Occupations of Chilean adolescents: level of importance according to gender

Abstract

An occupational view of public health takes care of the lifestyles of specific groups of people and how they influence their health and quality of life. Adolescents are positioning themselves as a group with their own needs from all areas of health, betting that the well-being of young people is an investment for the near future. Little is known about the nature of adolescents' occupational choices and how routines and lifestyles are installed. The challenges of this stage of life condition participation in occupations, to such a level that, from becoming involved in them, the interests and roles of adolescents are defined. The level of importance they attach to their activities would define their occupational routine based on the preferences of some activities over others. This research aims to define the differences in the level of importance that Chilean adolescents give to their occupations according to their gender. This study is quantitative in descriptive design. 109 Chilean adolescents who defined their daily occupations and the level of importance for each of them were evaluated. The Mann Whitney U test that compares two non-parametric samples was used. Regarding the results of this study, there are significant differences in the Play, especially in the play with friends, being the male adolescents those who give a higher level of importance to this type of play than their female peers. No significant differences were found by gender in Social Participation and Leisure activities, therefore, it could be said that adolescent men and women give the same level of importance to these occupations.