New Zealanders mostly active, happy and healthy

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.

The full report is available here:
http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms//Massey%20News/2008/05/docs/sport-and-leisure.pdf