ABSTRACT A STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND AWARENESS OE THE NEED FOR CREATIVE USES OF LEISURE TIME OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN A WORKING CLASS COMMUNITY by Gordon R. Welch Men in the work world are faced with a problem of how to fill their leisure time with self-expressive activ- \ ities that will give meaning to their lives both on and off the job. This study has the purpose of finding out if high school students are now developing interests that ‘will alleviate this problem. A questionaire composed of fixed-alternative ques- tions was used to collect the data from 194 high school students in the ninth and twelfth grades. The study focused on students with hobbies and Special interests, that were of current significance, to see if they differed from the other students. The chi-square technique was employed for the determination of significant differences. The students with current significant interests were found to differ in many ways. They were doing better in school and had more interest in school courses. These stu- dents also had more favorable attitudes toward the value of hobbies, although the entire population exhibited fav- orable attitudes. Even though a majority of all students Gordon R. Welch were favorably disposed toward the value of hobbies only 12% of them had hobbies that were of current significance in their lives. A STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND AWARENESS OF THE NEED FOR CREATIVE USES OF LEISURE TIME OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN A WORKING CLASS COMMUNITY By Gordon R. Welch A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Sociology 1967 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Springfield High School and its Principal, Mr. Charles Miller, for the cooperation extended in making this study possible. Special attention and aid was also provided by Guidance Courselor mr. Donald Christensen who made himself available throughout the data collection period. 11 l. 2. 3. mm CONTENTS Introduction PART I. DEFINING THE STUDY AND POPULATION Defense of the Study and Statement of the Hypothesis Methodology Employed in the Study Discussion of the Population PART II. PRESENTATION OF THE RESULTS The Youth Talent Exhibit Participants Students With Hobbies of Current Significance Differences Resulting from Grade, Sex, and Educational Aspirations of the Students BART III. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Are the Students Prepared? Bibliography Appendix A iii ll 17 31 58 75 84 85 Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table 03 .4 Own ¥- Ono F4 10. ll. 12. 13. l4. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 250 26. TABLES AND FIGURES Students who plan to continue their education. Working mothers. School courses are uninteresting. Ninth grade students who plan to enter future YTE's. Is it worthwhile to develop hobbies? Students who plan to continue or develop hobbies. dull and . Will hobbies be of value after graduation from high school? How "self-satisfaction" was ranked as a reason for participating in an activity. Students who are willing to take a stand against the majority. Does the student have a hobby? Students who plan to continue their education. The type of job students are aspiring for if they plan to contin*e their education. Grades of the students. Do students do better in school because of hobbies? The number of clubs and organizations the student belongs to. Any person with desire and ability can succeed. Is it worthwhile to continue or develop hobbies? Do students plan to continue or develop hobbies? Will hobbies be of Value after graduation from high school? value of the activities the students participate in. How "self-satisfaction" was ranked as a reason for participating in an activity. Does going to school help to prepare for ways to Spend leisure time? Does the student have a hobby? Does the student have a hobby? value of the activities in which the students participate. How "self-satisfaction" was ranked as a reason for participating in an activity. iv 34 35 36 36 37 38 38 39 4o 41 44 4S 46 47 49 50 51 51 52 54 55 59 6O 61 61 Table 27. Table 23. Table 29. Table 30. Table 31. Table 32. Table 33. Table 34. Table 35. Table 36. Table 37. Table 38. Table 39. Figure l. TABLES AND FIGURES (con't) Do students plan to continue or develop hobbies? Will hobbies be of value after graduation from high school? Does going to school help to prepare for ways to spend leisure time? Do extra-curricular activities help to prepare for ways to Spend leisure time. Grades of the students. How “self-satisfaction" is ranked as a reason for participating in an activity. Grades of the students. School courses are dull and uninteresting. Number of days absent from school Do the students plan to continue or develop hobbies? Will hobbies be of value after graduation from high school? How "self-satisfaction" is ranked as a reason for participating in an activity. Do extra-curricular activities help to prepare for ways to spend leisure time? Scale depicting value of activities. 62 63 63 64 65 66 68 69 69 7o 71 71 72 14 INTRODUCTION This study is concerned with the problem that workers are forced to face when they strive to fill their leisure time with meaningful activities, but find themselves lack- ing the necessary individual interests. This study by- passes the workers and approaches the problem by looking at a group of high school students to see if they are de- veloping interests early in life so that they will not be confronted with the problem when they begin to work. This idea of "carry over" activities of a "creative" nature im- plies much the same thing that physical educators call for when they ask that students be taught individual athletic activities which can carry over into later life. The activities looked for in this study extend beyond the merely physical and include ones providing creative out- lets emotionally and psychologically for promoting satis- faction in later life. The reason for this concern is that other studies have shown workers have become dissat- isfied in Jobs that do not exercise their eXpressive nature. This study had hoped to find that the students now being educated would be better prepared to handle the leisure problems they will have to face when they grad- uate and begin working. The study was carried out at a high school in a working class community, thereby in- creasing the eXpectation that many of the students would be headed for Jobs that are lacking in qualities of self- 1 2 expression. The results of the study appear to indicate that the students are aware of the need for creative and individual interests of a meaningful nature, but they in fact lack the necessary interests and eXperience, and thus do not seem to be prepared any better than those people already involved in the work world. PART I DEFINING THE STUDY AND POPULATION CHAPTER I DEFENSE OF THE STUDY AND STATEMENT OF THE HYPOTHESIS This study deals with the way in which people Spend their time when they are not working at a job. When this statement is made, more is implied than merely filling free time with any activities, but more Specifically, activities that have a meaningful value for the individual and bring some sense of self-satisfaction to the person's life. For many years a number of sociologiests have shown a concern for the decline of the average Job as a grat- ifying eXperience. One sociologist, Melvin Tumin sees this as creating a "net deficit of psychic satisfaction." This is brought about by the Job being primarily concerned with man's instrumental worth and neglecting his express- ive nature. That is to say, "society is far more concern- ed with the extent to which the Job is performed effect- ively than with the problem of whether the worker is de- riving feelings of gratification or self-satisfaction."1 The nature of the work situation then, can leave man with a "net deficit of psychic satisfaction" that must be taken care of by some other area of his life. Other sociologists have also been concerned with this problem and have carried out studies dealing with the causes and consequences of worker dissatisfaction, l. Melvin Tumin, "Obstacles to Creativity", ETC: A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS, Vol. XI, N0. 4, Oct. 1954. p. 262. 4 5 pointing to things that need to be done if personal feel- ings of self-satisfaction are to be derived for those who Spend their lives at essentially "unrewarding" Jobs. A few of these studies and their findings follow to indicate this line of thought. "Satisfaction and Deprivation in Industrial Life"2, by Ianiel Katz, concerns the way in which industrial con- flict between workers and management can be related to worker dissatisfaction. Katz sees the development of large scale production as undermining three possible sources of work satisfaction, and he says they are; "(1) the skill level of many Jobs have been reduced, (2) the variety of operations and tasks have deminished and, (3) standardized procedures have left few choices for the individual to make."3 This change in the work situation leaves a minimum of gratification to be derived from the Job by the worker. Katz concludes by saying that "...human beings, whether or not they have the aspirations developed in a college education, suffer genuine deprivations from a work existence which reduces their personal involvement to a single set of routinized movements."a 2. Daniel Katz, "Satisfaction and Deprivation in Industrial Life", INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT, ed. Arthur Kornhauser (McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.: New York, 1954). v 3. Ibid. p. 89. 4. Ibid. p. 90. 6 "Industrial Workers' World"5, by Robert Dubin, in- dicates the workers"preference for their life away from the job over their life on the job. In trying to deter- mine what areas of social OXperience represent a life in- terest of importance for the worker, Dubin found that near- ly three out of every four workers did not see the work place as representing a central life interest. Further- more, nine out of ten workers preferred to establish their important.primary social relationships with persons away from the job. A far more intensive study and one that is a great deal more revealing, is one by Psychologist Arthur Kornhauser, MENTAL HEALTH on THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER.6 Kornhauser found that mental health (degrees of positive mental health not mental illness) varies consistently with the level of the Jobs that men hold. That is to say, men on the Specialized repetitive jobs are consistently low- est in mental health. This remains true even when age, education, range of occupations, length of employment and size of community are controlled. Job satisfaction appears to be the prime factor causing this situation. Exerting the strongest influence on Job satisfaction is the workers' perception of the job as interesting and whether or not 5. Robert Dubin, "Industrial Workers"World", WORK AND LEISURE, ed. Erwin Smegel (College and University Press: New Haven, Connecticut, 1963) p. 53-72. 6. Arthur Kornhauser, MENTAL HEALTH OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER (John Wiley & Sons: New York, 1965). 7 the job makes use of the workers' abilities. Eonuse of abilities "...causes a lowering of self-esteem, discourage- ment, futility, and feelings of failure and inferiority on the part of the worker.“7 Since many problems seemed to be arising from a lack of satisfaction derived from the Job, Kornhauser delved into the workers' lives away from the Job to see if they were attempting to make use of their abilities and increase their self-esteem in other ways. He found that only ten to fifteen percent of all workers had hobbies or special interests that were of genuine current significance in their lives as a source of pride and enjoyment.8 It seems that most of the work- ers were seeking to find ways to fill their spare time with meaningful activities, but were unsuccessful in doing so. Kornhauser concludes there is a necessity for some changes in leisure time -— "...there is a need for a shift in emphasis from strictly personal goals and economic grat- ification to activities of psychological enrichment in the form of self-eXpression and significant group activities."9 And in addition "... most of the men have formed no Special interests or given thought to the limitless range of things they could do to develop themselves and enjoy the use of their talents. The striling need...is education for in- teresting, constructive use of leisure."10 7. Ibid. p. 129. 8. Ibid. p. 200. 9. Ibid. p. 289. 10. Ibid. p. 289. 8 In relation to hobbies and sgecial interests, a sur- vey conducted by Jay 3. Nash revealed that 70% of the in- terests developed for hobbies were started below the age of 12 and only about five percent were acquired after the age of 21.11 By this he does not mean to suggest that in- dividuals over the age of 21 cannot acquire new interests. It only indicates that they do not. And finally, a recent CBS news broadcast reported that workers in a Kaiser Steel Plant in Fontana, California are being given a thriteen week vacation every five years along with their yearly three week vacation. The study showed that the workers were not moonlighting, but looked forward to the added vacation time. The study also re- vealed that the workers were not taking classes or devel- oping new hobbies to any great extent. In general they were not expanding themselves very much. It appeared that they wanted to have time away from the job, but they were not sure how to make meaningful use of it. The material cited above indicates the way in which workers come to view their Jobs as intrinsically unreward- ing and thus they value their time away from the job. The problem arising from this situation seems to be, what can be done with leisure time to make it more gratifying? The workers appear to be at a loss for a worthwhile solution. It seems there is a lack of knowledge prior to entering 11. Jay E. Nash, PHILOSOPHY OF RECREATION AND LEISURE Wm. C. Brown Co. Publishers: Dubuque, Iowa, 1960) p. 15. 9 the work world as to what can be eXpected, indicating that the worker should be prepared for life off the job as well as on it. The work world is careful to train its employees in order to insure adequate performance on the job, but the individual is left on his own in training for off the job activities. This study goes along with the assumption that the average "blue collar" Job, indeed many Jobs that do not make use of abilities or are not perceived as interesting by the worker, are intrinsically unrewarding for the in- dividual and result in a "net deficit of psychic gratif- ication" which characterizes one's life away from the job. With that in mind this study investigated a high school situation to determine the extent to which students are aware of the importance of, and are developing, hobbies and special interests that will be beneficial to them once they leave school. It would be appropriate to explain at this time why high school students were selected for study rather than a group of workers. First of all it already seems clear, through previous studies, that a problem does exist in this area; therefore it would be somewhat redun- dant to reaffirm this fact. On the other hand it would seem much more beneficial to try and find out if anything is being done to deal with a problem that is known to ex- ist. To approach the problem from this angle the most appropriate procedure would seem to be to study a group of persons who will soon be entering the work world and try 10 to determine whether or not they are prepared to cope with the situation any differently than those people who are already working and facing the type of problem that has been discussed. Another argument might be that it would be more worthwhile to compare a group of young workers with an older group, but it should be remembered that Kornhauser pointed out that problems of job satisfaction existed even when age was controlled. Therefore it seems worthwhile to concentrate on a group of high school students who are now being educated and attempt to determine if they are better prepared than those who are already facing the problem -— a lack of per- sonal satisfaction and expressive fulfillment due to un- rewarding jobs -— that exists. The purpose of this study is then to examine the question: Are youngsters who are now in high school aware of and preparing themselves for, the leisure problems they will meet when they leave school and begin to work? CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY EMPLOYED IN THE STUDY The basic design of the study is essentially a des- criptive one. To be more specific, the purpose of the study is to describe the students' involvement in various activities and to ascertain their views on the value or necessity of developing hobbies and special interests now and in the future. After this is done the information will be related to variables such as; grade, sex, parents' occupation and education, and the students' aspirations and interests. The population of this study consists of the entire ninth and twelfth grades of a small high school (total enrollment about 500 students) located in a small (about 5000 population) primarily working class community. That is, most of the people work at "blue collar" or "white collar" (not managerial or professional) Jobs. Since the community is primarily working class this formed the basis for the assumption that most of the students would be entering "blue collar" or routine "white collar" jobs immediately or shortly after leaving high school. The selection of only ninth and twelfth grades to constitute the sample rather than the whole school was done for a combination of reasons. First of all it was done to limit the population to a size that one person could handle in a single day and not disrupt the school schedule. Also it allowed for the most efficient com- 11 l2 parison of groups within the school. The twelfth grade represented a group just completing high school and pre- paring to enter either a job or go on to school. The ninth grade represented a group just entering high school yet to formulate their ideas and plans for the future. The data for this study was collected through a questionaire consisting of forty-four questions. The same questionsire was used for both the ninth and twelfth grades with only one question, number twenty-six, applying exclu- sively to ninth graders. The questionaire was made up pri- marily of fixed-alternative type questions. A few ques- tions required short written answers; 6.3.: parents' occupation, description of hobbies and students' occu- pational aspirations. The entire distribution, super- vising and coding of the study was done personally. As stated previously a primary purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which students were dev- eloping hobbies or special interests that would carry over to later life. A proposed indicator of this was to be the students' participation in the Youth Talent Exhibit. The Youth Talent Exhibit is an annual event in this as well as in many other mid-western cities, whose purpose is to display the creative talents of school children in the sixth through the twelfth grades. The assumption is that those who participated in the Youth Talent Exhibit are taking the time to develop worthwhile interests that may carry over into later life. Along with determining 13 current participation in the Youth Talent Exhibit, which was quite low, the students were also asked to indicate in which previous years they had participated and the ninth graders were asked if they intended to participate in the future. Since participation in the Youth Talent Exhibit was expected to be low, it was necessary to also use other methods to determine whether or not the students were developing worthwhile interests or activities that might possibly be useful to them in later life. Questions twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one and thirty-eight were de- signed to serve this purpose. Question twenty-nine asked the student to indicate whether or not he had any hobbies or special interests. Question thirty asked the student to describe his hobby if he had one and question thirty-one asked for an esti- mated amount of time spent on the hobby. These questions were then combined and coded in the following manner: if the student gave a one word description of his hobby and indicated Spending time on the hobby once or twice a month, it was classified as loosely qualifying as a current in- terest. If the student gave a definite description of a hobby and indicated spending time with the hobby once a week or more, it was classified as definitely qualifying as an interest of current significance. The person was classified as not having a hobby if he indicated spending little or no time on it, or if he did not have any des- l4 cription of a hobby. Question thirty-eight asked the students to list the activities they liked to do most and in the order that they preferred them. The activities listed by the stu- dents were then coded on the basis of a model presented by Nash in his book A PHILOSOPHY OF RECREATION AND LEISURE. FIGURE 1. Scale depicting value of activities.12 Creative 4 Participation Active 3 Participation Emotional 2 Participation Entertainment Amusement 1 Killing Time zero Injury or Detriment to Self Acts Performed Sub zero Against Society Nash's classifications were modified slightly for use in the present study, but the basic idea was retained for placing the students in various categories. In this study four categories were used. The value of the activities listed by the student placed him in category; (1) injury to self, (2) entertainment, amusement, (3) active partic- ipation, or (4) creative participation. 12. Ibid. p. 89. 15 Personal judgment was used to place the students in the categories mentioned, aided by Nash's discussion of criteria which tend to place activities high or low on the above scale.13 Students were placed in category (1) if they listed non-beneficial activities such as drinking or smoking. Students were placed in category(2) if they listed activities which indicated they were content to sit back and watch something rather than participate. Students were placed in category (3) if they listed defi- nite individual activities such as swimming, tennis or playing a musical instrument; that had the possibility of carrying over to later life and continuing to be a source of enjoyment. Students were placed in category (4) if they indicated a preference for activities such as writing stories, writing music, or other activities that required individual initiative and represented creative outlets as a means of personal growth and satisfaction. The criteria used to place the students in the last category certainly do not conform to any definite definition of the concept of creativity, but the category is intended to provide a place for those students who are capable of relying on themselves for the development of interesting activities. Questions thirty-three through thirty-seven were used to determine the students' views toward the value on con- tinuing or developing hobbies or special interests now 13. Ibid. p. 116, 117. l6 and in the future. These questions were coded exactly as they appear on the questionaire. A check list of job classifications used by the United States Census was used to code the occupations described in the questionaire.14 Three broad categories were used in this study: (1) professionals, managers, officals and proprietors; (2) clerical and skilled; and (3) semi-skilled and unskilled. A fourth category of "do not know" was used in coding the students' job aspirations. All other questions were coded just as they appear on the question- aire. Since no more than nominal scaling was achieved in almost all of the questions asked and the data has been coded so that it falls into discrete categories, the chi- square technique has been used in order to determine dif- ferences between groups on various variables at the .05 level of significance. 14. Charles H. Back strom and Gerald D. Hursh, SURVEY RESEARCH (Northwestern University Press: United States, 1963) p. 99-101. CHAPTER 3 DISCUSSION OF THE POPULATION As was mentioned previously, the entire ninth and twelfth grades of one high school composed the population of this study. There were 126 students in the ninth grade class and of this number 114 were present on the day the study was taken. Of the 114, four questionaires were thrown out because they were unusable, thereby leaving 110 ninth grade students out of the original 126. There were 88 students in the twelfth grade class and 84 were present on the day of the study and all of their questionaires were usable. Therefore the population for the study con- sisted of 194 students with 56{7% being in the ninth grade and 43.3% in the twelfth. There were only two Negro stu- dents in the entire population studied, a girl in the ninth grade and a boy in the twelfth, so race was not con- sidered as a factor in this study. In the population used for this study the number of males somewhat out numbered the females. There were 106 males in the total population as compared to 88 females. The same relationship hold true when the sexes were broken down into grades. In the ninth grade it is nearly even, but the males still out numbered the females 56 to 54. In the twelfth grade the margin is much wider with 50 males as compared to 34 females. For the entire pop- ulation the percentage of males is 54.6% and 45.4% for the females. 17 18 The above is a general discussion of the population in terms of numbers, grade of the students and sex. The remainder of this chapter will deal with a description of the population in terms of some of the variables used for this study. The data collected dealing with the parents occupa- tion was coded into three categories: (1) professionals, managers, officals and proprietors; (2) clerical and skilled; and (3) semi-skilled and unskilled. For this question the students were asked to give a brief descrip- tion of the occupation of the main person who supported them (it was the father in 87.1% of the cases) and the occupation of the mother if she worked. Approximately 17% of the students' fathers had occupations that fell in category (1) with slightly more than 80% of the fathers occupations falling in categories (2) and (3). There was a near even split between these last two categories with a little over 40%Iin the former and a little less than 40% in the latter. Sixty-three percent of the students had mothers who worked either full-time or part-time. Of this percentage 15.8% were in category (1), 33.4% were in cat- egory (2), and 50.8% were in category (3). These figures add support to the earlier statement that the community in which the high school is located is primarily a working class community. The data dealing with the education of the parents shows that 42.7% of the fathers had less than a high school 19 education and 35.4% had graduated from high school. There- fore 78.1% of the fathers had a high school education or less. Fifteen percent of the fathers had some college ed- 'ucation, but only 6.2% had graduated from college. As for 'the mothers, 44% had less than a high school education and zanother 41.5% had graduated from high school. Nine percent of the mothers had some college and only 5.2% had graduated from college. Since the Democratic Party is most often thought of as representing the working man, and children usually follow the political convictions of their parents, the stu- dents were asked to indicate what their political choice 'would be if they could vote. Thirty-nine percent of the students said they would vote Democratic if they had the chance, 14% said they would vote Republican and 47% in- dicated they would remain "independent". When the "inde- jpendents" were asked to make a choice, 35% said they would ‘vote Democratic, 13% said Republican and 52% did not know 'which way they would vote. The discussion will now move on to a description of 'the students themselves. First, consideration will be {given to the education and occupational characteristics zand aspirations of the students and then a description of some of the variables dealing with the students views to- ‘Ward the value and necessity of having or developing hobbies zand special interests. An overwhelming number of the students indicated that 20 they planned to graduate from high school. Actually only one person said that he did not plan to graduate. Sixty percent of the students said that they planned to go on to college or some other type of school after graduating from high school and 21% indicated they did not know whether they would be going on to school. The remaining 19% said they would not be continuing their education after high school. A larger percent of twelfth graders than ninth graders were planning to go on to school, but a larger per- centage of the ninth graders were unsure of their plans at this time. Also there was a greater percentage of girls who planned to go on to school. While 60% of the students indicated plans to go on to college or some other type of school, only 30% were in a college preparatory program. Another 20% were in a general high school program, 9% were in a vocational program and 7% were in a commercial pro- gram. Thirty percent were undecided as to what high school program they would take. This 30% was composed of stu- dents in the ninth grade because they were not actually in any specific program yet, therefore they could only indi- cate what program they expected to be in or were still un- decided. At any rate, these figures would indicate that half of those students who said they were going on to school probably planned to go to some type of vocational school if they were going on at all. As for the occupational aspirations of the students the same categories were used that were used for the par- 21 ents except that a fourth category of "don't know" was added. 0f the 60% of students who were planning to go on to school, 54% indicated occupations that would place them in category (1). Twenty percent indicated category (2) and 10% indicated category (3). Sixteen percent of these students were undecided as to what occupation they would take up after high school. Out of the 40% of students who did not plan to go on to school or were undecided, 63% were undecided as to their future occupation. Twenty-two percent aspired to occupations that would place them in category (3) and 14% indicated category (2). It was assumed that two other factors could possibly be related to the students"educational aspirations. They are whether the student has any siblings who have gone to college or whether they have any siblings who are no longer in school but did not complete high school. As for the former, 10.4% of the students said they had siblings who were in college, had some college or had graduated from college. The other 89.6% who did not indicate having sib- lings in college may not be reliable since they may not have any brothers or sisters or may not have any of college age. In the latter case 9.3% of the students said they had siblings who had not completed high school. This would probably indicate higher educational aspirations for the students since 42.7% of their fathers and 44% of their mothers had not completed high school. The final two variables to be described that deal 22 with educational characteristics are the students' grades Hand the number of days absent from school. Students' grades were broken down into three categories; (1) A's and B's, (2) 0's and (3) below 0. Thirty-seven percent of the students were in the first category, 51% were in the second category and 12% were in the third category. The percentages were about the same for both the ninth and twelfth grades. Differences do appear in the sexes though. Over half of the girls were in category (1), but only about one-fifth of the boys fell into this category. About the same percentages appear in the second category but there were almost seven times as many boys than girls in the below 0 category. The number of days the students were absent was separated into three categories. They are (1) 0-5 days absent, (2) 6-10 days and (3) more than 10 days. The reason that this data was collected was to see if any re- lationships existed between the students who were absent more often and the other variables such as development and interest in hobbies. Sixty percent of the students re- ported being absent five days or less, 21% between six and ten days and 19% were absent ten days or more. When this was broken down into grades the figures remained pretty much the same. A slightly larger percentage of ninth graders were in category (1) and a somewhat larger per- centage of twelfth graders were in category (2). Both grades had the same percentage absent for category (3). 23 The breakdown by sex revealed a different distribution. The boys had higher percentages in categories (1) and (3) which are the two extremes and the girls had a higher per- centage in category (2). The description of the population will now turn to a discussion of the variables dealing with the participation in the Youth Talent Exhibit and the students views toward activities of this nature. As was mentioned before, a great many of the students did not participate in the Youth Talent Exhibit, so other variables will be discussed that are concerned with activities that could have been entered in the Youth Talent.Exhibit. Out of the entire population of 194 students only two entered the Youth Talent Enhibit this year. The number of participants was expected to be low, but this was lower than anticipated. Since the number was so low for this particular variable, it would not be worthwhile to use it in relation to the other variables when looking for dif- ferences. The fact that the number of participants was so low would seem to indicate that the students were either disinterested in activities of this type or in the exhibit itself. When the students were asked if they had ever en- tered a Youth Talent ikhibit, 40 students or 25% said that they had. The exhibit is open to students in grades six through twelve so the students were asked to indicate the grade they were in when they had entered previously. The students seemed to enter in larger numbers in the lower :w'l I‘ll. I L 24 grades and tapered off as they grew older. About 5% en- tered in the sixth grade but the number increased to al- most 10% for the seventh and eighth grades which was the high point. Starting in the ninth grade the percentage leveled off at about 3% through the eleventh grade. The ninth and twelfth graders used in this study can only be compared on the basis of their participation in grades six through nine because the ninth graders have not yet had the opportunity to participate in grades ten through twelve. When this is done, the ninth graders are found to be par— ticipating at a much higher rate for all grades except the ninth. When the participants are separated by sex an inter- esting point develops. For the sixth through the eighth grades the girls enter at a much greater rate, but by the time the students reach the ninth grade the number of boys and girls entering is about equal. For the tenth and eleventh grades a complete reverse takes place and the boys enter at a much greater rate, although the percentage for both sexes is still quite small when compared to the total population. The ninth graders were asked to indicate if they planned to enter any future Youth Talent Exhibits. Twenty- three percent said that they did and only 22% definately said no. The majority were unsure whether they would enter. Out of the 48 students who had entered the Youth Talent Exhibit, 60% said it was their own decision to enter while 25 the remaining 40% said that they had been encouraged to enter by either their parents or teachers. A much greater percentage of girls decided to enter on their own while the boys entered most often due to the encouragement of others. The ninth graders also entered most often through their own decision while the twelfth graders more often were encouraged to do so by their teachers. When the par- ticipants were asked why they had stopped entering the Ex- hibit if they had ever been in it, 65% said they had either lost interest or no longer had the time. When the students were asked to give the reasons why they had entered the Exhibit, 65% said the reason was in- terest in working on the project itself. Twenty-three per- cent said the most important reason to enter was the chance to win a prize and the other 12% entered primarily to please a teacher. Before the students views toward this type of activ- ity is discussed consideration will be given to the stu- dents hobbies and special interests in general. The stu- dents were asked to describe any hobbies or special inter- ests that they might have. These interests were then coded into the three categories previously mentioned: (1) loosely qualifying as a hobby of current significance, (2) definitely qualifying, or (3) not qualifying. Sixty-six percent of the students were categorized as not having any hobbies or special interests that were of genuine current significance. Twenty percent were placed in category (1) 26 and l4%'were placed in the second category. A greater per- centage of boys than girls were found to have no hobby that qualified and a greater percentage of the ninth graders were in this category. The students then were asked a series of questions concerning the value they perceived in having or develop- ing hobbies or special interests. Seventy-seven percent thought it was worthwhile to have or develop hobbies. Seven percent felt that there was no value in it and the remaining 16% were uncertain as to what value it had. Forty-four percent of the students felt that having hobbies would help them to do better in school and 28% did not see it as helping at all. The other 28% did not know if it would help or not. When the students were asked if hey planned to continue or start hobbies after they grad- uated from high school 40% said that they did plan to do so and 42% were uncertain. eighteen percent of the stu- dents indicated that they definitely did not plan to begin or continue hobbies after graduation. Sixty-five percent of the students felt that hobbies would be of value if they had them once they left high school and 24% were unsure of this. The remaining 11% did not feel that hobbies would be of any value after graduation. When the students were asked what would be the value of developing these hobbies on their own, 3%:replied that they would have no value at all. Twelve percent saw hobbies as being time fillers and 14% did not know what their value would be. The 27 great majority, 71% felt that the value of hobbies would be in the sense of satisfaction these hobbies would give them. On all of the five variables mentioned above a higher percentage of twelfth graders than ninth graders exhibited a more favorable attitude toward the value of hobbies and special interests. The ninth graders, in all cases, were more uncertain as to the value of hobbies rather than ex- hibiting a negative attitude. When the five variables are differentiated according to sex, the females show a higher percentage of positive attitudes and the males generally exhibit a negative attitude rather than an uncertain. A description of the students activities shows that the majority, 58%, perferred activities that were consid- ered to be primarily entertainment or amusement. Thirty- five percent of the students listed activities that in- dicated that they tended to be active participants in their favorite activities. Five percent of the students were Judged to be creative participants in their activities and 2% listed detrimental activities. When this variable was broken down into grades the distribution was found to be about the same as it was for the total population. The ninth graders fell into the entertainment-amusement cat- egory at a greater rate than the twelfth graders, but the latter group favored creative activities more than the ninth graders did. The distribution for the sexes was also similar to the total population, but surprisingly 28 the females were active participants more than the boys. The boys fell more heavily into the entertainment-amuse- znent category. The probable reason for this is that the school organized team sports were not considered to be 'valuable as lasting indicators of active participation. {The boys most often listed school team sports rather than individual activities. The students were asked whether they would rather Inarticipate or watch when they were going to involve them- s:elves in some activity. They overwhelmingly indicated tfldat they would rather participate in an activity than thatch. Ninty percent preferred the former while only 10% Irreierred the latter. When this was broken down into grade aJad sex distributions it was found to be very much the same. When the students were asked to select reasons for Exarticipating in an activity, self-satisfaction was the finest important reason, relaxation and fun was second, ex- CXitement was third, competition was fourth, companionship Vnas fifth and prestige was selected as the least important reason. The final two variables to be discussed asked the stu- <1ents to indicate whether going to school has prepared them for ways to spend their free time once they begin working, and if extra-curricular activities have prepared them for ways to spend their free time after high school. Seventy- seven percent of the students felt that the school was preparing them and 83% felt that their extra-curricular 29 were also preparing them. Fifteen percent did not think that extra-curricular activities were helping. Eight per- cent of the students were uncertain if either area was helping to prepare them for their free time when they left high school. PART II PRESENTATION OF THE RESULTS 30 CHAPTER 4 THE YOUTH TALENT EXHIBIT PARTICIPANTS The intent of this study, as previously stated, is to discover whether high school students are preparing them- selves to face the "leisure problem" that exists in the work world. When the students step into Jobs that are lacking in self-expressive or creative outlets, will they be equipped with sufficient activities and interests to counteract the deficiencies? The students who have dev- eloped rewarding and meaningful interests through the years can presubably use these as a source of personal growth and satisfaction. The students who have pursued activities that merely have filled time rather than pro- vide meaning to its use will be in the same position as those persons whom Tumin described as bringing a "net def- icit of psychic gratification to their lives away from their jobs." When consideration is given to the students' activ- ities and interests it seems that the primary aspect to be concerned with, is how the student involves himself in his activities. Two choices are available in the pursuit of his activities. The person can either sit back and watch or he can be an active participant. The person who chooses to sit back and watch has placed himself in the passive role and has lost the chance to gain feelings of accomp- lishment from his activities. This is the person who would rather go to the movies, watch television or be a 31 32 spectator eVery Saturday afternoon at a sporting event. The person who chooses to be a participant has gained the possibility of using his activities to give him a feeling of achievement and personal satisfaction. This group in- cludes the person who would rather be in the play or be on the team. It appears that the active participant exhibits confidence and pride in himself. He is not afraid to rely on his own abilities when he has to choose how to spend his free time. The great majority of students studied (90%) stated that they would rather be a participant than an ob- server and no significant differences could be found when attempts were made to try and find out if any particular group was more in favor of participation than others. This appears to be a good indication, but in order to be of value it is necessary to consider the kinds of activ- ities the students participate in and find out if they participate as much as they say they do. The activities that a person can participate in covers a wide range. Activities can be helpful, harmful, or of no particular consequence at all. The activities of the students used in this study will be considered along two lines. The two are; participation in the Youth Talent Exhibit (YTE), and whether or not the student has meaningful hobbies and interests. The students who are more actively interested in personally meaningful activities such as hobbies are expected to differ from the other students in a number of ways. They are expected to have higher educational and 33 occupational aspirations. They are expected to presently be more interested, and doing better, in school. It is also expected that they will have more favorable attitudes to- ward the value of hobbies and special individual interests. From the outset of this study, participation in the YTE was considered to be a good indicator of whether or not a student was developing meaningful interests that would carry over to later life. If a student entered, it would suggest that he is proud of what he has done and is will- ing to have it viewed and judged by others. And, if he is willing to put something of his own on public display, it would be something he is interested in and devotes time to. Therefore the students who entered the YTE will be taken as a group to see if they differ in any ways from the stu- who did not enter. Although only two students entered this year and 10% was the largest number to enter in any single year, 25% of the students had entered at some time. It is this latter group that will be used as YTE participants. When the results are presented it should be remembered that only one-fourth of the students have ever entered the YTE and even these students did not enter every year. It has now been established that only a small per- centage of the students have participated in the YTE, but this group is large enough for the examination of signif- icant differences from the rest of the population. The assumption on student participation in the YTE indicates that many differences were expected to be found between 34 those who did participate and those who did not. When the data is analyzed this, for the most part, did not turn out to be true. YTE participants were expected to have higher educa- tional and occupational aspirations, but no significant difference exists between them and the students who did not enter. In the case of planning to continue their ed- ucation, both groups had a majority who planned to go on to school, but the percentage was nearly identical for both groups. Table 1. Students who plan to continue their education. Yes No Don't know Entered YTE 62.5 18.75 18.75 (30) (9) (9) Never entered 60 i 17.9 22.1 YTE (87) (26) (32) Another difference that was expected to show up was in the home environment of the YTE participants. The criteria used to judge this was the education and occupa- tion of the parents. Neither the education or the occupa- tion of the parents revealed any differences, but the fact that the mother worked seemed to have some meaning. Eighty-one percent of the students who entered the YTE had mothers who worked either full-time or part-time, while only 57% of the mothers worked of the students who had never entered the YTE. It is difficult to say what this means, but since it is the fact that the mother is 35 working and not the type of job she has it could be assumed that the student with the working mother may be forced to rely more on his own abilities and to follow out his own interests. Table 2. Working mothers. Part-time Full-time No Entered YTE 50 31.25 18.75 (24) (15) (9) Never entered 43 14 43 YTE (62) (20) (62) Chi sq. 12.091 p .01 If,a person had participated in the YTE it was ex- pected that he would be more active and interested in other areas of his life such as school and organizations outside of school. The grades of the students and the amount of time they were absent was expected to reflect the students interenst in school life. The YTE entrants did not differ significantly from the persons who did not enter, in either of these areas. The students were also asked if they felt they did better in school because of their hobbies or interests and no difference showed up here either. When the students were asked if they thought courses in school were dull an uninteresting there was not a significant difference, but there was a tendency for the YTE entrants to disagree more often. Seventy- three percent of them disagreed while only 62.5% of the non-participants disagreed. This tendency could be taken 36 to indicate that the YTE participants are greater con- formers to the school system, instead of reflecting a true interest in classroom work. This possibility is mentioned again later with data that seems to support the fact. Table 3. School courses are dull and uninteresting. Agree Disagree Entered YTE 27.1 72.9 (13) (35) Never entered 37.5 62.5 YTE (54) (90) Less than a majority of both groups felt they had a fair chance to run things in the school system, but there was no significant difference between the two groups. The students were also asked to list the clubs and organiza- tions they belonged to, including those not connected with the school, but still no difference show up between the students who entered the YTE and those who did not. Table 4. Ninth grade students who plan to enter future YTE's. Yes No Don't know Entered YTE 33.3 18.2 48.5 (11) (5) (15) Never entered 18.2 23.4 58.4 YTE (14) (18) (45) When the students were asked to indicate if they planned to enter future YTE's (ninth graders only) no overall significant differences showed up, but the two groups did vary to some extent. Nearly equal amounts were 37 sure that they would not enter any future YTE's, but 33.3% of the students who had previously entered a YTE were plan- ning on doing so again, while only 18.2% of the students who had not entered a YTE were planning on entering one in the future. The greatest percentage of both groups were uncertain about entering rather than being against the idea. The students were asked three questions concerning their perceived value of hobbies and Special interests such as those they had entered in the YTE, but no signif- icant differences showed up between the YTE entrants and the remaining population. But some interesting results do show up: Table 5 shows the results when the students were asked if it was worthwhile to develOp hobbies. Table 5. Is it worthwhile to develop Hobbies? Yes No Don't know Entered YTE 83 6.4 10.6 (39) (3) (5) Never entered 75.5 7 17.5 YTE (108) (10) (25) No significant difference exists between the two groups, but the great majority of both agree that it is worth- while. Eighty-three percent of the participants say yes and 75.5% of the non-participants also agree. When the students were asked if they planned to continue or develop hobbies after leaving high school, again no difference showed up, but only 42.5% of the participants and 40.1% of the non-participants planned to continue or develop 38 Table 6. Students who plan to continue or develop hobbies. Yes No Don't know Entered YTE 42.5 17 40.5 (20) (8) (19) Never entered 40.1 17.6 42.3 YTE (57) (25) (50) hobbies. This question was followed by one asking if the students thought hobbies would be of value after they graduated from high school and Table 7 shows that 66% of the participants also think they will be of value. This Table 7. Will hobbies be of value after graduating from high school? Yes No Don't know Entered YTE 66 8.5 25.5 (31) (4) (12) Never entered 64.3 11.9 23.8 YTE (92) (17) (34) means that about one-half of the students, in both groups, who feel it is worthwhile to develop hobbies are not plan— ning on having any after leaving high school. Also, about one-third of those who said hobbies would be of value after leaving high school do not plan on continuing or develop- ing them. When the students were asked to.rank six reasons (excitement, companionship, self-satisfaction, competition, prestige, and relaxation and fun) for participating in an activity a significant difference showed up for only "self- satisfaction". 39 Table 8. How "self-satisfaction" was ranked as a reason for participating in an activity. lst 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th Entered YTE 25 11.1 11.1 27.8 5.5 19.5 (9) (4) (4) (10) (2) (7) Never entered 23.6 17.1 21.1 19.5 13.8 4.9 YTE (29) (21) (26) (24) (17) (6) Chi sq 11.846 p .05 The YTE entrants placed it first a little more often, but this is not the real point of difference. The non-partic- ipant group placed it second and third much more often than the YTE entrants did. The YTE entrants placed it in the last position 19.5% of the time and only 4.9% of the non-participants placed it in the last position. It was expected that the persons who entered the YTE would tend to be more individualistic and self-confident than other students, but the results did not show this. There was no significant difference between the two groups when they were asked if a person works best by himself, although a majority of both groups agreed with this. When asked if a person with desire and ability can be success- ful, a great majority of both groups agreed, but the YTE entrants were exactly the same as the rest of the students. When the students were asked if a person should take a stand against the majority a tendency did show up, but it was in the opposite direction than was expected. More of the non-participants tended to agree with this statement, rather than the students who had entered the YTE. The majority of both groups agreed that a person sometimes 40 should take a stand against the majority, but twice the amount of YTE participants disagreed with this statement. These results appear to lend support to the notion that YTE participants may be conformers rather than confident individuals who benefit from their activities of presumed self-expression. This idea would seem to negate the assumed value of participating in the YTE, but further comment will be reserved until the end of the chapter. Table 9. Students who are willing to take a stand against the majority. Yes No hntered YTE 85.4 14.6 (41) (7) Never entered 93.1 6.9 YTE (134) (10) Chi sq 2.603 p .20 An effort was made through the questionaire to try and determine how the students felt they were being pre- pared to learn ways to spend their free time after they had graduated. It was expected that the persons who had participated in the YTE would tend to disagree that going to school had helped to prepare them and agree more often that their extra-curricular activities had helped more, but this did not prove to be true. They did not differ significantly from the rest of the population on either question, although a majority of both groups agreed that both areas where helping them. After analyzing the data concerned with YTE partic- 41 ipants, it appears that very few 0: the prior expectations have been supported by the results. Instead of differing significantly with the rest of the population on the major points they seem to be very much the same. This could be taken to mean that the assumptions concerning the value of participating in the YTE are erroneous, but this probably is not the case in light of some facts. It must be remem- bered that the group members classified as YTE participants were not continuous participants in the event year after year. They were a group of students who had entered only occasionally, and therefore do not reflect what might have been true had they entered every year. The fact that the interests of the YTE participants in hobbies were probably not of current significance is indicated by Table 10. Table 10. Does the student have a hobby? Hobby Significant No Hobby Hobby Entered YTE 36.7 16.7 46.6 (11) (5) (l4) Nevered entered 27.5 18.6 53.9 YTE (28) (19) (55) Here it is shown that they do not significantly differ from the students who did not enter. In fact nearly half of them do not even have a hobby that is of current in- terest. Also, when the total activities of the students were placed on a scale 54% of the YTE entrants were in the entertainment-amusement category, rather than being in the categories that would indicate individual, active artic- 42 ipation. This seems to bear out the fact that the inter- ests of the YTE group are not current interests which was assumed to be true if differences were to show up. When it is seen that the YTE participants are not a group with current significant individual interests it is apparent that it would not be valid to judge the value of partic- ipating in the YTE on the basis of the students used in this study. CHAPTdR 5 STUDEETS WITH HCBBIJS OF CURRENT SIGNIFICANCE It has now been establisled that a small percentage of the students have taken the time to enter the YTE and they do not differ very much from the rest of the students, but it would be premature to conclude at this point that the students studied are not preparing themselves for mean- ingful use of their free time after they graduate and begin working. It could be that the students simply are not in- terested in entering the YTE, but they still may ha e hob- bies and interests that will be beneficial to them after graduation. This could be true since 53% of the students said that they did have a hobby or interest that could have been entered in the YTE. he students who claimed to have a hobby were asked to describe what it was. Fifty- two percent of these students did not describe any hobby or indicate spending any time on one, so they were con- sidered not to have a hobby or current significance. This means that 48% of these students or about one-fourth of the total population had hobbies of current interest. These students will now be focused on to see if they dif- fer any more significantly than the YTE group did. Supposedly a greater degree of difference will be found, since the interests of these students are more current han the interests of the YTE participants. The students used in this part of the study will be divided into three areas; the students wlc definitely have hobbies that are 43 44 of current significance, the students who have hobbies but they appear to be of less current significance, and the students who do not have hobbies. It should be pointed out before proceeding, that only 69% of the students are being used to test this variable. This is the 69% that said they did have hobbies or were not sure. The other 31% are not included in this group because of the way the data was coded. This 31% originally said they did not have any hobbies, therefore they were not receded in the three categories mentioned above based on a description and estimated amount of time spent on a hobby. Since he 31% of students who are being left out, originally said they definitely did not have a hobby, it should increase the significance of any differences that are found. The variables concerning aspirations of the students and family environment does not reveal any tendencies or significant differences, although Tables 11 and 12 show that the students with hobbies do vary in respect to ed- ucational and occupational goals. Table 11. Students who plan to continue their education. Yes No Don't know Hobby 61. 18 20.5 (24 (7 (3) Significant 83. 8.3 8.3 Hobby (2o (2) (2 No Hobby 58 17.4 24.6 (40) (12) (17) 45 Table 12. The type of job students are aspiring for if they plan to continue their education. Professional Skilled Unskilled Hobby 69.6 " 17.4 13 (16) (4) (3) Significant 85 15 0 Hobby (17) (3) (0) No Hobby 58.6 31 10.4 (17) (9) (3) Almost 84% of the students with significant hobbies plan on going on to school while only 58% of the students with no hobbies plan on doing so. Nearly the same is true for Job aspirations. Eighty-five percent of the students with significant hobbies as opposed to 58.6% of the students without hobbies aspire for professional jobs. The home environment of the students, reflected by parents' education and occupation, does not reveal any differences between the students who do have hobbies and those who do not. The fact that there is no difference in home environment is actually an encouraging point. It was expected that if a difference did show up it would mean the better Jobs and education of the parents could be a contributing factor for having hobbies or Special inter- ests. Since no differences were found on this point it may mean that any differences which do show up can be attributed to factors other than those aspects of the home environment. When the variables concerning the present life of the the student and his views toward hobbies are considered, 46 many differences begin to Show up that did not occur for the YTE participants. The grades of the students show a significant differ- ence when hobbies are considered as a factor. Table 13. Grades of the students. A's and 3'5 0'3 Below C Hobby 26.2 59 14.8 (16) (36) (9) Significant 63.6 27.3 9.1 Hobby (l4) (6) (2) No Hobby 36.2 50.7 13.1 (25) (35) (9) Chi sq. 9.864 p .05 Almost 64% of the students with significant hobbies get "A's and B's" while only 36.2% of the students without hobbies fall in this category, although the students with- out hobbies do better than the students with less meaning- ful hobby interests. When the YTE participants were under consideration, the question of conformity was raised as a reason for being more interested in classes. This same possibility could be applied to the students with signif- icant hobbies who are doing better in school. The possi- bility of being "conforming achievers" does not seem to be true though when we look at Table 14. The students with significant hobbies feel that the hobbies are a contrib- uting factor for doing better in school, therefore they are asserting the importance of their individual interests. Table 14 shows that 70.8% of the students with hobbies 47 Table 14. Do students do better in school because of hobbies? Yes No Don't know Hobby 43.6 38.5 17.9 (17) (15) ( ) Significant 70.8 25 4.2 Hobby (l7) (6) (1) No Hobby 42.6 18 39.4 (25) (11) (24) Chi sq 16.578 p .01 feel they do better in school because of the hobbies as compared with about 43% in each of the other two groups. If it were possible to think of school life as comparable to the work life, it seems that the students with meaning- ful hobbies and interests have benefited from them. hey are performing better in the situation than those who do not have hobbies and they agree that one of the reasons for doing better is because of their hobbies. Other variables dealing with school life reveal no significant differences between the students who have hob- bies and those who do not. When absence from school is considered no difTerence is found, but the students with significant hobbies do seem to be absent a little more often. The students with hobbies also do not find the classes interesting to any greater degree than the stu- dents without hobbies. Although the data does not show this, it could be possible that the classes are not challenging enough for the students with significant hob- bies, since they get better grades than those students 48 without hobbies. There is no difference either, on the question of the students having a fair chance to run things at the school. The students with hobbies go along with the majority of all students in disagreeing on this point. It would seem that the students with significant hobbies and the ones who also get better grades, would tend to be the student leaders and therefore feel more favorable about having a chance to run things at the school, but this does not appear to be true. Apparently the students are not comparing themselves with each other when answer- ing this question, but instead are comparing themselves with the faculty and administration. Having hobbies and individual interests was presumed to indicate that a student had the ability to do things on his own and a slight majority of the students with hobbies did agree that a person does work well by himself, but they did not differ significantly from the other students on this point. A possible reason for this similarity on the part of the students with hobbies, is that they appeared to be more willing to join in with others to do things. Students with hobbies belonged to clubs and organi- zations much more often than students who did not have hobbies. One-half of the students with significant hob- bies belonged to three or more clubs, while less than one- fourth of the students without hobbies did. Only 12.5% of the students with significant hobbies did not belong to 49 Table 15. The number of clubs or organizations the student belongs to. 0 1-2 3-4 More than 4 Hobby 18 46.1 20.5 15.4 (7) (18) (8) (5) Significant 12.5 37.5 25 25 Hobby (3) (9) (6) (6) No Hobby 33.3 43.5 11.6 11.6 (23) (30) (8) (8) Chi sq 8.978 p .20 any clubs as opposed to 33.3% of those students without hobbies. The students with less significant hobbies be- longed to clubs more often than those students without hob- bies, but less often than those students with the signif- icant hobbies. This could explain why the students with meaningful hobbies do not differ from the others when they were asked if a person works best by himself. They are almost evenly split on agreeing and disagreeing with this question. The students who have developed individual interests also take the time to participate in group activities, therefore they do not lean distinctly in either direction on this ques- tion. It many be worthwhile to consider another point here. When the students were asked if any person with de- sire and ability could be successful there tended to be a difference, but it was in the opposite direction of what might be expected. The students who had the significant hobbies and who also got the better grades, agreed with this 79.2% of the 50 time while the other two groups agreed over 90% of the time. It could be due to their greater involvement with clubs and organizations that the students with significant hob- bies see other factors aiding success besides individual desire and ability. It is possible that they view factors such as cooperation and connections as also being beneficial to success. Table 15. Any person with desire and ability can succeed. Agree Disagree HObby 9203 707 (36) (3) Significant 79.2 20.8 Hobby (19) ( ) No Hobby 91.3 8.7 (63) (6) Chi sq 3.263 p .20 The variables dealing with the students perceived value of hobbies revealed differences on all points be- tween students with hobbies and those without, even though a majority of all the students did seem to express favor- able views. A majority of all the students felt that it was worth taking the time to develop hobbies, but some differences were apparent. Every one of the students who had signif- icant hobbies agreed with this question, while 17.4% of the students who did not have hobbies did not feel that this was true. The students who did not have hobbies 51 Table 17. Is it worthwhile to continue or develop hobbies? Yes No Don't know HOb‘rJy 71.8 501. 23.1 (28) (2) (9) Significant 100 o 0 Hobby (24) (O) (0) No Hobby 81.2 1.4 17.4 (56) (1) (12) though, were more in agreement with the statement than those students who had less significant hobbies. Eighty- one percent of the students without hobbies agreed it was worthwhile as opposed to 71.8% of the students with less significant hobbies. A significantly greater amount of students with mean- ingful hobbies also indicated that they planned to continue their hobbies after leaving high school. Table 18. Do the students plan to continue or develop hobbies? Yes No Don't know Hobby 53.8 10.3 35.9 (21) (4) (14) Significant 75 8.3 16.7 Hobby (18) (2) (4) No Hobby 39.7 8.8 51.5 (27) (5) (35) Chi sq 10.192 p .05 Seventy-five percent of the students with significant hobbies said they would continue and 53.8% of tie students with less significant hobbies said they would. Only 39.7% 52 of the students without hobbies were planning on develop- ing hobbies after graduation, but this group tended to be more uncertain rather than saying they would not develop hobbies. Fifty-one percent said they did not know, while only 3.8% definitely said no. The next variable dealing with the students perceived value of hobbies asked them if they thought hobbies would be valuable to them after leaving high school. A signif- icant difference does not appear here but a tendency does: Table 19. Will hobbies be of value after graduation from high school? Yes No Don‘t know Hobby 84.6 5.1 10.3 (33) (2) (4) Significant 75 8.3 16.7 Hobby (18) (2) (4) N0 Hobby 60.9 5.8 33.3 (42) (4) (23) Chi sq 8.579 Hp .20 This time the students with the less significant hobbies gave the most favorable responses. Almost 85% of them said that hobbies would be of value. Seventy-five percent of the students with significant hobbies agreed with this, but the students without hobbies were lowest with 60.9% agreeing. When the total activities of the students were con- sidered, including hobbies and interests, the students with significant hobbies appeared high on the scale much 53 more often than the other students. Twenty-nine percent Table 20. value of the activities the students participate in. Injury Entertain- Active Creative to self ment, Amuse- Partic- Partic- ment ipation ipation Hobby 0 56.4 41 2.6 (O) (22) (16) (1) Significant 0 12.5 58.3 29.2 Hobby (o) (3) (l4) (7) No Hobby 1.5 72.5 26 0 (l) (50) (18) (0) of these students were in the category of creative partic- ipation, which indicated they devoted much of their free time to their hobbies or special individual interests. Another 58.3% of this group was in the active participant category and only 12.5% were in the entertainment-amuse- ment category. Therefore it appears that the students with significant hobbies preferred active involvement to a much greater degree than watching. Nearly three-fourths of the students without hobbies were in the entertainment- amusement category, which is probably due to he fact that they had not developed interests of their own that they could devote time to. Therefore, they were content to watch others rather than do something themselves. Twenty- six percent of this group did list some individual activ- ities which placed them in the active participant category. None of these students however were in the highest cat- egory on the scale. The students with less significant 54 hobbies were also clustered in the middle two categories, but a greater percentage (41%) were in the active partic- ipant category and 2.6% of them were in the creative par- ticipant category. No significant differences showed up when the students ranked the six reasons for participating in an activity, but the students who had meaningful hobbies seemed to fav- or "self-satisfaction" and "relaxation and fun" as reasons for participating. The students who had no hobbies did not seem to favor any particular reason for participating in an activity. Table 21. How "self-satisfaction" was ranked as a reason for participating in an activity. lst 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th Hobby 23.5 14.7 20.6 17.6 11.8 11.8 (8) ( ) (7) (6) (4) (4) Significant 40.9 22.7 18.2 18.2 0 0 Hobby (9) ( ) (4) (4) (O) (0) N0 Hobby 22.2 14.8 16.7 24 16.7 5.6 (12) (8) (9) (13) (9) (5) Table 21 shows that the significant hobby group placed "self-satisfaction" first on their list 40.9% of the time while the no hobby group had it first only 22.2% of the time. The group with less significant hobbies is similar to the no hobby group except that they place it sixth much more often. The students with significant hobbies never placed "self-satisfaction" lower than fourth, but more than 20% 0f the students in each of the other two groups 55 placed it in the fifth or sixth position. Since the students with meaningful hobbies spend more time on this type of activity than the other students, it would be expected that they would feel extra-curricular activities are doing more to prepare them for their free time after leaving high school. They did indicate this to be true a little more often than the other students, but the difference was not significant since the vast majority of all three groups felt this way. The great majority of all students also felt that going to school was helping to prepare them for ways to spend their free time, but there did tend to be difference in the way the groups disagreed. Table 22. Does going to school help to prepare for ways to spend leisure time? Yes No Don't hnow Hobby 74.4 10.2 15.4 (29) (4) (6) Significant 75 20.8 4.2 Hobby (18) (5) (1) No Hobby 79.7 10.5 10.5 (55) (7) (7) Chi sq 3.741 p .20 About three-fourths of all three groups agreed that school was helping to prepare them. The tendency for a differ- ence to be present lies in whether the students disagreed With this statement or were uncertain about it. Twenty- one percent of the students with significant hobbies said 56 that school did not help, while about 10% in each of the other two groups disagreed. The students without hobbies and those with less significant hobbies tended to be more uncertain rather than definitely disagreeing. Now that a group of students has been isolated, who have hobbies and special interests that are of genuine current significance, it does appear that difference exist between them and the other students. Another group of students who also have hobbies, but hobbies that are not as genuinely significant, were not found to differ a great deal from these students who did not have any hob- bies at all. The students who did have meaningful hobbies were found to be doing better in school and they attributed this, in part to the fact that they were interested in their hobbies. They also took part in group activities more, as was indicated by their tendency to Join clubs and organ- izations more often. The group wi h significant hobbies also exhibited a more favorable attitude toward the value of hobbies and indicated thev planned to continue to make them a meaningful part of their lives. More of the free time of this group also was Spent on activities which in- volved active or creative participation, rather than let- ting others entertain them. When it comes to participap- ing in an activity, "self-satisfaction" is most often the source of motivation for this group. Due to this greater interest in individual activities, these students were not as positive as other students that school was help- 57 ing to prepare them for the use of their free time after graduation. Still the great majority of all students agreed that school as well as extra-curricular activities are helping to prepare them. CHAPTER 6 DIFF?”“NCES RESULTING FROM GRADE, SEX, AND EUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS OF THE STUDENTS After observing the differences between students with meaningful hobbies and those without hobbies, it will be useful to see if there are any differences within the group itself. In other words, does the sex or grade of the stu- dent reveal any differences. These two variables, sex and grade, will also be used to see if boys and girls, and ninth graders and twelfth graders differ on some of the other variables previously discussed. It was already pointed out that educational aspirations revealed no signif- icant differences between the students With meaningful hob— bies and those without them, but this was due primarily to the similarity between students with less significant hob- bies and students with no hobbies. It may be beneficial to use this variable further to see if it does reveal any significant differences in the total population. When a comparison is made between ninth and twelfth graders to see if they differ on the point of having hob- bies, a significant difference does show up. The biggest difference exists in the group of students with meaningful hobbies. Almost 33% of the twelfth graders have signif- icant hobbies while only 7.8% of the ninth graders do. Almost equal amounts of both grades (31.2% of the ninth graders and 27.3% of the twelfth) have hobbies that are of less significance, but 61% of the ninth grade group have 58 59 Table 23. Does the student have a hobby? Hobby Significant No Hobby Hobby 9th Grade 31.2 7.8 61 (24) (6) (47) 12th Grade 27.3 32.7 40 (15) (18) (22) Chi sq 13.853 P .001 no hobbies while only 40% of the twelfth grade group do not have any. It-can be said then, that the twelfth graders have a more significant interest in meaningful hobbies than the ninth graders. The twelfth graders prob- ably see a greater necessity for this type of activity and have had more time to deve10p interests. This can partially be explained by some results that will be presented later. The twelfth graders place more reliance on their extra- curricular activities for helping to prepare them for ways to spend their leisure time and are somewhat more skeptical than ninth graders in feeling that going to school is adequately serving this purpose. A significant difference also shows up when the stu- dents are separated into their respective sexes. About 18% of both the girls and boys have hobbies that are con- sidered significant, but twice the amount of girls have at least some kind of a hobby. Almost 63% of the boys have no hobbies while only 41.5% of the girls were found to have no hobbies. Therefore it appears that the girls are more interested in hobbies, although the type of hobby 60 Table 24. Does the student have a hobby? Hobby Significant No Hobby Hobby Male 19.4 17.9 62.7 (13) (12) (42) Female 40 18.5 41.5 (26) (12) (27) they are more interested in is the less meaningful one rather than significant hobbies. A large percentage of boys were involved with athletic teams and this could account for‘many of them having no hobbies. In a small school such as this one, quite often the boys are involved in as many as three sports which would cover the entire school year. This seems to be the case since 40% of the boys were on two or more athletic teams for the current school year. When the grade of the student is considered as a factor, many differences show up. The twelfth graders have significant hobbies more often, as already pointed out and they also spend more time on these hobbies as is indicated by Table 25. The difference is not a signif- icant one, but the twelfth graders do tend to be more in- volved in creative and active participation than do the ninth graders. The majority of both groups were in the entertainment-amusement category, but the ninth graders were there more often than the students in the twelfth grade. 61 Table 25. Value of the activities in which the students participate. Injury Entertain— Active Creative to Self ment, Partic- Partic- Amusement ipation ipation 9th Grade 2.73 62.73 32.73 1.81 - (3) (69) (36) (2) 12th Grade 2.4 52.4 36.9 8.3 (2) (44) (31) (7) Whereas a difference appeared in the type of activ- ities of the two groups, there are no real differences in the educational shpere. Nearly the same amount of stu- dents in both grades are planning to go on to school, not planning to, or uncertain about going on. Also, there are no differences in the grades the students receive. Equal percentages of both groups receive the same amount of "A's and B's", "0's", and "below 0". Nor was there any signif- icant difference on the question of whether or not hobbies helped the student to do any better in school. Table 26. How "self-satisfaction" was ranked as a reason for participating in an activity. lst 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 9th Grade 15.5 10.7 19 28.6 15.5 10.7 (13) (9) (16) (24) (13) (9) 12th Grade 33.3 21.3 18.7 13.4 8 5.3 (25) (l6) (14) (10) (6) ( ) Chi sq 15.690 p .01 Differences do show up again when the students per- ceived value of hobbies and reasons for participating in 62 an activity are considered. The students in the ninth grade tend to choose "excitement" and "companionship" more often as reasons for participating. The students in the twelfth grade favor "self-satisfaction" and “relaxation and fun" as more important reasons. The twelfth graders rank "self-satisfaction" significantly higher as can be seen in Table 26. Thirty-three percent of the twelfth graders rank it in the number one position while only 15.5% of the ninth graders put it in this position. The students in the ninth grade place "self-satisfaction" most often in the middle part of the scale. This seems to be consistent with the twelfth graders greater interest in hobbies. They are more concerned with individual interests than ninth graders and "self-satisfaction" as a reason for partic- ipating in an activity reflects their interests. Tables 27 and 28 show that differences appear when the students are asked if they plan to continue hobbies and if they will be of value to them after leaving high school. Table 27. Do the students plan to continue or develop hobbies? Yes No Don't know 9th Grade 31.8 15.8 51.4 (34) (18) (55) 12th Grade 51.8 18.1 30.1 (43) (15) (25) Chi sq 9.698 p .01 In both cases the twelfth graders are more positive than the ninth graders. Almost 52%:as opposed to 31.8% plan on 63 Table 28. Will hobbies be of value after graduation from high school? Yes‘ No Don't know 9th Grade 57.4 13 29.6 (62) (14) (32) 12th Grade 74.4 8.5 17.1 (61) (7) (14) Chi sq 5.938 p .20 continuing or developing hobbies, and 74.4% compared to 57a4%'think that these hobbies will be of value after graduation. The ninth graders do not necessarily disagree with these statements more often however; in fact on the question of continuing hobbies they disagree less than the twelfth graders. Instead, the ninth graders are more un- certain about these two variables rather than being against them. On the question of which areas were helping to pre- pare them for ways to spend their free time after grad- uating from high school, a majority of both groups agreed that both school and extra-curricular activities were helping them, but some differences did appear. Table 29. Does going to school help to prepare for ways to Spend leisure time? Yes No Don't know 9th Grade 79.8 9.2 11 (8 ) (10) (12) 12th Grade 73.8 21.4 4.8 (62) (18) (4) 64 Table 30. Do extra-curricular activities help to prepare for ways to spend leisure time? Yes No Don't know 9th Grade 80.9 7.3 11.8 (89) (8) (13) 12th Grade 85.7 10.7 3.5 (72) (9) (3) Chi sq 40704 p 020 Table 29 shows that slightly more ninth graders agreed that going to school was helping to prepare them, but a significantly greater amount of twelfth graders disagreed with this statement. Twenty-one percent of the twelfth graders did not feel that school was helping, while only 9.2% of the ninth graders felt this way. The twelfth graders are almost finished with high school and there- fore can make a more realist appraisal of its value in helping to prepare them for their future leisure time. The ninth graders are just entering high school and are more willing to accept its value in many areas, since they have no basis yet for disagreement. The ninth graders say they do not know if school is helping to prepare them for their leisure time, twice as often as the twelfth graders, which also seems to reflect their newness to the situation. There also was a tendency for the students in the twelfth grade to be more in agreement with extra- curricular activities being beneficial for preparing them, but again the great majority of all students agreed with this statement as is seen in Table 30. The greater un- 65 certainty of the ninth graders (11.8% compared with the twelfth graders 3.6%) on this issue is probable the re- sult of being less involved with meaningful hobbies. The girls tended to be related to or differed from the boys in much the same way that the twelfth graders differed from the ninth graders. Again there was no dif- ference in plans for going on to school, just as there was no difference between the grades. The girls' perceived value of hobbies was more favorable in the same way that the twelfth graders exhibited a more favorable preference. That is, the girls showed a greater tendency to plan on continuing hobbies after graduation and they saw the hobbies as continuing to be of value. Some other differences did show up that did not appear between the grades or were not the same as they were between ninth and twelfth graders. One of these areas of difference was the grades that the students' received. A very significant difference appeared here that was not present when the ninth and twelfth grades were considered. Table 31. Grades of the students. A's and 8'3 0'8 Below 0 Male 22.6 58.5 18.9 (24) (62) (20) Female 54.6 41.9 3.5 (47) (36) (3) Chi sq 25.103 p .001 A far greater percentage of the girls were in the "A's and 66 B's" category. Almost 55% of the girls got A's and B's and only 3.5% of them were in the "below 0" category. The boys greatly out numbered the girls in the "below 0" categcry with 18.9%, while only 22.6% of them were in the "A and B" category. More of the boys received primarily "O" grades with 58.5% of them in this category as compared to 41.9% of the girls. This point is further emphasized by the fact that boys tended to agree more often that courses are dull and uninteresting. The boys and girls also differed on reasons for par— ticipating in an activity. The girls tended to participate more often for reasons of "excitement" and "relaxation and fun", while the boys choose "self-satisfaction" and "com- petition" as more important reasons for participating. Table 32. How "self-satisfaction" is ranked as a reason for participating in an activity. lst 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th. Male 30.2 15.1 19.7 14 14 7 (26) (13) (17) (12) (12) (6) Female 16.5 16.5 17.8 30 9.6 9.6 (12) (12) (13) (22) (7) (7) Chi sq 9.063 P .20 Table 32 does not show a significant difference between boys and girls on "self-satisfaction", but there is a tendency for boys to favor it more often. The main dif- ferences are that the boys rank it first more often, 30.2% to 16.5% for the girls, while the girls rank it fourth more often, 30% to 14% for the boys. This seems to con- 67 flict with a point made earlier which showed the girls participating in hobbies to a greater extent than the boys. But it should be recalled that they did not differ on the point of having significant hobbies, rather it was in the category of less significant hobbies that the girls out numbered the boys. The boys' two most important reasons, "self-satisfaction" and "competition", appears to reflect their interests in hobbies and sports. It could be that sports also have a quality of "self-satisfaction" for the boys when they exhibit the ability to be on a team. The girls do not have an "obligation" to be on athletic teams, but they did indicate a greater interest in individual physical activities and this is probably the reason for their choice of "excitement" and "relaxation and fun". The girls agree in almost identical proportions that both school and extra-curricular activities are helping to prepare them for ways to spend their free time after leav- ing high school. The boys are in somewhat less agreement on both points, but they have a tendency to disagree that going to school has helped them as much as the girls have indicated it is helping them. This could be a further in- dication of the fact that the boys get the lower grades and find the courses in school dull and uninteresting more often than the girls. The students who plan to further their education dif- fer in many ways from those students who do not plan to do so or are uncertain. many of the differences are 68 similar to the ones seen before when other discrete groups of students were considered. Three of the most significant differences involve the students' attachment with school life. The students who were planning on going on to school unsurprisingly were the students who got the better grades. Table 33 shows that a significantly greater percentage of the students going on to school received "As and B's". Table 33. Grades of the students. A's and B's C's Below C Going on 53 41.8 5.2 to school (61) (48) (6) Not going on 5.7 68.6 25.7 to school (2) (24) (9) Don't know 19.5 61 19.5 (8) (25) (8) Chi sq 37.203 p .001 Fifty-three percent of them were in this category while Just 557% of the students not going on to school received "A's and B's". Almost 20% of the students who were uncer- tain were in the highest category. The students who were not going on to school and the ones who were uncertain had 68.6% and 61% respectively in the "0" category, while 41.8% of the students who were going on to school were in this category. Far fewer of the students who planned to continue their education were in the "below 0" category, with the students who did not plan to continue their ed- ucation being most prominent in this category. 69 Tables 34 and 35 give further evidence that the stu- dents who plan on continuing their education are more in- terested in school life. Significant differences show up when both interest in school work and attendance are con- sidered. The students who plan to go on to school disagree Table 34. School courses are dull and uninteresting. Agree Disagree Going on 27.3 72.7 to school (32) (85) Not going on 47.1 52.9 to school (16) (18) Don't know 46.3 53.7 (19) (22) Chi sq 7.510 p .05 Table 35. Number of days absent from school. 0-5 6-10 10 or more Going on 67.5 16.25 16.25 to school (79) (19) (19) Not going on 37.2 31.4 31.4 to school (13) (11) (11) Don't know 61 22 17 (25) (9) (7) Chi sq 10.618 p .05 significantly more often than the students who are not going on, on the question of courses being dull and unin- teresting. Although the students who are uncertain about going on do not differ from the students who said they are not going to continue their education. Also, the students who are going on to school, currently attend school much 70 more regularly than those students who are not. The stu— dents who do not plan on continuing their education have been absent ten days or more, quite a bit more often than either of the other two groups. The fact that the students who are not going on to school are absent more often re- flects their greater disinterest in school classes and their lower grades. The students who are going on to school exhibit more favorable attitudes toward hobbies in much the same way that differences have been noted previously. The same is not true of the students who are uncertain about going on to school. Table 36. Do the students plan to continue or develop hobbies? Yes No Don't know Going on 47 13 40 to school (54) (15) (46) Not going on 28.6 34.3 37.1 to school (10) (l2) (13) Don't know 33.3 15.4 51.3 (13) (6) (20) 0111 Sq 110054 P 002 These students do not differ a great deal from the stu- dents who are not going on to school on favorable respon- ses toward the value of hobbies, instead they continue to be uncertain more often than responding negatively. The uncertainty of this group on the question of going on to school seems to carry over into other areas when they are 71 Table 37. Will hobbies be of value after graduation from high school? Yes No Dondt know Going on 74.8 5.2 20 to school (86) (6) (23) Not going on 45.7 28.6 25.7 to school (16) (10) (9) Don't know 52.5 12.5 35 (2 ) ( ) (14) Chi sq 20.810 p .001 asked to decide how they feel on an issue. The group of students who are going on to school think that it is worth- while to develop hobbies, they plan on continuing them after graduating and they feel that these hobbies will continue to be of value, more often than either of the other two groups. The only place that a difference shows up in the rank- ing of reasons for participating in an activity, again is on the variable of "self-satisfaction". Table 38. How "self-satisfaction" is ranked as a reason for participating in an activity. lst 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th Going on 28.4 17.6 17.6 20.6 12.8 3 to school (29) (18) (18) (21) (13) (3) Not going on 16 20 16 2O 8 20 to school (4) (5) (4) (5) (2) (5) Don't know 15.6 12.5 15.6 6.3 25 25 (5) (2) (8) (8) (4) (5) Chi sq 16.133 p .20 The difference is not a significant one, but the students 72 who are going on to school do show a tendency to rank it first more often than the other two groups. Twenty-eight percent of this group rank it first while only 16% of each of the other groups rank it as the number one reason. The students who are not going on to school rank it almost equally in all six positions. The uncertain group does not tend toward either extreme, but they place it most often in the middle two positions. There is no difference between the groups on the question of school helping to prepare them for their free time activities after graduating. The majority in all three groups feel that school is helping them, but a dif- ference does appear in the way that they feel about extra- curricular activities. Table 39. Do extra-curricular activities help to prepare for ways to spend leisure time? Yes No Don't know Going on 89.7 6 4.3 to school (105) (7) (5) Not going on 82.9 11.4 5.7 to school (29) (4) (2) Don't know 63.4 14.6 22 (26) (6) (9) Chi sq 17.239 p .01 The difference is primarily brought about by the students who are uncertain about going on to school. Almost 90% of the students planning on going on to school and 82.9% of the students who are not, do feel that extra-curricular 73 activities help them, whereas only 63.4% of the uncertain D students feel this way. The lower percentage of agree- ment by this group, again is not caused so much by their negative responses as it is by their uncertainty. Only 14.6% of them say that extra-curricular activities are not helping them, while 22% do not know whether or not these activities are of help. This analysis of the students' plans on educational aspirations reveals that those students who do plan on going on to school are in a somewhat better position than those students who do not. The students who plan to con- tinue their education are doing better in school, they have more favorable attitudes toward hobbies and they also have more meaningful hobbies to their credit than those students not planning on going on to school. Those stu- dents who are uncertain about their plans after graduation seem to continue to be uncertain in most other areas as well. PART III SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 74 CHAPTER 7 ARE THE STUDENTS PREPARED? The use of participation in the Ybuth Talent exhibit as a variable to detect differences in the population did not prove to be very beneficial, since no meaningful, significant differences showed up between those students who did participate and those who did not. A qualifica- tion needs to be added to this statement though, because the group that was used as YTE participants weré not "real participants" in the sense that their participation in the YTE did not constitute a current meaningful activity for them. They were a collection of students who had entered the YTE infrequently in the past and only two of them had entered this year. Therefore it would be rather difficult to draw any conclusions from the information obtained from these students and except to make any meaningful state— ments on the value of having hobbies and special inter- ests, since the hobbies and interests of these students were not necessarily current or significant. On the other hand, it should be worthwhile to con- sider the results obtained from the students who said they did have hobbies or special interests. The reason for placing more reliance on the information obtained from these students is two-fold. Before accepting their state- ment that they did have a hobby it was determined if this hobby was of meaningful significance and if it was a cur- rent interest of the student. This point is additionally 75 76 supported by the finding that the group who had current meaningful hobbies also spent more of their free time en- gaged in these activities. They were more often class- .4- fied as either creative or active participants when their activities were considered. When these students, with current meaningful hobbies or interests, were compared with other students many differences did show up between them. The students with meaningful hobbies differed from the other students in such ways as; getting better grades, having a greater interest in school courses, participating in activities for "self-satisfaction" more so than for other reasons, and displaying more favorable attitudes toward the value of hobbies. The students with meaning- ful hobbies did not differ from the other students on such factors as parents' occupation or education. Both the differences and the similarities are important points which deserve consideration. The students who do have meaningful hobbies are per- forming better in a current situation in which they are involved. That is, they are now in school and they are significantly getting better grades than those students who do not have any hobbies or hobbies that are of less significance. Also, they are more interested in this current situation and they credit part of this interest and higher achievement to the fact that they are involved with hobbies. If this trait carries on past their grad- uation from high school, and it should, since they agree 77 that they will continue their hobbies and the hobbies can be expected to retain their value, these students should be the ones who will exhibit less dissatisfaction in their lives when they start working. Kornhauser points out in his book that most of the workers he studied seemed to be "groping for ways to Spend their free time." In an indirect way it appears that the same thing is true of students in this study who do not have meaningful hobbies or interests. fore often they are content to be spectators to the activities which they are involved in rather than active participants. They may not be groping for ways to Spend their free time now, but after a few years of watching rather than doing, the activities that are now entertaining will decrease in value. By way of comparison, the group of students who have meaningful hobbies do not seem to be lacking when it comes to finding ways to Spend their free time. These students are not limited to relying on others when they are free to choose ways to spend their time. They are able to involve them- selves in individual and self-eXpressive activities that contain the value of personal growth. In other words, these are activities that are not likely to lose their value with the passing of time. In fact quite the opposite is true of the value of the activities these students are involved in, instead of decreasing in value as time goes by it is more probable that they will increase. The great majority of all students agree that both 78 going to school and extra-curricular activities are help- ing to prepare them for ways to Spend their free time after they graduate and begin working. This is an inter— esting point which deserves consideration. Agreement with both of these statements by the group with significant hobbies seems to be consistent with their actions, since they are doing well and are interested in school and they are developing individual interests that are meaningful. But for the other students to say that school is helping to prepare them seems to be absurd, because they more often are the ones who are doing poorly in school and say that they find it dull and uninteresting. These students may rightly feel that their extra-curricular activities are helping to prepare them for ways to spend their time, but the ways in which they Spend it will most likely not change. This means they are preparing themselves to be Spectators rather than participants in their future free time activities. The fact that the students with meaningful hobbies and interests come from family backgrounds similar to the students without hobbies is an important point. It means that the hobbies and interests they have are not necessar- ily the result of better educated parents or parents with better Jobs. The parents with better jobs and educations apparently have no more influence on the development of their children's hobbies than do the parents with less education and less skilled Jobs. Certainly there are con- 79 ditions in the home environment that are conducive to the development of hobbies, but it is not necessarily the ed- ucation or the job of the parents which creates a better environment for the development of hobbies. It could be that having favorable attitudes toward the value of hobbies has Just as much effect on the development of hobbies, as the reverse: favorable attitudes occurring as the result of having hobbies. This seems to be a merry-go-round proposition that has no beginning or end and does not allow for a prediction of what does have an influence on the development of hobbies. It seems that in addition to having a favorable attitude there must also be a willing- ness to spend time on these kinds of activities. A major- ity of the students who do not have meaningful hobbies do have favorable attitudes, but they are less willing to spend the time to develop and participate in these kinds of activities. There are some differences in the students who have meaningful hobbies and they are worth looking at. The girls appear to have a greater interest in hobbies, but this is not as meaningful as it appears to be when the extent of their interests are considered. There is no difference between boys and girls on the question of hav- ing meaningful hobbies. It is only in the area of less Significant hobbies that the girls are more interested and the interests here are quite often in the direction of homemaking activities. The girls may view cooking and 80 sewing as a hobby now, but in the future it probably will become more of a necessary chore rather than a hobby. The differences that exist between the two grades is more im- portant, since they differ on the point of having mean- ingful hobbies. A far greater percentage of the twelfth graders now have meaningful hobbies, but this is not too alarming since the ninth graders have a few more years yet to develop interests that will grow in importance. Also it Should be considered that a possible reason for a greater percentage of twelfth graders having Significant hobbies is due to the students who have dropped out of school between the ninth and twelfth grades. Most likely the students who have dropped out are the ones who did not have hobbies, thus this would increase the percentage of twelfth graders with meaningful hobbies. But it should be pointed out that those students who do drop out are probably the ones in greatest need of hobbies and inter- ests, since the types of jobs they will be qualified for are the least rewarding of all. It is important to single out the students with meaningful hobbies and then see how they differ from the rest of the students, but it is also necessary to place these students back with the others and consider the pop- ulation as a whole. A majority of all the students feel that hobbies and special interests are now of value and will continue to be of value after graduationg from high school. There also is an overwhelming amount who feel 81 that their extra-curricular activities are helping to pre- pare thcm for ways to spend their free time when they be- gin working. A somewhat smaller percentage, but still quite large (40%) say they definitely plan on continuing or developing hobbies after they leave high school. This indicates there is a great deal of disparity between what the students are saying and what they are actually doing. It should be pointed out that only 63 students (32%) cur- rently have some type of hobby and an even smaller number (24 students or 12%) have meaningful hobbies. This means that 68% of the students, so far have not bothered to dev- elop any meaningful interests and another 20% are only equipped with interests that are not of a great deal of value. If we stop here and try to answer our original ques- tion we find that some of the results can be viewed fav- orably while some others cannot be viewed so favorably. Most of the students indicate they are aware of the need and importance of developing individual and self-express- ive interests. These students are not necessarily looking ahead to the time when they will have a Job, and then re- late the importance of their individual interests to a job that may be lacking in such individual and self-express- ive qualities, but they do at least indicate an awareness for the value of such interests. For the ninth grade stu- dents this would be even more true. At the present they probably are not very concerned about what will happen 82 when they get a job, but even the majority of them exhibit favorable attitudes toward the value of hobbies. The actions of the students do not coincide with their indi- cated awareness though. Only a very small percentage are actually developing interest that are supportive of the way they say they feel. This would mean that the students who will soon be entering the work world are not any better prepared to cope with the problems than those people who are already there. It is true that the ninth grade stu- dents have more time yet to develop interests, but the data does not indicate that they will have any greater percentage of students with meaningful interests to fill their free time. Aside from the develOpment of interests in hobbies, there does seem to be a greater amount of students (36%) who are developing individual activities that will be of value. These activities tend to be along the line of athletics such as swimming, bowling and tennis. This is probably the result of increased emphasis on the import- ance of carry-over activities by physical education peeple, but the greatest value of these activities will be in the area of relaxation and fun and not in the area of personal satisfaction and individual growth. Therefore I would conclude that greater emphasis must also be placed on the development of self-expressive activities as well as re- laxing activities. The development of individual inter- ests is necessarily of a personal nature, but the great 83 majority of students seem to be letting it slip by. More encouragement to individual expression during the school years, while the student is still developing in many ways, would certainly be more beneficial than trying to deal with the problem after a person has started working and settles down into routines that are difficult to alter. This study has attempted to answer only one question; are students developing interests that will give meaning to their lives when they begin working? The answer appears to be negative. More studies should be carried out to disprove this or add support to these findings. Beyond this, much more needs to be done. Why are not the younger peOple taking the time to develop such interests and what can be done to improve the situation? These and other questions need to be raised and answered. BIBLIOGRAPHY Backstrom, Charles H. and Gerald D. Hursh. 1963. SURVEY RESEARCH, Northwestern University Press. ETC: A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS. Oct. 1954,Vol. XI, No. 4. Kornhauser, Authur, Robert Dubin and Arthur M. Ross, ed. 1954. INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. Kornhauser, Arthur. 1965. MENTAL HEALTH OF THE INDUSTRIAL mam, John Wiley & Sons. Nash, Jay B. 1960. PHILOSOPHY OF RECREATION AND LEISURE, Wm. C. Brown Co., Inc. Smigel, Erwin O. 1963. WORK AND LEISURE, College and University Press. 84 9. What grade are you in? 8.. Are you 3. APPENDIX A Questionaire 9th male b. 12th b. female What school program are you taking? a. not yet decided b. c. vocational commerical d. general 6. college prep f. other plan to graduate from high school? b. no yes plan to go to college or some other kind of after finishing high school? c. don't know yes no answer is "yes" preparing for? answer is "no" to question 5, what Job do you to get after leaving high school? to question 5, what Job will The person who supports me is my grandparents f. foster parent a. b. o. d. What is the occupation of the person who supports you? What job does he (she) have? Be as specific as you father mother sister brother can 0 8. g. h. relative (specify) other (specify) 10. Does your mother have a job outside the home? 11. If "yes", what is her job? 12. How much formal education does the person who sup- a. ports a. b. c. yes, fulltime b. yes, parttime you have? l-6th grade 7-9th grade 9-12th grade 85 0. no d. high school graduate 9. some college f. college graduate 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 86 How much formal education does your mother have? a. l-6th grade d. high school graduate b. 7-9th grade e. some college 0. 9-l2th grade f. college graduate If you have any brothers or sisters still in school, give the grade they are in (column A). If you have any who no longer are in school, give the amount of education they completed (column B). A B l l If you had to register in the next election, how would you register? a. Democrat 0. Independent b. Republican If "independent", which party do you think you would prefer most often? a. Democrat 0. don't know b. Republican Do you agree or disagree that (place an "X" in the box under "agree" or "disagree“ for each statement) Agree Disaggee E] E] A. The best work I do, I usu- ally do by myself. C] E] B. Varsity athletes are not really the best athletes. [’1 E] C. When friends are wrong, they " should be told they‘re wrong [3 E] D. There's little use talking to teachers because they really aren't interested in students. E] [j E. A person should plan his future so things turn out right. [7 C] F. School activities here tend to be dominated by certain groups. E]_ [:1 C. When I want to do a job, I can usually do it very well. List any clubs or organizations you belong to (in- clude any you may belong to even if they are not connected with your school). 19. 20. 21. 22. 87 Do you hold office in any of the organizations? a. yes b. no List any school athletic teams you have been on or definitely expect to be on this year. _.__ ——— ‘— ——— What kind of grades do you usually get? a. Azs and B's c. below 0 b. C s wa many times have you been absent this year? a. 0-5 days c. more than 10 days b o 6'10 days many of the remaining questions deal with participation in the Youth Talent Exhibit and any hobbies or special interests you may have. Even if you have never entered the Ibuth Talent Exhibit or do not have any hobbies or special interests, read the questions carefully anyway and select the most appropriate answer for you. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. Did you enter the Youth Talent Exhibit this year? a. yes b. no Have you ever entered a Ybuth Talent Exhibit? a. yes b. no If you have ever entered a Ybuth Talent Exhibit be- fore this year check the grade(s) you were in when you entered. a. 6th d. 9th b. 7th 6. 10th 0. 8th f. 11th If you are in the 9th grade do you plan to enter any future Youth Talent Exhibits? a. yes 0. don't know b. no What is or was the main reason for entering the Ybuth Talent Exhibit? a. a teacher encouraged you c. own decision b. your parents encouraged you d. never entered If you were previously entered in the Youth Talent Exhibit but did not enter this year, why? a. didn't have time b. lost interest in hobbies or activities that could have been entered 0. other (explain) . 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 88 If you did not enter the Ybuth Talent Exhibit this year or have never entered, do you have any hobby or special interest that could have been entered? a. yes c. don't know b. no If you answered yes to question 29, what is the hobby or special interest (discribe briefly). How often do you devote time to this hobby or special interest discribed in question 30? a. two times a week d. a few times a year b. once a week 6. don't have any hob- c. once or twice a month bies or special in- terests. If you have ever entered a Youth Talent Exhibit, which was more important to you? a. winning a prize c. to please a teacher b. working on the project d. never entered Do you feel it is worthwhile to develop hobbies or interests on your own, such as those that can be entered in the Youth Talent Exhibit? a. yes c. don't know b. no As a result of developing hobbies or interests on your own, do you think you have become more interested in your school work? - a. yes c. don't know b. no d. don't have any hobbies or interests Do you plan on continuing or starting activities of this nature when you leave school? a. yes 0. don't know b. no Do you feel that any hobbies or interests you are now developing or might develop will be of value once you leave school? a. yes c. don't know b. no What do you feel is the value of developing these hobbies or interests on your own? a. no value c. allows you to do things that b. a time filler give a sense of satisfaction d. don't know What activities (sports, watch TV, read, work on a hobby, etc.) do you like to do most. List them in order of preference. 89 39. Where do you like to play or do these activities most 40. 41. 42. 43. of the time? a. at home after school hours 0. at school after b. at school during school hours school hours If you had a choice, would you rather participate in an activity yourself or watch someone else? a. participate b. watch Rank the following reasons for participating in an activity from the one you feel is most important (1) to the least important (6). ___excitement __ competition __ companionship __.prestiege .__ self-satisfaction __ relaxation and fun Do you agree or disagree that (place an "X" in the box under "agree" or “disagree for each statement) Astaa| Disaszas . a. A person works best when he works by ’ himself. b. School tryouts almost always select ‘ the best athletes. c. Any person with desire and ability can be successful. d. Sometimes a person has to take a stand against the majority. e. It's best to live for today, tomorrow ‘ will usually take care of itself. f. Overall, courses are dull and uninter- esting. DECIDED UDDDDD Going to school has helped to prepare you for a Job when you leave school. Do you feel school has also helped to prepare you for ways to spend your time when you have time off from work? a. yes c. don't know b. no Do you feel that extra-curricular activities such as; clubs, organizations, athletics, hobbies or special interests are helping to prepare ways for you to Spend your time when you have time off from work? a. yes c. don't know b. no MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY LBI II II II I III III I III IIIIIIIIIIIIII I|