On the Method of Research into the Leisure Time Activities of the Youth

The authors have worked out a questionnaire method for the research into the leisure time activities of the youth aged from 11 to 19. The method differentiates activities realized in different areas, .both in a current measure and in a more intensive measure, and the respective kinds of current and strong wishes. Special attention is paid to unfulfilled wishes, enforced and substitutional activities, to manysidedness and concentration (or distraction and one-sidedness) as the case may be in one’s wishes and activities. The method signalizes frustrations of the youth in their leisure time activities, shortcomings and problems in the development of the young people, in their living conditions and in education. The method is usable for the investigation of personality development, for socio- -psychological researches and the like, as well as for ascertaining differences between pupils attending different schools and different types of school, living in different cultural, educational and other conditions, possibly for tracing the changes occurring in experimental teaching and education. Plans are being made for the elaboration of this method for the purpose of individual personality diagnostics, too, to be used in combination with other diagnostic methods.