevant w ith sports and ali oth- er leisure tirne activities. In Table 3 we can note that girls have a certain tendency to do the leisure tirne activities, therefore even sports, in groups with friends. Girls complain about health problems more often. The respondents' attitude towards sports can be seen in Table 4. There is an obvious difference be- tween young people who take part in organized forms of sports and individuals who do sports or ex- ercises spontaneously or not at ali. For almost 90% organized sportsmen, sports and exercises are nec- essary. Only about one half of non-organized re- spondents consider sport as necessa ry. Three re- spondents did not answer this question. We also considered whether there is a difference in the structure of interest activities in groups of re- spondents who are organized in sports and those Irena Slepičkova P0SITI0N 0F SP0RT IN LEISURE-TIMEACTIVITIES 0FY0UNG PEOPLE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC 29 Table 4: Opinion of importance of sport and exer- cises (%) whole non-orga- organized group nized they are important and neccessary 71.1 55.6 88.6 they are not so necessary 27.4 41.6 11 .2 they are not at ali neccessary 1.5 2.8 O.O who prefer spontaneous sports. Only in the field of artistic and manual activities have we found a 10% difference in favor of non-organized respondents. Sports and exercises enrich leisure tirne of the set of our respondents and it is not an obstacle for other leisure tirne activities. CONCLUSION We think that surveyingthe structure of interests and place of sports and exercises in young peoples' lives is important. An adequate structure of free t i rne and wide spectrum of interests is a premise for a non problematic development of this population gro up. Sports and exercises also contribute very much to health. On the basis of information from this survey we as- sume that there should be a larger concern about the leisure tirne of young people. The reason for this is not only the prevailing share of passive entertain- ment wh ich is more easily available i n these days, but also a lack of free t irne which respondents have stated so frequently. This lack of free t irne can be caused by subjective reasons like bad managment of tirne but also by objective reasons among which there are many school obligations (which many of them stated in their answers), time-loss caused by commuting. There was a surprisingly low share of obstacles for spending free tirne awarded to provid- ingsport or lack of leisure tirne centres and sports fa- cil ities. Comparison of our information and results of a sim- ilar study which was done ten years ago (12) shows that the situation in sports and exercises as part o f leisure tirne, is getting worse, especially when con- sidering participation in organized forms of sports and exercises. Sports either lose their attractiveness for young people, which of course is not supported bythe responses to the question -which leisure tirne activity the respondents would like to spend more tirne on - or there is not enough stimulation and con- ditions for participation. This is why it is necessary to look for ways to su pport the place of active exercise in young peoples' leisure tirne. It is necessary to use gained knowledge on motivation for this activity and improve conditions for organ ized physical educa- tion and sports. We consider schools to be the main place where this could be implemented. 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