Leisure structure, value orientations and health behavior among high school students

Abstract

The main goal of the present study has been to determine the relationships between youth’s leisure structure and their health behaviors. We have also aimed at investigating the connections between youth’s leisure and parents’ social background. In addition, we have tried to detect possible relationships between youth’s leisure and their value orientations such as materialism and their levels of satisfaction with life. Data were collected from students enrolled in the secondary schools of the Southern Plain Region (three counties, namely, Bács-Kiskun, Békés and Csongrád) of Hungary. This representative sample consisted of 1114 high school students aged between 14-21 years. Self-administered questionnaires were used to obtain information from students regarding their family structure, psychosocial health, value orientations, satisfaction with life and socio-demographics. Correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that youth’s leisure time activities were related to other elements of their lifestyle such as value orientations and health behaviors. Social status indicators, however, were a more important influence of their leisure as compared to their Western-European counterparts.