In recent years, music education has seen a decline in the number of students choosing to continue their studies at Key Stage 4 (14- to 16-year-old students) and choose music as a GCSE option in England. Whilst the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), a school performance measure which excludes the arts, has come under much scrutiny as to its impact on school music, enjoyment and the perceived importance of music lessons could also be contributing factors to low uptake. This paper presents student survey findings from the first part of a two-phase project that was based on a qualitatively driven mixed-method research design. Findings demonstrated that a decline in enjoyment and in the importance attributed to school music occurred in the first three years of lower secondary school (Key Stage 3). The enjoyment of school music was linked with the students’ engagement with practical components of music making, and its importance was mostly equated with future employment opportunities. The findings are discussed in terms of their practical implications in the teaching of music in secondary schools.

The study aimed to investigate how students in lower secondary schools in England perceive the subject of music in terms of its importance and enjoyment. Following findings from the first survey phase of the project, it specifically sought to shed light on the reasons why the majority of students decide not to choose music as one of their optional subjects at GCSE level. The paper presents interview findings with students in three schools at the north-east of England following the phenomenographic method of data analysis. Among factors found to impact on students’ decision to continue music at Key Stage 4 (ages 14–16 years) were the desire to spend more time learning music, having more choice and autonomy in the classroom, having more information about the content and requirements of GCSE music, feeling disadvantaged due to not being proficient at instrumental playing and having a limited perception of their own musicality or perceiving music as being elite or difficult. The findings are discussed in terms of their practical implications for the teaching and learning of music in secondary schools.

Anxiety is among the most frequently studied emotions in second language acquisition (SLA). Study abroad (SA) researchers have examined its effects on SLA in that setting in a number of studies. The current study goes beyond previous SA research by examining how anxiety develops and connects with language proficiency development over SA. Specifically, it uses anxiety-related measures of foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA), foreign language enjoyment (FLE), and a physiological manifestation of anxiety (hair cortisol). As far as the classroom is concerned, learners grew more comfortable, experiencing less anxiety and more enjoyment over the period of SA. However, learners showed physiological signs of overall elevated anxiety despite these increasing classroom comfort levels. Two key factors that may have influenced their anxiety levels abroad were tendency toward anxiety prior to SA and language proficiency upon departure for SA. The latter provides support for having students more proficient prior to SA, since doing so may lead to less anxiety during SA.

Building upon Deci's and Ryan (1985) Self-determination theory as well as the sportive behavioral correlates of the model of Commitment (Scanlan et al., 1976), this study tries to establish the relationship between motivation and commitment in youth sport. For this purpose 454 young competitive soccer players answered the Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) and the Sport Commitment Questionnaire (SCQ) during the regular season.

The SMS measures the three dimensions of the Motivational continuum (the Amotivation, the Extrinsic Motivation and the Intrinsic Motivation). The SCQ measures the Sportive Commitment and its composing factors such as the Enjoyment, the Alternatives to the sport, and the Social Pressure. Our findings provided a clear pattern of the influence of motivation in sport enjoyment and commitment, outlining the positive contribution of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to enjoyment and commitment. Amotivation, contributes positively to alternatives to sport and negatively to enjoyment and commitment. It should be noted that extrinsic motivation has a higher contribution to enjoyment whereas intrinsic motivation has a higher contribution to commitment.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of eight categories of leisure participation and enjoyment with ten selected demographic variables. A Likert-type questionnaire was designed to ascertain the degree of participation and enjoyment in 89 activities. The activities were grouped in the following leisure categories: aesthetic, civic, intellectual, mass-media, physical, social, spiritual and touristic.

The sample consisted of three executive board members and five non-board members for each of the 229 senior citizen clubs currently affiliated with the New Brunswick Senior Citizen's Federation. Canonical correlation analyses were used to investigate the relationship stated in the two research questions. Three meaningful canonical variates were respectively identified for participation and enjoyment. On the basis of the results of the study, there seems to be some justification to take into account the particular ethnic orientation of senior clubs in the delivery of the various leisure programs.

This paper reviews the different concepts and measures of positive aspects of caregiving that have been used in previous studies. It describes the use of a simple measure of “enjoyable aspects of caregiving” used in a large longitudinal Canadian study of dementia care in the community. The measure attained significant test-retest reliability and significantly correlated with caregiver burden and health. It also predicted caregiver desire to institutionalize the care recipient at three different time periods but not actual institutionalization. The paper calls for greater use of measures related to positive aspects of caregiving and a better understanding of how these measures relate to one another and to outcomes.

Numerous studies have noted the lack of change in the sexual division of housework, despite substantial change in factors believed to affect it. According to popular thought, men are at best making selective inroads, such that change is limited to the more enjoyable work. This paper explores how combined educational attainment levels of spouses affect the division of housework, taking into account the relative ‘pleasantness’ of particular tasks. For this purpose 1992/93 Dutch data are used, including a national survey on the enjoyment of routine housework. Our findings stress the relevance of discriminating between different sorts of tasks. Firstly, men, if they contribute, do so more to the preferred tasks of shopping or cooking than to the less enjoyed cleaning or laundry. Generational differences suggest, however, that change towards equalisation permeates all tasks alike. Secondly, the division of each type of housework varies between couples with different educational compositions. The effects of education are such that an explanation based on egalitarian values fares better than one based on human capital. Finally, comparing the spouses, the results indicate that the influence of wives' education dominates. However, among highly educated wives this does not hold true when it comes to cleaning.