Postmodern Values and Leisure in Young Spanish University Students: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This article reports exploratory research about tendencies toward postmaterialism in university students. This paper used the theoretical framework proposed by Inglehart regarding three categories of leisure: postmaterialist, materialist and common. Students from a Spanish university (N = 1036) completed questionnaires that evaluated their materialist-postmaterialist values, how often they practiced the activities included in each category of leisure and the motivational factors involved in them. The results revealed that university students showed a tendency toward postmaterialism. Further, relationships were found between materialist-postmaterialist values and categories of leisure. This study results suggested that the tendency toward postmaterialist values may be a factor in structuring the leisure patterns of young Spanish university students.

Keywords:

• materialism
• motivation
• Postmaterialism Index
• postmodernism
• young people

Acknowledgements

The authors would particularly like to thank this paper's reviewers as well as Jonathan Long (Leeds Metropolitan University, UK) and David Brown (Exeter University, UK) for reading and offering constructive comments on this paper.

Notes

∗ p ≤ 0.05;

∗∗ p ≤ 0.01;

∗∗∗ p ≤ 0.001

∗ p ≤ 0.05;

∗∗ p ≤ 0.01;

∗∗∗ p ≤ 0.001