The authors analyse the results of their research on the activities of the youth aged from 11 to 19 with the aim of ascertaining some facts and problems concerning the formation and the training of the personality’s activity. A high degree of the extensiveness of wishes and activities in the leisure time of the youth of this age group is a positive condition for the development of activity. Any discrepancies between the wishes and the activities realized are a manifestation of the fact that the motivation of young people meets with obstacles, which gives rise to tension. Such a situation can lead to increased efforts to overcome the obstacles, to realize unfulfilled wishes — the activity of the personality is being developed. But it can also lead to resignation, to seeking some compensatory satisfaction in the more passive forms of spending their leisure time — the passivity of the personality is being developed. Education has an important task in this respect: to help young people develop internal pre-conditions for coping with obstacles. What is also important are the broader social conditions — mass media, the way the adults spend their leisure time, etc.