Exploring a Dispositional Conceptualization of Leisure in Early Adolescence: An Examination of the Self-as-Entertainment Construct

176 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1998.The self-as-entertainment construct represents a personality disposition specific to the use of free time and leisure behavior. Self-as-entertainment reflects individual differences in the capacity or ability to fill one's free time in a manner that is personally satisfying and appropriate. A convenience sample of 7th-grade students completed the self-as-entertainment scale and self-reported freely chosen activities in the nonschool hours (2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.). Students reported on two consecutive days using an event diary (a form of experience sampling). The event diary recorded the student's freely chosen activities including assessment of these activities on six subjective state variables of enjoyment, fun, boredom, effort, mental challenge, and physical challenge. It was hypothesized that high self-as-entertainers would report higher levels of enjoyment, fun, effort, mental challenge, and physical challenge and a lower level of boredom than low self-as-entertainers. In support of the hypothesis, high self-as-entertainers consistently reported significantly higher levels of enjoyment and mental challenge, however, the two groups did not differ significantly in their reported levels of fun, boredom, effort, or physical challenge. Day 1 and day 2 reports differed significantly for the variables of boredom and mental challenge. The self-as-entertainment scale and the event diary as a method for measuring freely chosen activities were piloted in the study. The findings and the assessment of these measures suggest preliminary evidence for a leisure disposition in adolescence and preliminary support for the utility of the measures. However, the nonsignificant findings for 4 of the 6 subjective state variables examined and the days effect indicate the need for further refinement of the measures and the self-as-entertainment construct.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD