Serious and casual leisure activities in the construction of young adult identity: a study based on participants’ self-descriptions

• Main Authors: Nuria Codina, José Vicente Pestana, Robert Alan Stebbins
• Format: Article
• Language: Catalan
• Published: Instituto Interuniversitario de Desarrollo Social y Paz, Universidad de Alicante 2017-11-01
• Series: OBETS : Revista de Ciencias Sociales
• Online Access: https://revistaobets.ua.es/article/view/2017-v12-ex1-los-ocios-serio-y-casual-en-la-construccion-de-la-identidad-juvenil

Leisure activities and identity interact and structure young people’s lives. Empirical research on such interaction is scarce and contradictory. This paper explores the relationships between leisure activities with different levels of commitment (serious, casual) and identity traits. A total of 938 young people (476 men and 462 women) aged 18 to 24 (M = 21.13; DT = 1.98) completed a time budget (TB) and a self-description questionnaire about identity based on the Twenty-Statements Test, as well an association between the TB and the self-descriptions. The study shows the complementarity of serious and casual leisure in the formation of youth identities and gender differences.