Prophylactic Function of Leisure Time Activities - Report of Studies (From Loisirs - une des mesures de prevention de la delinquance juvenile, P 85-92, 1976, Alice Parizeau, ed. - See NCJ-70512)

• NCJ Number: 70515
• Author(s): D Andrejew
• Date Published: 1977
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: French
• Country: Canada

Annotation

The influence of leisure and leisure time activities on the deviancy of Polish youth is analyzed with a view toward improving the prevention of juvenile delinquency through better management of leisure time activities.

Abstract

Questionnaires were administered to 200 youths from correctional schools and institutions in Varsovia, Poland, and to a control group of nondelinquent youths from similar geographical, socioeconomic, and educational backgrounds. The youths were all between the ages of 14 and 19. The data showed that the delinquent youths generally had more hours of leisure time per day than the control group. While participation in clubs was almost the same for the two groups, deviant youths tended to participate more in sporting-type clubs; more than half of them had never joined the Scouts or the Polish Red Cross compared to 29 percent of the control subjects who had never been members of such organizations. Deviant youths were most interested in popular forms of recreation, such as sport or music, rather than in artistic or technological hobbies or pursuits. Of nonorganized activities for both groups, television took first place, followed by book and magazine reading, listening to music, and attending the theater or dances, and playing football or going on walks. Deviant juveniles, however, spent their time primarily with older youths, who did not attend the same school and displayed symptoms of social deviance, while control group youths associated more with people their own age and from the same school. The deviant youths spent their time playing cards or walking to town and drinking in bars and clubs with their older friends. Family played the same role for both groups with regard to leisure activities; yet, the control group was more involved in helping in domestic chores. Generally, deviant youths spent their leisure time with friends who were outside of their family and school environments, with that time appearing to compensate for school and family failures. Thus, after-school activities should be developed to attract these deviant youths in order to keep them off the streets and more involved in nondeviant pursuits. --in French.