Levels of Satisfaction with Leisure Time in Foreign Students

The aim of this study was to investigate levels of satisfaction with leisure time in foreign students of Kocaeli University. In the collection of the data, the Leisure Satisfaction Scale (LSS) and demographic status questionnaire were used; 257 male and 103 female students participated. In the LSS scores for the separate domains, participants scored highest in Education and lowest in the Aesthetic subscale. There was no statistically significant difference in satisfaction levels between the genders, monthly income groups, and levels of academic achievement; but statistically significant differences were found between the students’ faculties. Significant differences were found between faculties in the LSS scores on the Psychological subscale, and between students’ monthly incomes and the Relaxation subscale on the LSS. As a result, there was a significant difference between the different faculties and students’ satisfaction with leisure time on the Psychological subscale.


Introduction
Technological developments advancing rapidly in recent years have brought changes to our daily lives.While this change has taken place, it has affected the use of time by individuals, introducing new concepts into our lives.Mechanization has reduced the need for human power, resulting in the concept of leisure time outside of people's working hours (Ayyildiz, 2015).Leisure time is a concept that has been defined in various ways: time outside of work, sleep and obligations; and the activities carried out in this time are also referred to as leisure time activities (Roberts, 2006;Tezcan, 1994).
It has been often observed that individuals who use their leisure time efficiently for activities such as relaxation, sports, health, and learning have developed and improved skills, with increased self-confidence, success, happiness, vitality in daily life, and healthy decision making (Ardahan, 2016).Given these positive relationships, the concept of free time evaluation has become a requirement of daily life (Tezcan, 1982), and the concept has reached people from all walks of life, whether it be business people, housewives, academics, people with disabilities, everyone aged 7 to 70; and continues to evolve with many possibilities and options (Koktas, 2014).
The university learning period is the most important period where behavior patterns acquired will continue for years.Participation in recreational activities helps to develop strong and resilient individuals (Agaoglu & Eker, 2006) and it positively affects many fields of life, as shown in job satisfaction, life satisfaction, satisfaction with family life, and so on (Huang & Carleton, 2003).
For these reasons, the concept of leisure time and recreational activities should be included and experienced as part of students' academic education.In this study, the aim was to evaluate the factors affecting free time participation according to the psychological, educational, social, relaxation, physiological and aesthetic dimensions of the university students using a short version of the scale of free time satisfaction according to sex, faculty, monthly income, evaluation of academic achievements and purposes of sports.

Research Group
The research sample constituted 360 foreign students studying at Kocaeli University in the 2016-2017 academic year.The students were randomly chosen, with 257 being male (71.4%) and 103 being female (28.6%).The age range of this group is 63,1% in the age of 17-21, 32,2% in the age of 22-26 and 4,7% at the age of 27 and above.

Data Collection Tools
In this study, a personal information form consisting of fourteen questions developed by the researchers was used to collect demographic data on: age group, gender, monthly income, faculty, year in their course, level of academic achievement, welfare level, weekly leisure time, leisure time choices, preferred recreational fields, the frequency of participating in identified recreational fields.
To evaluate levels of satisfaction with leisure time, a valid and reliable Turkish version of the Leisure Satisfaction Scale (LSS) (Beard & Ragheb, 1980), which consists of 39 questions, was used (Karli, Polat, Yilmaz, & Kocak, 2008).The LSS has 6 subscales reflecting different domains of satisfaction with leisure time: psychological, education, social, relaxation, physiological, and aesthetic.In each subscale, higher scores indicate higher satisfaction levels.

Data Collection
The personal information form and LSS questionnaire was administered in face-to-face interviews with foreign students who voluntarily consented to participate in the questionnaire, at Kocaeli University Umuttepe Campus.The data collection was conducted over a period of 40 days.

Data Analysis
The collected data were analyzed in the IBM SPSS (Version 24) program.Frequency (f) and percentage (%) values were calculated and tabulated.One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine the effects of faculty, monthly income, level of academic achievement, and sporting intention, on levels of satisfaction with leisure time.T-tests were conducted to determine the effect of gender on satisfaction levels with leisure time.1% were studying at faculty of engineering, 3.1% of the students were studying at faculty of education sciences, 2.5% of the students were studying at faculty of social sciences, 6.1% of the students were studying at faculty of political science, 1.7% of the students were studying at faculty of health sciences, 1.7% of the students were studying at faculty of communication, 6.4% of the students were studying at faculty of medicine, 11.9% of the students were studying at faculty of arts and sciences, 8.6% of the students were studying at faculty of economics and administrative sciences and 35.0% of the students were studying at other faculties and colleges.52.8% of the students were in their 1st year, 24.4% of the students were in the 2nd year, 15.6% of the students were in the 3rd year, and 7.2% of the students were in the 4th year.Students were asked "How do you evaluate your academic achievement status?" and in response, 9.4% answered "low", 54.4% answered "moderate", and 36.1% of the students answered "high".Students were asked, "When you think of the welfare level of people in the society, where do you see yourself?" and 3.3% answered "very bad", 5.6% answered "bad", 41.9% answered "normal", and 40.0% of the students answered "well".Students were asked, "How much leisure time do you have weekly?"and 4.4% answered "1-5 hours", 8.9% answered "6-10 hours", 33.1% answered "11-15 hours", and 53.6% of the students answered "16 hours or above".In reply to the question "How often do you have difficulty assessing your leisure time?", 43.6% of the students answered "always", 46.9% answered "sometimes", and 9.4% answered "never".10.3% of the students rated the university's recreational areas as being "totally inadequate", 34.7% rated these as being "inadequate", 38.1% rated these as being "partly enough", 13.6% rated these as being "enough", and 3.3% rated these as being "totally enough".100 When asked about their weekly use of the university's recreational areas, 56.9% of the students indicated they used these recreational areas 1-5 hours per week, 32.2% indicated 6-10 hours per week, 9.4% indicated 11-15 hours per week, and 1.4% of the students indicated 16 hours or more per week.When the findings were examined, there was a significant difference only in the Psychological subscale.In the other subscales, no significant difference was found.There was a significant difference in the relaxation subscale according to the students' monthly income.There was no significant difference in Leisure Satisfaction Scores by levels of academic achievement.

Results, Conclusions and Recommendations
As a result of our statistical analyses, students scored higher on the Education subscale of the LSS on average compared to the other LSS subscales.Additionally, it was observed that on average the Aesthetic subscale was scored the lowest.
In a study conducted with 173 male and 223 female participants in the province of Antalya (Lapa, 2013), it was found that the Education subscale was scored the highest score, as in our study, but the Social subscale was scored the lowest.
When we examined the effect of gender in our study, there was no significant difference between the genders on levels of satisfaction with leisure time.This result is similar to the findings of Misra and McKean (2000).A similar result was obtained by Lu and Hu (2005) on Chinese university students.Siegenthaller andO'Dell (2000), andDi Bona (2000) also found no significant difference between genders on the levels of satisfaction with leisure time.Griffin and McKenna (1998) and Boley (2001) found similar results in their studies on elderly individuals.Berg, Trost, Schneider and Allison (2001) found that there was no significant difference in the level of satisfaction with leisure time between the male and female subjects in their study of couples.Similarly, the results of the work by Ardahan and Lapa (2010) indicate that scores on the LSS and its subscales did not differ according to sex.Similar results were obtained in the literature by Gokce (2008), Ngai (2005), and Kabanoff (1982).Spiers and Walker (2009) concluded that gender had no significant effect on levels of satisfaction with free time.However, Brown and Frankel (1993) reported that males scored higher levels of satisfaction with their free time.
When we analyzed the subscales of the LSS according to monthly income variables, we found that scores for Relaxation were higher than for the other subscales.These findings are similar to Russell's finding (1987) that levels of satisfaction with leisure time are associated with income.Bonke, Deding, & Lausten (2007) also found a positive relationship between income and satisfaction with leisure time: as incomes rise, participants' level of satisfaction with their leisure time also increases.However, in a study by Mancini (1978), the level of satisfaction with leisure time was not affected by income.Ngai (2005), in a study of 993 participants living in the Macao region of the People's Republic of China, reported that the level of satisfaction with free time did not differ according to the income.The results of the studies performed by Mancini (1978) and Ngai (2005) may differ from those in our study because of different sample characteristics in the studies.
It was determined that there was no significant difference between the genders on their level satisfaction with leisure time.Similarly, there was no significant difference between the levels of academic achievement on levels of satisfaction with leisure time.
With regard to the faculty of the student, only the Psychological subscale of the LSS was statistically significant.Levels of psychological satisfaction of these individuals is high.
In relation to the monthly income level, a statistically significant difference was also found.
Given these findings, the following are our recommendations for researchers: 1-Further research should be conducted to look at the different factors that affect differences in levels of satisfaction in university students with leisure time.
2-Qualitative observation-based studies may allow consideration of the issue from different dimensions.
3-The same study can be conducted in different universities to obtain more generalizable results.
The following are our recommendations for students: 1-Creating panels in each faculty can increase student awareness of the recreational opportunities and activities at the university.
2-Preparing English announcements for foreign students can help them understand and make them more comfortable with activities.
3-Providing joint participation of all faculties through organizations can allow for socialization of foreign students.
4-Offering elective courses at each faculty, for different recreational activities that students may be interested in, can promote student participation.
5-Holding weekly outdoor activities for different countries, under the name of National Recreation, with the help of foreign students, is also another way of promoting student participation.
6-Creating English-speaking only areas in the faculty (e.g., café s, classrooms, a few green spaces and so on) can generate opportunities for foreign students to speak English with others.

Table 1 .
Distribution of students by age group

Table 4 .
Distribution of students across faculties 23.

Table 5 .
Distribution of students across year in the course

Table 6 .
Distribution of students across self-reported academic achievement levels

Table 7 .
Distribution of students across self-reported welfare levels

Table 8 .
Distribution of students by weekly leisure time

Table 9 .
Self-reported frequency of experienced difficulty with assessing leisure time

Table 10 .
Self-reported preferred leisure activity

Table 11 .
Student evaluation of the adequacy of the university's recreational areas

Table 12 .
Self-reported usage of university recreational areas

Table 13 .
Location of recreational activities 1% of the students conducted their recreational activities on campus, 21.9% of the students off campus, and 1.9% of the students in "other" locations.

Table 14 .
Students' scores on the Leisure Satisfaction Scale (LSS) and its subscales On average, students scored highest on the Education subscale and the lowest on the Aesthetic subscale.Comparisons between the genders found no significant difference in the level of satisfaction with free time (p > 0.05).

Table 16 .
T-test comparisons of LSS scores by faculties

Table 17 .
ANOVA of the LSS scores by monthly income

Table 18 .
ANOVA of the LSS scores by levels of academic achievement