The Importance of Hiking and Mountain Trips in Leisure and Extracurricular Activities of Students – Part 2/ Interpretation of the Utility and Effects-financial Accessibility Components

Background and Study Purpose: Physical activities in the mountain environment are recognised for their multiple benefits on health, fitness levels, stress reduction and communication. The research aims to identify differences in the usefulness, effects, and affordability of trips and hiking for pre-university students. Material and Methods: The sociometric research investigated a group of 647 students. A 3-component structured questionnaire based on closed-ended items with five levels investigated students' responses to the usefulness and financial effects/financial accessibility of trips and hiking. Results: We obtained the gender difference for all utility factor items, with higher scores attributed to females. Gender differences were also significant in favour of females for the effects/accessibility factor, except affordability (P>0.05). The F-values for the rural-urban difference are all significant and in favour of rural students for both components, except affordability, which is higher for urban. Conclusions: At the level of the utility component, the highest scores are obtained by the items associated with the level of health, socialization group integration, and personality formation. For the effects component, high scores are obtained for items associated with stress reduction/recreation, then optimising endurance and fitness levels. Financial accessibility of trips and hiking scores lower, with only 50% of students perceiving them as affordable and very affordable. Rural students have higher values of confidence in the usefulness of hiking vs. urban students, and this is maintained for the effects component items, the only exception being for financial accessibility, where urban has significantly better values than rural.