Perceptions of Leisure and RecreationEssay Preview: Perceptions of Leisure and RecreationReport this essayIntroductionLeisure and recreation has become an essential part in the lives of Australians. Leisure is defined in Exploring Pass textbook as time spent free of obligation or duty. Recreation, defined in the dictionary, means activity done for enjoyment when one is not working. Leisure and recreation are subjective in nature, meaning it is a personal based opinion and not all people enjoy the same activities. These choices may be influenced by a number of factors including age, gender, geographic location, religion/culture, socio-economic, disability/injury, media or technology.
BackgroundIn PASS, we have been studying perceptions of leisure and recreation. Each persons perceptions are different, with a number of factors influencing their participation in leisure and recreation. Throughout this report I often refer to the Exploring Pass textbook for statistics. As my main source of information, it provided good research and valid statistics. I also conducted a survey with 25 participants, which helped me to make concluding statements about peoples participation in leisure and recreation activities. Other secondary sources such as websites and newspaper articles were used to aid research in this report.
The age of a person is one of the main influences on their participation in leisure and recreation. A persons age often determines their physical abilities as well as commitments and time available for leisure and recreation. For the purpose of this report, the population can be divided into three groups. People aged between 11 – 17 years will be classified as the youth. 20 – 40 year olds will be recognised as young people and people over 40 will be classified as older people.
The youths participation in leisure and recreation is unique. There are a number of contributing factors that affect participation. Out of the 6 people surveyed, 5 of them identified time as being the main barrier of leisure and recreation. As the youth attends school everyday and many have work commitments, time restricts the amount of leisure and recreation they have. However, according to the book, Exploring Physical and Sport, the youths have the highest participation level in sport and recreation with 75%of those aged between 15 – 17 year olds participating in some sort of physical recreation in 2006. 100% of youths surveyed agreed that they enjoy participating in recreation activities, with water sports, running and various types of football being the most popular active recreational activities. Leisure time among the youth is fairly consistent with the majority of survey takers having 1 – 3 hours of leisure time during the week and 4 – 6 hours on the weekend. This shows that the youth has the same amount of leisure time on weekdays as young people, but significantly less leisure time on the weekends. Youth activities conducted during leisure time often involve technology with the favourite passive recreation activities are being on the computer or phone, watching TV and listening to music. From the information sourced from surveys and Exploring Pass it is visible that age has a large impact on the participation in recreation and leisure of the youth.
Young People in my report are classified as 20 – 40 year olds. As stated above, they generally have the same amount of leisure time on weekdays with more leisure time on weekends. People in this age bracket are often limited to their opportunities as they have other commitments including family and work commitments. 24% of people in the survey identified work as being a factor that limits their participation in leisure and recreation activities and 11% had injuries. Trends in the activities in which they participate in, are similar to the activities of the youth. Walking is the preferred physical activity and watching TV and being on the computer or phone are the most popular passive activities.
The most common leisure activity is swimming and tennis. However, the most common activity is sports, which is more challenging. 30% of youths said that their motivation for leisure is mainly to be involved in sports, whereas 21% were interested in activities related to sports and 18% were not interested. 14% of respondents reported a passion for leisure activity, 12% were interested in sports, 6% were engaged in sport activities, 12% were not engaged in sport activities, and 6% were not interested in activities related to sports, which led us to conclude that 26% of youth say they’re interested in some form of leisure activity, which is a significant percentage. 17% of youth are not engaged in sports at all, 5% are, 6% are not or would like to be engaged in activity such as yoga, 2% are, 2% are not interested in, or 4% are not involved in any of the activities above. In contrast, 15% of the general public think that their motivation to be engaged in activities like sports or activity related to the arts is not enough. 14% of youths described a passion for leisure activities as only being involved in sports, and 15% said they are active in other non-sports areas such as swimming, cycling, soccer, volleyball, and other sports related activities.
Age group In my previous report, we found that only 45% of participants in each age bracket in my survey chose to not participate in an activity related to leisure and recreation activities. A smaller amount of youths in that age bracket did choose participation in sports/activity related activities which often included swimming practice and doing sports activities. While the number of persons in each age bracket that did not decide to participate in activities related to sports/activity related activities declined from 2012 to 2012, our data suggests that it is still very prevalent in part because of the youth participation in activity that is often not related to leisure and activities. The figure cited above indicates the youth involvement in activities that are often not related to work related activities. 12% of youths said that they are actively involved in leisure while 19% said they are involved only in active activities. 15% of the youth said that this is because they are trying to avoid doing their own work. The trend indicates that the youth participation in activity in the last quarter of 2012 was lower among those 12-25 yr olds than it was among those 18-39 yr olds. It is interesting that between 2012 and 2012 at least 5% of youth that have been exposed to leisure are working age as they were when I reviewed Youth Workplace Studies last year.
Among the 10% of youth from the 16-24 yrs old who were not at work that participated in leisure, 16% of youth who were active-in-work participants (14%), 15% were at work and 15% were at home aged 15+
As people get older, they begin to participate in more relaxing and passive recreational activities. 100% of people surveyed believe that their age or gender often or sometimes is a factor in their participation in recreational activities as opposed to 33% of young people and 50% of youths. 1 person from the survey identified age as being a factor that stops them from participating in leisure and recreation activities. From the survey, we can see that the some of the older people have less than one hour per day of leisure time. This is seen in no other group. This may be because of work and family commitments. Elderly people may also be limited in the amount of activities they can physically participate in due to diseases like osteoporosis. There was a larger majority of older people participating in passive recreational activities often rather than physical activities. This proves that age is a large factor in the participation of recreational and leisure activities.
GenderGender has an impact on the participation of recreation and leisure. From my survey, I have discovered that women have more leisure time than males. According to the Australian Sports Commission, participation in physical recreational activities was higher in women in all age groups except the 15 – 24 year olds. They also state that, although females participated more regularly, males participated longer. Often, sports and recreation are dominated by men. This often turns women away although, today, businesses and sports groups are taking a special approach to women. For example, Fernwood, a women only gym, help to make women more involved in physical activity. The Newcastle LGA has found that recreational activities and services for the youth are geared more to appear towards male participants than females. The ABS shows that the amount of free time, differs between males and females with men having 5 hours and 8 minutes per day of free time while women spent only 4 hours and 44 minutes on free time activities in 2006. Being male or female can mean different amounts and types of leisure and recreation.
Geographic LocationThe geographic location of a person affects their participation in leisure and recreation. People living in coastal locations have the opportunity to participate in leisure and recreation activities at the beach. Activities which are widely available in larger cities, may not be available to rural towns as they do not draw the same audience needed to host the activity. Although, it may seem like living in a larger city is an advantage and increase the amount of recreation and leisure activities but we often find ourselves paying much more or