EAP 5 ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Name: Do Phuong Hien I.D.: 21001444

Class: EAP5-0921WSB-10

Assignment: (please circle) Res. Report

Assignment Question: (write out in full)

- What factors affect ISB students in choosing leisure activities?
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Due date: 8/10/2021 Date submitted: 7/10/2021

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Student’s Signature: Do Phuong Hien Date: 7/10/2021

EXTENSION – To be approved BEFORE original submission date

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 Leisure Activities
Name

Class

Day submitted

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Table of Contents

Abstract................................................................................................................................................4

Introduction..........................................................................................................................................5

Methodology........................................................................................................................................7

Result....................................................................................................................................................8

Discussion..........................................................................................................................................13

References..........................................................................................................................................15

Appendix............................................................................................................................................16

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 Abstract

This study examined the factors that may affect Vietnamese students while selecting their

recreational activities. The hypothesis of this report was tested through a digital survey with the

participation of 62 Vietnamese college students from several Vietnamese universities. They were

asked questions regarding the amount of time they spent on study and relax and how it affect them,

the influence of their friends on their choice of recreational activities and differences between their

choice of leisure activities according to the amount of time they have, and how their habits have

altered over time and the reason for that change. In general, the results showed that the majority of

the respondents choose leisure activities that help them to relax and reduce stress. The potential of

using the result of this research to create study programs that help the students to relax and develop

academically spontaneously should be explored.

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 Introduction

Most people spend their free time on their favorite leisure activities and their choices of these

activities might usually be consciously or unconsciously influenced by some other factors such as

from their friends, from their amount of school and workload, and from their own.

There are numerous researches in the field of leisure activity have been done about the importance

of recreational activities and the benefits it brings us. A study completed by Mensink, Ziese, and

Kok (1999) describes the relationship of frequency and duration of leisure-time physical activities

with cardiovascular risk factors. They found that for the sedentary elderly, even less physical

activity than currently recommended is likely to improve the cardiovascular risk profile. Another

study by Paggi, Jopp, and Hertzog (2016) points out the importance of leisure activities in the

relationship between physical health and well-being in a life span. The results demonstrated that the

reduction in leisure activities with age has more to do with physical health limitations than with

older age itself. In addition, regardless of age, the benefits of physical health for well-being are due

in part to the level of leisure activity participation. These results highlight the importance of leisure

activities for successful aging throughout the adult life span.

However, there is only a few research found was concentrated on the factors affecting college

students’ choices of free time activities. A study completed by Lawton (1994) reports the

correlation between personality and affective leisure activity participation by older people. Another

research was done by Castro et al. (2020) demonstrates how sedentary university students are these

days. However, the focus point of these two studies was either on the elder and not the youth and it

was focusing on only one specific factor. Therefore, the aim of this study is to find out some factors

that may affect students while selecting their recreational activities. The hypothesis of this report is
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that Vietnamese students tend to choose their leisure activities based on their free time after

completing schoolwork and workload, influence from their friends, and the talents and skills they

want to work on. They also like to find things that help them relax as well as stimulate their

intellect.

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 Methodology

The participants comprised 62 Vietnamese college students with 34 female, 23 male, and 5 students

who preferred not to say their gender. All of the students were Vietnamese and they were divided

into four groups according to their year in college: freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. The

subjects were selected from a different university, which means that they are all above 18 years old

and have already finished high school.

The test instrument employed in this study was Google Form which allows the researchers to

design an electronic questionnaire and the participants can choose their answers based on the given

options. This survey consisted of a set of 22 questions, with 2 demographic questions and 20

questions were formed to help find out the factors which influence the choice of leisure activities of

students these days. There were no points given to the subjects since this survey serves for research

purposes only. All respondents had filled out the questionnaire, therefore, the response rate was

100%.

The 4 groups were given the same set of questions and they had to answer the survey individually.

They were asked several questions regarding the amount of time they spent on study and relax and

how it affects them, from questions 3 to 5, the influence of their friends on their choice of

recreational activities and differences between their choice of leisure activities according to the

amount of time they have, from questions 6 to 11, and how their habits have altered over time and

the reason for that change, from questions 12 to 22. Though there was no time limitation was

required, the average amount of time it takes to finish this test is approximately from 3 to 5 minutes.

Once the subject had done answering the questions, the researchers will collect the data and draw

out conclusions from the graphs and diagrams that were made by Google Form for both general and

detail conclusions of all answers.

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 Result
Figure 1

The Important Reason while Choosing Leisure Activities

1.6%

8.1%
17.7%

72.6%

Stimulate intellect (improving orlearning new skills) Reduce stress and relax
Influence from friends School and work load

Figure 1 demonstrates the 4 reasons that people mostly think are the most essential while choosing

leisure activities in percentage.

In the pie chart, it is clearly shown that almost three-fourths (72.6%) of the participants believed

that the most important thing when choosing recreational activities is to reduce stress and to relax,

and this number was more than four times compared to those who chose leisure activities to

stimulate their intellect, to improve or learn new skills (17.7%). Less than one-tenth of the

respondents (8.1%) chose their free time activities due to their friends’ influence and only 1 student

(1.16%) chose his/her leisure activities based on pressure from school and workload.

Overall, the majority of the respondents choose their leisure activities according to their need of

reducing stress and relaxing.

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 Result

Figure 2

The Affect of Study on Choice of Leisure Activities

3.2%

19.4%
27.4%

50.0%

None Only a little Greatly affected Totally affected

Figure 2 shows the percentage of how the students think about the effect of their study and how

strongly that affects their choice of leisure activities.

It is apparently displayed in the pie chart that half of the subjects (50%) think that their study only

affect their choice of free time activities a little and this percentage exceeded those who think that

their study does not affect their choice (19.4%) by a ratio of 5 to 2. On the other hand, more than

one-fourth of the respondents (27.4%) admit that their study influences their choice of recreational

activities greatly and this number is slightly 8 times more than those students who believe that their

study totally affects their choice of leisure activities (3.2%).

In general, most of the students said that their study only affects their choice of leisure activities a

little.

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 Result
Figure 3

The Influence of Friends on Choice of Leisure Activities

50.0%
45.2%

40.0%
35.5%

30.0%

20.0%

11.3%
10.0% 8.1%

0.0%
1 (none) 2 (only a little) 3 (greatly affected) 4 (totally affected)

Figure 3 displays how strong the participants evaluate the effect of their friends is on their choice of

leisure activities in the range from 1 to 4.

As it is illustrated in the bar chart, almost half of the respondents (45.2%) think that their friends

influence their choice of recreational activities considerably, which is exactly 4 times more than the

number of students who believe that their friends have no influence on their decision (11.3%).

Almost one-tenth of the students (8.1%) state that their friends totally affect their choice of free

time activities, and this percentage is about one-fourth of those whose friends can influence their

leisure activities selection only a little (35.5%).

Overall, most of the students claim that their friends affect their choice of leisure activities greatly.

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 Result

Figure 4

The Change in Choices of Leisure Activities

12.9%

87.1%

Yes No

Figure 4 illustrates the number of people thinking whether their leisure activities have been changed

over time or not.

It is obviously shown that people mostly have their habits changed (87.1%), however, there are still

12.9% of the respondents who stay consistent with their choice in the past.

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 Result

Figure 5

The Main Reason for The Change in Choices of Leisure Activities

11.3%

38.7%
22.6%

27.4%

Stimulate intellect(improving or learning new skills) Technology devices and social media
Influence from friends and people around School and workload

Figure 5 points out the 4 main reasons why people’s choice of leisure activities change over time.

In the pie chart, almost one-fourth of the students (22.6%) believe that the reason for their change

of habit is being influenced by their friends and people around them. This number is twice as much

as those who think that their school and workload have to be responsible for their difference in

choice of recreational activities (11.3%). However, most of the participants (38.7%) agree that their

habit altered since they want to spend their free time to stimulate their intellect, to improve or learn

new skills, and the second-most chosen reason that students think it affects their leisure activities

selection is the appearance of technology devices and social media (27.4%).

In general, people changed their habits as they want to spend their free time stimulating their

intellect, they want to improve and learn new skills.

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 Discussion

This study was conducted to find out some factors that may affect Vietnamese students while

selecting their recreational activities. The findings have totally supported the hypothesis of this

report is that Vietnamese students tend to choose their leisure activities based on their free time

after completing schoolwork, influence from their friends, and the talents and skills they want to

work on. They also like to find things that help them relax as well as stimulate their intellect.

The first important finding was that study does affect students' choices of leisure activities. The

higher level of education a student reach, the more homework and projects that student needs to

work on. If a student wants to obtain a high score, he/she, therefore, have to put much time and

effort into their work. This is the reason why students’ choices of leisure activities are affected.

The second important finding was that friends have a great impact on students’ choices of leisure

activities. It is always believed that the more the merrier. Most people have the tendency to work in

groups rather than individually and we tend to be more easily influenced by the actions of people

surrounding us. This might be the reason for friends’ influence on students’ free time activity

selection.

The third finding was that respondents tend to have their habits change compared to the past. One

possible reason for this is that 10 years ago, the smartphone was not as popular as now; however, as

the world is thriving and changing, people’s lifestyles are also being different from those in the

past. Nowadays, we have online games and websites that can help us to relax during our free time,

and with the internet, we can easily broaden our connectivity with others. Besides, we changed to

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become better and more suitable with today’s lifestyle: we have the tendency to use our free time to

learn new skills and develop our minds rather than just playing games.

The fourth important finding was that the most popular activity for relaxation is scrolling phones.

These actions can be explained by the appearance of technological devices and social media.

People, through their devices, can easily be connected to the world and they can find and watch

numerous interesting things on their phones. This lifestyle is common to the result of the research

of Castro et al. (2020) on how sedentary are students nowadays. Castro et al. (2020) concluded that

a considerable proportion of university students engage in higher levels of sedentary time compared

to the general young adult population and accumulate levels of sedentary time that have been

associated with an increased risk for detrimental health outcomes. In general, these two research

findings support one another.

However, the small sample of 62 respondents was one of the limitations of this research. Another

drawback is the number of males and females who participated in this survey is not equal. It is

recommended that future research should be done on a larger scale. A number of 500 students is

suggested and the number of participants of both genders should be the same.

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 References

Castro, O, Bennie, J, Vergeer, I, Bosselut, G and Biddle, S 2020, How sedentary are university

students? A systematic review and meta-analysis, Prevention Science, 21(3), pp.332-343.

Lawton, 1994, Personality and affective correlates of leisure activity participation by older

people, Journal of Leisure Research, 26(2), pp.138-157.

Mensink, G, Ziese, T and Kok, F 1999, Benefits of leisure-time physical activity on the

cardiovascular risk profile at older age, International journal of epidemiology, 28(4),

pp.659-666.

Paggi, M, Jopp, D and Hertzog, C 2016, The importance of leisure activities in the relationship

between physical health and well-being in a life span sample, Gerontology, 62(4), pp.450-

458.

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 Appendix

1. What year in college are you in?

2. What is your gender?

3. How many hours do you spend studying and doing homework a day?

4. How much time in a day do you spend on your free time activities?

5. Does your study affect your choice of leisure activities and how strong?

6. What would you prefer to do when you have only a little free time and when you have a lot of

free time?

7. Choose activities that you would prefer to do when you are alone and when you are with your

friends.

8. Do you prefer spend free time with your friends or being alone?

9. How often do you and your friends plan to spend time together?

10. How strong do you think your friend's influence is on your choice of leisure activities?

11. Will you change what you do in your free time if you hang out with a different group of

friends whose hobbies are different?

12. Choose the reason that you think is the most important for people while choosing leisure

activities?

13. It's believed that leisure activities can help us to develop our mind and we should do them, so

which activities below do you think will help us stimulate our intellect ?

14. Have you ever considered spending your free time doing activities which will help develop

your career in the future?

15. How often do you spend time practicing and sharpening your skills?

16. Do you sometimes find it hard to spend your free time learning when you could have used it

for other relaxing activities such as playing games or surfing on the internet?
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17. Do you think that your choice of leisure activities at the present is different from that in the

past?

18. Which one do you think is the main reason for that change?

19. Do you think people are becoming more likely to scroll on their phone in their free time rather

than doing other activities?

20. Why do you choose to simply scroll down on the phone instead of doing other things?

21. Do you think you can get any better both in physical health and mental health after scrolling

down on the phone?

22. If you have lots of free time, would you plan to do any activities?

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