School students’ leisure in the context of their self-determination

Abstract

The article discusses the question of how school students spend the time that is free from compulsory classes. Free time or leisure is considered crucial to how a teenager’s personality is shaped and developed; it is a source of their self-determination, which can be positive based on what they do in their free time and who they spend it with. The author notes that analysing and assessing students’ leisure activities to evaluate whether they are aligned with the psychological and educational goal of nurturing, preserving and strengthening their mental health and mental well-being should be seen as a separate area of activities of the psychological service within the education system. The article identifies the key aspects that school psychologists are to focus on when working with teachers and parents. These include: the need for a close cooperation between the family and the school in organising leisure activities for children and adolescents and monitoring their content and implementation; the importance of analysing the norms, values and ideals of students’ reference groups to evaluate whether they are aligned with the goals of positive self-determination; the importance of creating conditions where the students — within the general maturing process — will be incentivized to take responsibility for organizing their free time, for the content and types of their leisure activities, including those performed jointly with members of the reference group; taking into account the essential role of artistic and aesthetic education, in particular, reading fiction, in shaping students’ of personality in childhood and adolescence; the balance between computerrelated types of leisure activities common today and traditional forms of leisure activities in childhood and adolescence. It is emphasized that leisure activities only have a positive impact on the personal development and selfdetermination of students if students are involved in those activities, have internal motivation and adopt an active role in those activities.