Investigation of university students' attitudes towards leisure time activities: Bartın University sample

The purpose of this study was to define and evaluate the leisure time usage attitudes of students attending to Bartın University through statistical analysis of demographic information and attitude scales. The universe of the study was composed of 10,822 university students attending to Bartin University, and 600 of them were chosen randomly as the sample group who participated to the survey voluntarily. In order to apply the survey to the sample group, the author met the students personally and informed them at first hand. The gender distribution in the research is almost equal according to sample group. According to the gender variable female students' attitudes towards leisure activities compared to male students was determined to be more positive. When the students' attitudes towards leisure activities between academic units examined, leisure attitudes of university students at Physical Education and Sports School compared to students at Faculty of Literature was determined to be more positive. According to the age variable of university students a significant difference was not observed in any subgroups. The students declared that they have sufficient leisure time per day and it was seen that their daily leisure time affected the attitudes towards leisure activities. Students expressed that leisure positive impact on academic success. It was revealed that students generally spent their leisure time relaxing and this situation affected their leisure time. Majority of the students think that the leisure facilities and services provided by the university are not sufficient. Finally, it was found out that the increase of graduate point averages of students resulted with the positive changes towards leisure activities. Keywords Leisure time, attitude, leisure, recreational activity, university students