This data series contains the results of the development and research project 'Good Leisure Time' by Helsinki City Youth Department. 'Good Leisure Time' is one of the priority projects funded by Helsinki City Council to battle the marginalisation of youth. Twelve lower secondary school classes with an approximate total of 170 pupils aged 13-16 participated in the study in 2013-2017. The classes were divided into six target and six control group classes. The target classes had an assigned youth worker whose role was to support the pupils in finding a hobby or a leisure time activity. The pupils from the control group classes could take part in all activities offered by Helsinki City Youth Department but did not have an assigned youth worker. The project was carried out by Helsinki City Youth Department in collaboration with the Education Division Administration and the Urban Research and Statistics Unit of the City of Helsinki. The same participants were studied in the project from the beginning of the seventh grade until the autumn after finishing lower secondary school at the end of May.
Surveys charted the youth's own perceptions, wishes and experiences relating to their leisure time, well-being, and relationships. Hobbies that they had or would like to try were also examined.
Data collection began in September 2013 when the participants had attended lower secondary school for one month. Starting from the seventh grade, the participating pupils and pupils from control group classes responded to six internet surveys in total, one for each term. The survey was conducted both during the autumn and spring terms so that information could be obtained regarding the youth's summer and winter hobbies. In addition, the series comprise diaries of youth workers and interviews of youth workers and teachers conducted as part of a research project.
The survey charted the perceptions, hopes and experiences of eighth-graders in Helsinki regarding their leisure time, well-being and relationships. The study is part of the Good Leisure Time Development and Research project by Helsinki City Youth Department. The research project followed the same students during their lower secondary school education between 2013 and 2017.
First, sleeping and eating habits as well as time spent with friends were examined. Some questions focused on the respondents' relationships with classmates (e.g. whether their classmates helped them if needed and whether they experienced bullying or social exclusion from their classmates). Next, the respondents were asked what their favourite subject at school was, whether they thought their grades were good or bad and how often they missed school. Leisure time activities were charted with questions relating to, for example, who the respondents spent time with after school and where, and with whom the after-school activities were the most enjoyable or boring. Internet use and reading habits during leisure time were also charted. The respondents were asked to select their current leisure time hobbies from a long list of hobbies and activities (e.g. football, movie watching, martial arts, writing, console games, shopping).
Next, the respondents were asked about their hobby-related opportunities. They were asked to choose new hobbies and activities they would like to try from the same list they chose their current hobbies and leisure time activities from. The study also charted what the respondents thought of as either perfect or poor leisure time. Further questions focused on how they would rate their past Saturday in school grades (from 4 to 10) and what they would do after school on the day the survey was filled out. Finally, motivations and influences behind the respondents' chosen leisure time activities and plans for the future were examined (e.g. whether their parents, the media, or their role models had the most influence on their choices).
Background variables included the respondent's gender, mother tongue, living arrangements, household composition and number of siblings.
158 eighth-graders from 11 different classes participated in the study. The classes were divided into target and control classes. The study was conducted by the Helsinki City Youth Department in collaboration with the Education Department and City of Helsinki Urban Facts.
At the end of the 2013-2014 school year, nearly all of the students participating in the study became eighth-graders, but two of the six target classes were disseminated, meaning that a third of the target classes either no longer existed or the majority of their students had been transferred to other schools. Changes in class composition, such as grade repetition, were taken into account in the study so that the former students of the target classes who remained in the same school continued to participate the study. If students from the control classes changed classes within the school, they did not continue participation in the study. Similarly, students from target classes who changed schools did not continue participation. Over the years, new students to both the target and control classes were included in the study if their parents gave written consent.