85 per cent of New Zealanders recreate with sport or other physical activitiy.
New Zealanders are generally happy people but most would like more
leisure time and 70 per cent say lack of money prevents them from
pursuing preferred activities in leisure time.
These are some of
the findings from a survey of sport and leisure in New Zealand,
carried out by Massey University researchers as part of the annual
International Social Survey Programme (ISSP).
Leading academic
institutions in 43 countries contribute to the ISSP and the New Zealand
data is provided by Massey. Member countries carry out a 30-minute
survey using identical questionnaires and deposit the data in central
archives in Europe. From it social scientists examine similarities and
differences between countries and monitor changes over time.
Professor
of Marketing Phil Gendall from the Department of Communication,
Journalism and Marketing, leads the New Zealand survey. Between October
and December last year, 2250 people over the age of 18 were surveyed by
mail about sport and leisure activities and to gauge their health and
happiness.
The survey found 85 per cent New Zealanders are involved in some sort of sport or physical activity.
Walking
came out top as the most frequent sporting or physical activity,
favoured by 35 per cent, but getting fit, going to the gym, cycling,
jogging and playing golf or rugby are popular activities with New
Zealanders.
Three quarters of the population regularly play
games involving their brains rather than their bodies. The most popular
are word or number games like crossword puzzles and Sudoku (both 20 per
cent), but video and computer games, card games, board games and
gambling games are also played by between 5 and 15 per cent of people.
Women, particularly older women, like word games whereas young men are
more likely to play video games and computer games.
The survey
of leisure and sport activities showed the most popular activities are
watching television, listening to music, playing sport, getting
together with friends, going shopping, spending time on the internet
and reading books. Seventy per cent said they watched television or a
DVD on a daily basis and 59 per cent said they listened to music every
day whilst 30 per cent read books.
When it comes to body
shape, the ideal woman was seen as being slimmer than the ideal man and
although men were generally happy with their figures, women –
particularly middle aged women – showed up as much more likely to want
to lose weight.
The women tended to choose a slimmer body shape
than men as ideal, and it is this perception of the ideal female shape
that places pressure on them to lose weight, says Professor Gendall.
Fifty-four per cent of all participants wanted to lose weight and
middle aged women were the group most concerned about it.
“The
results are consistent with other findings,” says Professor Gendall.
“They also help to explain why dieting is more common among women than
men, and why concerns about body shape among young women can lead to
eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia.”
Generally New
Zealanders were found to be happy and healthy, says Professor Gendall.
The survey shows the happiest and healthiest are married men and women;
the least happy and healthy are divorced, widowed and separated men.
Editor's Note:
Original news release can be found here .
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