Preferred leisure activities of at-risk youth and youth not at risk in a junior high school in Taiwan

The purpose of this investigation was to determine and compare preferred leisure activities of at-risk youth and youth not at risk in a junior high school in Taiwan. The preferred leisure activities in this study pertained to those behaviors that at-risk youth and those not at risk involve themselves in after 6:00 p.m. on free nights and on holidays or vacations.;The population of at-risk youth in this study included all seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade students in one selected urban junior high school in Taiwan who disobeyed the regulations set forth in the Manual of Sanction Provisions of Junior High School Students, including students with punitive records in the Division of Student Discipline and those students who had been referred by teachers to the Office of Student Counseling & Guidance. The population of youth not at risk in this study included all seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade students who were excluded from the at-risk population in the same urban junior high school in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.;For this study, two groups were selected from the at-risk and not-at-risk junior high school students. Fifty-two students with punitive and/or referral records, and classified as at risk, were randomly selected from the list provided by the Division of Student Discipline and the Office of Student Counseling & Guidance. Similarly, 52 students who were not identified as at risk were randomly selected from the student population not at risk. For the purpose of this study, at-risk students were coded as Group 1 and the students not at risk were coded as Group 2.;Results of the study indicated that at-risk youth frequently went to activities with friends and hung out with friends in the neighborhood or at somebody else's house. In contrast, not-at-risk youth stayed at home more often and seldom went to activities with friends or hung out with friends in the neighborhood or somebody else's house.;Among the ten most preferred leisure activities on free nights after 6:00 p.m. and on holidays or vacations, at-risk youth and those not at risk preferred to engage in similar activities. From the ten most preferred leisure activities, at-risk youth chose KTV (KALAOK TV) to sing and youth not at risk preferred to ride bicycle and listen to radio programs on free nights after 6:00 p.m. and on holidays and vacations. Among all leisure activities, at-risk youth preferred KTV to sing while youth not at risk chose a variety of intellectual and physical activities.