PERCEIVED MEANINGFUL LEISURE TIME AND EDUCATION : A sub-study of actions for sustainable education and health among youth

Abstract: A higher level of education increases the chances of getting work, therefore, this can improve the socio-economic status and social position. Besides, higher education ensures improved health by providing fundamental health knowledge. Completing high school even with low grades increases the chances of getting a job, whereas, unemployment is three times more common among the students with incomplete high school education which leads to low socio-economic status and an unhealthy lifestyle in the long run. This study aims to gain a better understanding of high school students’ perspectives living in Västerås and Eskilstuna regarding meaningful leisure activities and perceived quality of education from their school which may lead to complete high school education. This study will also investigate whether there are any associations between membership in sports and perceived quality of education by adolescents at different gender and socio-economic levels. A cross-sectional study design was applied in this study. The result shows there are many available outdoor activities where the adolescents live to spend their leisure, among them parks are the most reported (314, 58%); walking and cycling paths, running track, outdoor gym and soccer field are the second most reported available opportunity (309, 56.8%) followed by the free sports activities (295, 55.9%). The most popular activities to adolescents are free sports (71, 13.2%) together with homework help at school (70, 13.1%); and more adolescents have membership in sports associations compared to other associations. Also, the study finds that adolescents who either have membership in sports or not do not make any change to the perceived quality of education by students whether they get a very good education, good education, and less than good education in high schools at different gender and self-reported socioeconomic levels.