Need for closure and youngsters' leisure time preferences

Abstract

The Need for Closure is introduced as an individual characteristic that can help explain individual differences in engagement in leisure activities. Both a leisure engagement inventory and a validated Dutch version of the Need for Closure Scale were administered to a convenience sample of 1035 young adults aged between 15 and 24 of which about 54% were female. As hypothesized, leisure engagement differs for groups differing in Need for Closure. More specifically, youngsters who have a high (versus low) Need for Closure engaged more in structured, cognitively effortless and predictable leisure activities like shopping for fun and going to the cinema, while young adults low (versus high) in Need for Closure more often participated in unstructured, unpredictable, cognitively effortful or challenging leisure activities like going to a party, a pub, or a pop concert, idly lazing away, visiting or hosting friends, attending an evening class and playing computer games.