Hobbies: Between Worries and Risky Behaviors

Abstract

In providing opportunities for the positive development it is important to stimulate various creative activities in adolescents. The aim of the work is to determine the connection between the frequency of practicing hobbies within adolescents, and their worries and risky behaviors in which they engage. The work is part of a larger study, conducted by a questionnaire about leisure time of adolescents, on a sample of 1403 adolescents (419 seventh grade, primary schools; 420 second grade, secondary vocational schools; 564 second year; high school) in five cities in Serbia. Adolescents estimated how often they engage in 9 hobbies: blog writing; creative writing; drawing/painting; graphic design; composing and playing music; making jewelry and decorative objects; computer programming; collecting postcards, stickers, stamps etc; photography. They also estimated how often they worry and engage in risky behaviors (given options at the multiple choice scale). Adolescents who are more engaged in hobbies have more worries, the correlations are statistically significant (p<.001) for following worries: sadness, depression, dissatisfaction with themselves (r=.121); lack of free time (r=.113); pressures by peers (r=.102); physical appearance (r=.099); love problems (r=.099); quarrels with parents (r=.095). Qualitative analysis of open questions has led to the formation of new categories of worries related to health, employment and sport. The results of correlation between risky behaviors and frequency of practicing hobbies confirm previous findings that adolescents who practice hobbies more also engage less in risky behaviors. Statistically significant values of those correlations (p<.000) are: going to the bookies (r=- .179); withdrawal (r=.146); drinking (r=-.123); gambling (r=-.108); driving without a license (r=-.106); participation in fights (r=-.100); the tendency to selfinjury (r=.099). The results, therefore, suggest that adolescents who practice individual creative activities, have more everyday worries, but are less engaged in risky behaviors (mostly with peers). To explore mentioned connections it is important to understand mechanisms in their base, namely to understand what provides prevention for adolescents who practice hobbies from risky behavior, but makes them more susceptible to everyday worries. All the aforementioned should be considered in context of developmental needs for peer acceptance in adolescence.