ABSTRACT

Purpose - This research will examine the popular weekend habits of Open University
Malaysia (OUM) students.
Design Methodology - Student’s weekend habits are categorized by their weekend
activities according to (subject 1, subject 2 and subject 3) what they presented in the
survey form. A total of 20 OUM students are subjects in this research. Subjects are
collected from various places and presented as a purposive sampling.
Findings – Male and female loves watching television / movies. According to the
frequency of each weekend’s habit, watching television / movies and reading are highest.
But female loves reading more than male. Male doesn’t like to sewing, cooking, shopping
and go to the library. Female don’t enjoy repair car or exercising
Research limitations – A primary limitation inherent in this study is that subjects in this
research are not enough to determine the whole population of OUM students.
Practical implications – This research can be used to guide more research in the future.
Originality/value – This research had been done in the school settings and little literature
reviews had been added.

INTRODUCTION
Weekend is a time for people to have a free time. It is for people to have a time off from
their working and studying life. Some were just pulling off from their daily chores.
Many tend to do lots of activities during the weekend because it doesn’t get trough their
daily chores. Some people prefer to have leisure activities and some were just wanted to
have quality time with their families during the weekend.

Different studies has identified different correlates of participation in leisure activities,

such as gender (Arber and Ginn 1991; Bennett 1998), living arrangements (Satariano,
Haight and Tager 2002), and socioeconomic status (Perren, Arber and Davidson 2003).
According to Bennett 1998, women have customarily engaged more in indoor activities
and men more in outdoor activities.
 METHODOLOGY
Research Design
We solicited student feedback by conducting a survey in September 2008. The survey
instrument was designed to gauge student evaluation on their weekend habits. The
following questions guided data collection:

(1) What are three things you would like to do during the weekends?

Subject
Using the qualitative research methods, a total of 20 Open University Malaysia (OUM)
students are subjects in this research derived from 27 years old to 48 years old. Subjects
are chooses according to the method of purposive sampling and their willingness to be
part in this research.

Instrument
A survey form or questionnaire form is built to present the data that collected from
subjects. There are two parts in the form which are section of Personal Details and
section of Weekend Habits. The section of personal details are based on the student’s
gender, birth date, marital status, major of study, minor of study, their learning centre and
workplace. The section of weekend habits are based on three of the subject’s weekend
habits.

Data analysis
Participant’s descriptive content responses to the survey questions were read, and the part
B question was categorized by ‘subject1’, ‘subject 2’ and ‘etc’. Upon identifying the
research’s answer, the researcher created descriptive table and graph to show the result.
 RESULTS
On the basis of this research we expected sex differences in the determinants of popular
weekend habits of OUM students. This was examined by the frequency of men and
women.

Table 1 : Frequency of Popular weekends Habit by OUM Students.

Frequenc
Habits Female Male y
Go To Library 4 0 4
Cooking 6 0 6
House-chores 2 0 2
Watching tv/movies 4 4 8
Sewing 2 0 2
Sports/Games 1 4 5
Traveling 3 2 5
Gardening 5 2 7
Playing Video
Games 1 0 1
Reading 6 2 8
Family Gathering 1 1 2
Exercising/Jogging 0 1 1
Repair Car 0 1 1
Surfing Internet 2 2 4
Shopping 2 0 2

From table 1, shows that female and male have the same rate (4:4) in watching tv/movies
which consists 8 frequencies. Also the highest rate of weekend habit is reading. Female
loves to read more than men. The lowest frequencies of weekend habits that shown in
table 1 are playing video games, exercising/jogging and repair cars.

Female likes to do cooking, reading and gardening. But men tend to watch tv or
movies and traveling. Woman doesn’t do repairing car and exercising/jogging but men
don’t go to the library, do house-chores, cooking, playing video games and shopping.
 Std.
Std. Error
A2 N Mean Deviation Mean
B4 SINGLE 2 3.5000 .70711 .50000
MARRIED 18 4.3333 .76696 .18078

Table 2 : Difference between married and single student’s weekend habits

Using the independent Sample T-Test, data are computed to find the differences
between married and single student’s weekend habits. From the table 2 shows that the
result were significant (f=.190, n = 20,>.05).
 Disscussion

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Graph 1: Table 1: Frequency of Popular weekends Habit by OUM Students.

Female likes to do cooking, reading and gardening. But men tend to watch tv or movies
and traveling. This indicates that most female likes to do indoor activities rather than men
who likes to do outdoor activities.

In the articles of Mothers' Toil and Daughters' Leisure: Working-class Girls and
Time in 1920s Germany (Christina, 2000) indicate that female are tend to do indoor
activities because of the social norm that exist in their community. In one of the
composition of 'How I spend my free time’1, unlike her elder brother she does a considerable

1
At 4 o'clock I get off work. When I get home, I start cleaning the flat with my mother, as my
mother also works. My mother cooks dinner while I clean and tidy up a bit. In the meantime my
father comes home from work. When dinner is ready, we eat. My big brother gets home at 7.
When he has eaten, Mother and I do the dishes. Then I read the paper a bit. At 9.30 or 10 I go to
bed. At 6 I get up again and go to work. And on weekend I will start cleaning with my mother
amount of the housework. That daughters were obliged to do more housework than sons is
testified to by contemporary sources as well as oral-history interviews.

Female do more indoor activities such as cooking, reading, sewing and house-
chores. There are differences between single and married weekend habits of OUM
students. The responsibility are more unleashed when a person get married. In this
research, 90 percent of the female had been married. This suggested why they are tends to
spend the weekend session at home and with their families. When woman were married,
most of her free time is to be with her family, make quality time with her husband and
children. Cooking and making house-chores is a must for most married woman.

Female also go shopping in the weekend. In a psychology matter, woman would

go shopping as a stress coping. Woman enjoys surfing the stores to find things that she
like such as a dress and the cheaper she get, the happier she will be. When they buy
things that they like, they will fell relieve and happy. So they will repeat it again.

around 6 until all is done. That's how it goes the whole week long.
 Conclusion
As a conclusion, woman are more likely to do indoor activity in weekend. Men somehow
tend to do outdoor activities. female and male have the same rate (4:4) in watching
tv/movies which consists 8 frequencies. Also the highest rate of weekend habit is reading.
Female loves to read more than men. The lowest frequencies of weekend habits that
shown in table 1 are playing video games, exercising/jogging and repair cars.

Female likes to do cooking, reading and gardening. But men tend to watch tv or
movies and traveling. Woman doesn’t do repairing car and exercising/jogging but men
don’t go to the library, do house-chores, cooking, playing video games and shopping.