Leisure and community assessments: Emotional place relations among young teenagers in a Norwegian industrial stronghold

Figures & data

Fig. 1. Location of Skien Municipality, Porsgrunn Municipality and the Grenland region in the county of Telemark, Norway

Table 4. Robustness checks (Based on data from the projects ‘Ung i Skien’ and ‘Ung i Porsgrunn’, conducted by NOVA in 2011 and 2012 respectively)

	Ordinary least squares regression: coefficients for key independent variables showing effects on community assessment index (0–20) after controlling for school relations, proximity to friends and family, single-parent households, age, indications of depressive moods, immigrant background, and municipality		Median regression. Effects of gender and participation in organized leisure activities on median value of community assessment index (0–20: higher = more positive) after controlling for self-perceived poverty, school relations, proximity to friends and family, single-parent households, age, indications of depressive moods, and municipality
	Model 4	Test of poverty measure	Test of regression slope
Variables	Unstandardized coefficients and significance levels	Unstandardized coefficients and significance levels	Unstandardized coefficients	95% Confidence interval
Constant	13.16	13.01	14.3***	13.4	15.1
Participation 3 times or more in last month in at least one organization (ref: participation 2 times or less, or inactive)	0.52	0.28
Mostly well-off (ref: well-off)	-0.38		-0.71**	-1.16	0.27
Neither well-off nor poor (ref: well-off)	-0.90*		-1.29***	-1.82	-0.75
Poor (ref: well-off)	-2.44***		-2.57***	-3.41	-1.73
Interaction term for being mainly well-off and participation 3 times or more in last month in organized activities	-0.49
Interaction term for being neither well-off nor poor and participation 3 times or more in last month in organized activities	-0.34
Interaction term for being poor and participation 3 times or more in last month in organized activities	0.35
Active boys (ref: inactive boys)			0.29	-0.28	0.85
Inactive girls (ref: inactive boys)			-2.00***	-2.62	-1.38
Active girls (ref: inactive boys)			-0.86**	-1.41	-0.30
Not been on holiday with the family in last 12 months		-0.64*
Family often/sometimes lacks money to pay for leisure activities		-0.89**
Family often/sometimes lacks money to pay for basic needs (e.g. food, housing, telephone)		-0.79*
Girls (ref: boys)	-1.89***	-1.94***
Interaction term for being a girl and participation 3 times or more in last month in organized activities	0.65*	0.64*
Adj. R^2	0.32	0.32
Pseudo R			0.21
N	2115	2071	2232

Notes: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001

Table 1. Frequency distributions for single items in the additive index for community assessments (N = 2284) (Based on data from the projects ‘Ung i Skien’ and ‘Ung i Porsgrunn’, conducted by NOVA in 2011 and 2012 respectively)

Items	N	Percentage
Item 1. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with different parts of your life: your local residential area?
Very dissatisfied	158	6.9
Quite dissatisfied	215	9.4
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied	360	15.8
Quite satisfied	683	29.9
Very satisfied	868	38.0
Sum	2284	100.0
Item 2. Try to imagine that you will have children one day. Would you like to see your children grow up in the local area where you live?*
Yes, very much	647	28.3
Yes	862	37.7
Neither yes nor no	490	21.5
No, preferably not	182	8.0
No, not at all	103	4.5
Sum	2284	100.0
Item 3. To what extent do you feel well in the local area where you live?*
Very well	967	42.3
Quite well	763	33.4
Fairly OK	436	19.1
Bad	75	3.3
Very bad	43	1.9
Sum	2284	100.0
Item 4. Think about the locality where you currently live. All in all, are you satisfied with living there or would you prefer to move if you had the chance?**
I am satisfied with where I live now	1294	56.7
I would prefer to move	536	23.5
I am not sure	454	19.9
Sum	2284	100.0
Item 5. When you are out at night, do you feel safe to move around in the locality where you live now?***
Yes, very safe	784	34.3
Yes, quite safe	939	41.1
I am not sure	391	17.1
No, I feel unsafe	170	7.4
Sum	2284	100.0

* Scales in Items 2, 3 and 5 were reversed before being included in the index.

**The scale in Item 4 was rearranged and assigned the following values before being included in the index: 0 = I would prefer to move; 2 = I am not sure; 4 = I am satisfied with where I live now.

***The scale in item 5 was rearranged and assigned the following values before being included in the index: 0 = No, I feel unsafe; 2 = I am not sure; 3 = Yes, quite safe; 4 = Yes, very safe

Table 2. Descriptive statistics for all independent and control variables: percentage, N, and M and SD on the dependent variable (N = 2284) (Based on data from the projects ‘Ung i Skien’ and ‘Ung i Porsgrunn’, conducted by NOVA in 2011 and 2012 respectively)

			Community assessment index (0–20)
All independent variables	Percentage	N	M	SD
Total	100	2284	14.3	4.3
Key independent variables
Participation in leisure organization
Participation 1–2 times or none in last month in any organization	37.4	854	13.5	4.5
Participation 3–4 times or more in last month in at least one organization	62.6	1430	14.8	4.1
Self-perceived poverty
Well-off all of the time in the last two years	39.0	890	15.4	4.0
Well-off most of the time in the last two years	35.4	809	14.3	4.2
Neither well-off nor poor	19.4	443	13.4	4.3
Poor all of the time/most of the time in the last two years	6.2	142	11.0	5.0
Gender
Boy	46.7	1066	15.2	4.0
Girl	53.3	1218	13.5	4.4
Control variables
School problems
Not experienced repeated serious conflicts in school during the last 12 months	84.6	1939	14.6	4.2
Experienced serious conflicts in school at least twice during the last 12 months	15.4	345	12.9	4.8
School satisfaction
Very dissatisfied	9.3	213	10.8	4.8
Quite dissatisfied	9.3	212	11.8	4.6
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied	18.9	431	12.9	4.2
Quite satisfied	33.0	753	14.9	3.7
Very satisfied	29.0	663	16.6	3.3
Missing information (M and SD not reported due to small N)	0.5	12
Travel distance to friends from home
Can walk or cycle to meet friends	73.5	1679	14.7	4.2
Need to be driven to meet friends	19.1	437	12.8	4.6
Missing information	7.4	168	14.6	4.3
Lack of extended family in the municipality
Yes	24.3	555	13.6	4.4
No	68.6	1566	14.6	4.3
Missing information	7.1	163	14.5	4.5
Family arrangement
Live with both parents	64.0	1462	14.8	4.1
Live with single parent or no parent	30.4	695	13.3	4.7
Missing information	5.6	127	14.6	4.4
School grade
8th grade	34.0	777	14.9	4.2
9th grade	32.3	738	14.2	4.4
10th grade	33.7	769	13.8	4.4
Indications of depressive moods
Yes	6.5	149	10.0	4.5
No	93.3	2131	14.6	4.2
Missing data (M and SD not reported due to small N)	0.2	4
Both parents born abroad
Yes	15.7	359	13.8	4.2
No	79.0	1804	14.4	4.3
Missing data	5.3	121	14.6	4.5
Municipality
Skien	62.9	1437	14.3	4.4
Porsgrunn	37.1	847	14.3	4.2

Table 3. Hierarchical linear regression results (ordinary least squares), and effects of participation in organized leisure activities on community assessment index (0–20: higher = more positive) before and after control for self-perceived poverty (Model 2), gender (Model 3) and control variables (Model 4), with unstandardized coefficients, standard errors and significance levels (Based on data from the projects ‘Ung i Skien’ and ‘Ung i Porsgrunn’, conducted by NOVA in 2011 and 2012 respectively)

		Model 1 Participation in organized leisure activities		Model 2 Self-perceived poverty		Model 3 Gender		Model 4 Control variables
Models	Variables	B	Std. Error	B	Std. Error	B	Std. Error	B	Std. Error
	Constant	13.52***	0.15	14.35***	0.26	15.27***	0.29	13.16***	0.34
Model 1. Participation in organized leisure activities
	Participation 3 times or more in last month in at least one organization (ref: participation 2 times or less, or inactive)	1.28***	0.19	1.48***	0.31	1.30***	0.35	0.52	0.31
Model 2. Self-perceived poverty
	Mostly well-off (ref: well-off)			-0.37	0.36	-0.27	0.35	-0.38	0.31
	Neither well-off nor poor (ref: well-off)			-1.43***	0.41	-1.23**	0.40	-0.90*	0.35
	Poor (ref: well-off)			-4.44***	0.57	-4.12***	0.56	-2.44***	0.50
	Interaction term for being mainly well-off and participation 3 times or more in last month in organized activities			-0.99*	0.44	-1.05*	0.43	-0.49	0.38
	Interaction term for being neither well-off nor poor and participation 3 times or more last month in organized activities			-0.71	0.52	-0.85	0.51	-0.34	0.45
	Interaction term for being poor and participation 3 times or in more last month in organized activities			0.72	0.79	0.53	0.77	0.35	0.68
Model 3. Gender
	Girls (ref: boys)					-2.01***	0.29	-1.89***	0.26
	Interaction term for being a girl and participation 3 times or more in last month in organized activities					0.60	0.37	0.67*	0.32
Model 4. Control variables
	Experienced serious conflicts at school at least twice during the last 12 months (ref: fewer or no conflicts)							-0.66**	0.22
	School satisfaction (0–4: higher = more satisfied)							1.30***	0.07
	Need to be driven to meet friends (ref: can walk or cycle to meet friends)							-1.11***	0.20
	No extended family in municipality (ref: extended family members living in the municipality)							-0.89***	0.18
	Living with single parent or no parent (ref: live with both parents)							-0.62***	0.18
	9th grade (ref: 8th grade)							-0.15	0.19
	10th grade (ref: 8th grade)							-0.30	0.19
	Indications of depressive moods (ref: no indications)							-2.26***	0.33
	Both parents born abroad (ref: one or both parents born in Norway)							0.02	0.21
	Porsgrunn Municipality (ref: Skien Municipality)							-0.5**	0.16
	N	2284		2284		2284		2115
	SE****	4.29		4.15		4.07		3.56
	Mean VIF	1.00		3.06		3.22		2.14
	Adj. R^2	0.02		0.08		0.12		0.32

Notes: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, **** Standard error of the regression model

Fig. 2. Effects of participation in organized leisure activities for young teenage boys and girls, with reference to inactive boys