Use of recreation majors as research subjects: Differences between majors and nonmajors on leisure‐related variables

Abstract

A study was conducted to examine whether college undergraduates majoring in recreation would be unbiased subjects for leisure research studies. It was hypothesized that recreation majors (n = 762) would be significantly more positive than nonrecreation majors (n = 363) in their self‐reports of leisure‐related attitudes and behavior. Five dependent variables (leisure boredom, intrinsic leisure motivation, leisure ethic, leisure satisfaction, and leisure participation) were included in multivariate and univariate analyses of variance. Gender was added as a second independent variable to clarify any Gender x Major interaction. Results show that majors and nonmajors differed in the hypothesized manner on leisure boredom, motivation, and ethic. No significant differences were found for satisfaction or participation. This finding held true for both men and women. Findings partially support the proposed hypothesis and suggest that researchers should identify and account for differences attributable to major in samples of college undergraduates.

Keywords:

• college student major
• leisure boredom
• leisure ethic
• leisure motivation
• leisure participation
• leisure satisfaction
• sampling bias