Abstract
The study focussed on the participation, interest, time use and problems of
rural youth in five selected aspects which constituted the dependent variables. The
five aspects in participation, interest and time use were agriculture; income earning;
community service; cultural and recreational; and household activities and that for
problems food, clothing and housing; education; job opportunity; training and recreation. The study also explored the opinion of the fathers of rural youth and the Block
Supervisors (BSs) on four selected aspects related to youth and youth programme.
Twelve independent variables included age, education, agricultural knowledge,
leadership, cosmopoliteness, earning status, aspiration in life, ability to cope with
uncertainty, attitude towards technology of rural youth and, socio-economic status,
farm size and income of the family.
The study was conducted in three villages of Mymensingh district. Data were
collected through personal interview schedule and questionnaires during December
1992 to March 1993 from three sets of samples namely, rural youth (137), fathers of
rural youth (69) and Block Supervisors (69). Participation, interest, time use and
problems in each selected aspect was measured by developing respective indexes. For
exploring the relationships between the independent and dependent variables correlation test, stepwise multiple regression analysis and path coefficient analysis were
conducted in succession. Each of the dimension of participation, interest and time use
of rural youth was measured through 45 selected activities and that for problems
through 50 probable problem items.
Participation indices ranged from 3 to 156, interest indices from 9 to 159 and
problem indices from 38 to 185 against a possible range of 0 to 200. However, the time
use indices ranged from 2 to 324. Top ten activities in participation, interest and time
use of rural youth were mostly related to crop, horticulture, livestock and receation.