The effects of group initiatives in collegiate leisure skills courses

by Hegreness, Ryan.

Leisure skills classes are offered to students at Clemson University with the intent of helping students to develop new skills in various leisure-time activities. If a leisure skills class is successful, a student’s sense of efficacy in that skill should be greater at the conclusion of the semester. Leisure skills classes should be structured to give students the greatest sense of self-efficacy in the skill. This study attempted to determine whether leisure skills classes at Clemson University can become more effective in increasing self-efficacy through the addition of group initiatives as a part of the course curriculum. This study utilized a quasi-experimental design to examine whether there is a significant difference in general self-efficacy and leisure skills self-efficacy between the control and treatment groups as well as among the various class types. Leisure skills selfefficacy was found to increase significantly for both the treatment and control groups. The results failed to show a significant difference in general self-efficacy and leisure skill self-efficacy between the treatment and control groups as well as among the class types. Conditions are discussed that may have affected the results of the study and suggestions for future research are given. This study provides the Leisure Skills Program at Clemson University with valuable information for improving the leisure skills curriculum in the future. iii iv