Leisure time as an aspect of quality of life in the population of the Municipality of Gornja Rijeka

The way an individual spends leisure time in his/her environment is one of the factors that influence his/her quality of life Due to the features of space (natural and anthropogenic environment), size and structure of settlement, population, the prevailing economic branch and other attributes – the Municipality of Gornja Rijeka was selected for a case study in researching population’s quality of life in rural areas. The research was conducted by using the method of surveying during November and December of 2012 on a non-proportional judgment sample of170 examinees aged 18-60. The aim of the paper is to analyze part of results of the research through which the ways of spending leisure time were studied. In estimating the overall quality of life of the population in the selected area the focus was on the possibilities to engage in leisure activities in the settlements where they reside. The ways and the quality of spending leisure time were measured by closed type questions referring to ways and frequency of doing certain activities, and were later analyzed in relation to the selected sociodemographic variables (the examinee’s age, sex, marital status, household size), the health status and the personal income of an individual, whether they live from agriculture, patterns of support and sociability, perception of personal quality of life and the quality of life in the settlements where the examinees live. The results of factor analysis applied to 14 variables (leisure time activities) confirmed five factors by which it is possible to describe the way of spending leisure time for an inhabitant of a selected rural area – urban dimension, traditional dimension, sociability, hobbies and media. One of the conclusions of the research was that, in parallel to the decrease of differences in the rural and urban populations’ ways of life (especially when it comes to population aged 18-60), the differences in spending leisure time also decrease. It is primarily explained by an increasing employment of the rural population in non-agricultural activities, better transport connections between villages and cities and modern communication possibilities of rural households (internet). Also, the research has confirmed that the possibilities (infrastructure and organization) of leisure activities in the settlement where an individual lives significantly influence the overall quality of life estimate