YOUTH 2020 - The position of young people in Slovenia

Creativity and culture  285 is more frequent than cultural participation. This is consistent with some previous trends found in Slovenian studies on young people that have im- plied a higher popularity of sports activities to cultural and other activities in the past (see Kirbiš, 2011), aswell as higher enrolment in sports organiza- tions compared to cultural organizations in Slovenia and other EU coun- tries (European Commission, 2015). Very frequent leisure time activities are “listening to music” (M = 5.27; SD = 1.17) and “reading” (M = 3.2; SD = 1.48); however, it must be taken into account that these activities are not necessarily related solely to cultural activities (for example, reading can in- clude reading for educational or other purposes, and listening tomusic can include daily radio programmes). The frequency of cultural participation in different types of activities is significantly related to some sociodemographic factors. Women are more frequently culturally engaged in all three activities studied (read- ing, engagement with music, writing) and more frequently visit cultural events than men, while for visiting cultural sites there were no statisti- cally significant differences with regards to gender. The youngest people tend to engage in arts and creative activities more frequently (r = –0.10; p < 0.01), while older young people like to read slightly more often (r = 0.08; p < 0.01). Young people from families with better economic situa- tion more frequently visit cinemas, theatres, or concerts (r = 0.08; p < 0.01), which might be related to the fact that these activities are usually not free of charge. People with lower economic status often see cost as an obstacle to cultural participation (UNESCO, 2009), and according to Eu- robarometer 399 (2013) young people even listed lack of money as their main obstacle in visiting concerts or cinema. Another important factor of cultural participation is place of residence, since all cultural activities studied except engagement with music are statistically more frequent in more urban settings. Especially important differences occur in both types of cultural consumption and in reading (Figure 8.3). Young people in large cities significantly more often visit cultural sites, events/institutions, and read than those in villages or rural areas. At the same time, visiting cultural events is significantly lower in middle-sized cities than it is large cities. One of the reasons for such dif-