The Leisure Times Patterns and National Identity; A Study of Kurdistan Province Youth

The patterns and experiences of leisure time, coupled with personal enrichment and pacifism, are associated such social functions as social belonging, social solidarity and mutual understanding and may constitute a mechanism for social inclusion and solidification, and therefor renders a citizen active or passive socially. Therefore, given the identification functions and significations of leisure, within the framework of Chris Rojk, the present study attempts to investigate the patterns of leisure time and it’s effects on the national identity of youth. The current research is survey employing questionnaire about 400 samples of young 18 to 29 years old in Sanandaj, Baneh and Qorveh (Kurdistan Province) who have been selected according to multistage cluster sampling. The description findings suggest that more than two sample population adopt a positive attitude toward national identity and average rate of dimensions of national identity is high. It is also observed that one third of the total time of the population is devoted to leisure. Investigation of the relation between leisure patterns and national identity shows that usual leisure has a direct bearing of national identity; This is while the relationship between unusual leisure time and national identity is inverse. The relationship of leisure patterns with national identity suggests that usual and unusual patterns of leisure have by far the most drastic effect on the in-group association with national identity. Of the unusual leisure patterns, the abnormal dimension has by far the most negative effect on the in-group solidarity and unification. The findings of the multi-variable Regression suggests that leisure patterns, in addition to the variables of age and education justify 39/1percent of the variations of national identity.