Popular Weekend Habits Of Oum Students

ABSTRACT Purpose - This research will examine the popular weekend habits of Open University Malaysia (OUM) students. Design Methodology - Student’s weekend habits are categorized by their weekend activities according to (subject 1, subject 2 and subject 3) what they presented in the survey form. A total of 20 OUM students are subjects in this research. Subjects are collected from various places and presented as a purposive sampling. Findings – Male and female loves watching television / movies. According to the frequency of each weekend’s habit, watching television / movies and reading are highest. But female loves reading more than male. Male doesn’t like to sewing, cooking, shopping and go to the library. Female don’t enjoy repair car or exercising Research limitations – A primary limitation inherent in this study is that subjects in this research are not enough to determine the whole population of OUM students. Practical implications – This research can be used to guide more research in the future. Originality/value – This research had been done in the school settings and little literature reviews had been added. INTRODUCTION Weekend is a time for people to have a free time. It is for people to have a time off from their working and studying life. Some were just pulling off from their daily chores. Many tend to do lots of activities during the weekend because it doesn’t get trough their daily chores. Some people prefer to have leisure activities and some were just wanted to have quality time with their families during the weekend. Different studies has identified different correlates of participation in leisure activities, such as gender (Arber and Ginn 1991; Bennett 1998), living arrangements (Satariano, Haight and Tager 2002), and socioeconomic status (Perren, Arber and Davidson 2003). According to Bennett 1998, women have customarily engaged more in indoor activities and men more in outdoor activities.

METHODOLOGY Research Design We solicited student feedback by conducting a survey in September 2008. The survey instrument was designed to gauge student evaluation on their weekend habits. The following questions guided data collection: (1) What are three things you would like to do during the weekends? Subject Using the qualitative research methods, a total of 20 Open University Malaysia (OUM) students are subjects in this research derived from 27 years old to 48 years old. Subjects are chooses according to the method of purposive sampling and their willingness to be part in this research. Instrument A survey form or questionnaire form is built to present the data that collected from subjects. There are two parts in the form which are section of Personal Details and section of Weekend Habits. The section of personal details are based on the student’s gender, birth date, marital status, major of study, minor of study, their learning centre and workplace. The section of weekend habits are based on three of the subject’s weekend habits. Data analysis Participant’s descriptive content responses to the survey questions were read, and the part B question was categorized by ‘subject1’, ‘subject 2’ and ‘etc’. Upon identifying the research’s answer, the researcher created descriptive table and graph to show the result.

RESULTS On the basis of this research we expected sex differences in the determinants of popular weekend habits of OUM students. This was examined by the frequency of men and women. Table 1 : Frequency of Popular weekends Habit by OUM Students. Habits Go To Library Cooking House-chores Watching tv/movies Sewing Sports/Games Traveling Gardening Playing Video Games Reading Family Gathering Exercising/Jogging Repair Car Surfing Internet Shopping

Female Male 4 0 6 0 2 0 4 4 2 0 1 4 3 2 5 2 1 6 1 0 0 2 2

0 2 1 1 1 2 0

Frequenc y 4 6 2 8 2 5 5 7 1 8 2 1 1 4 2

From table 1, shows that female and male have the same rate (4:4) in watching tv/movies which consists 8 frequencies. Also the highest rate of weekend habit is reading. Female loves to read more than men. The lowest frequencies of weekend habits that shown in table 1 are playing video games, exercising/jogging and repair cars. Female likes to do cooking, reading and gardening. But men tend to watch tv or movies and traveling. Woman doesn’t do repairing car and exercising/jogging but men don’t go to the library, do house-chores, cooking, playing video games and shopping.

B4

A2 SINGLE MARRIED

N 2 18

Mean 3.5000 4.3333

Std. Deviation .70711 .76696

Std. Error Mean .50000 .18078

Table 2 : Difference between married and single student’s weekend habits

Using the independent Sample T-Test, data are computed to find the differences between married and single student’s weekend habits. From the table 2 shows that the result were significant (f=.190, n = 20,>.05).

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Graph 1: Table 1: Frequency of Popular weekends Habit by OUM Students. Female likes to do cooking, reading and gardening. But men tend to watch tv or movies and traveling. This indicates that most female likes to do indoor activities rather than men who likes to do outdoor activities. In the articles of Mothers' Toil and Daughters' Leisure: Working-class Girls and Time in 1920s Germany (Christina, 2000) indicate that female are tend to do indoor activities because of the social norm that exist in their community. In one of the composition of 'How I spend my free time’1, unlike her elder brother she does a considerable 1

At 4 o'clock I get off work. When I get home, I start cleaning the flat with my mother, as my mother also works. My mother cooks dinner while I clean and tidy up a bit. In the meantime my father comes home from work. When dinner is ready, we eat. My big brother gets home at 7. When he has eaten, Mother and I do the dishes. Then I read the paper a bit. At 9.30 or 10 I go to bed. At 6 I get up again and go to work. And on weekend I will start cleaning with my mother

amount of the housework. That daughters were obliged to do more housework than sons is testified to by contemporary sources as well as oral-history interviews.

Female do more indoor activities such as cooking, reading, sewing and housechores. There are differences between single and married weekend habits of OUM students. The responsibility are more unleashed when a person get married. In this research, 90 percent of the female had been married. This suggested why they are tends to spend the weekend session at home and with their families. When woman were married, most of her free time is to be with her family, make quality time with her husband and children. Cooking and making house-chores is a must for most married woman. Female also go shopping in the weekend. In a psychology matter, woman would go shopping as a stress coping. Woman enjoys surfing the stores to find things that she like such as a dress and the cheaper she get, the happier she will be. When they buy things that they like, they will fell relieve and happy. So they will repeat it again.

around 6 until all is done. That's how it goes the whole week long.

Conclusion As a conclusion, woman are more likely to do indoor activity in weekend. Men somehow tend to do outdoor activities. female and male have the same rate (4:4) in watching tv/movies which consists 8 frequencies. Also the highest rate of weekend habit is reading. Female loves to read more than men. The lowest frequencies of weekend habits that shown in table 1 are playing video games, exercising/jogging and repair cars. Female likes to do cooking, reading and gardening. But men tend to watch tv or movies and traveling. Woman doesn’t do repairing car and exercising/jogging but men don’t go to the library, do house-chores, cooking, playing video games and shopping.