Abstract
The present study compared parents of children and youth with and without disabilities in terms of their awareness of their sons' and daughters' use of their spare time. Parents of children and youth without disabilities have the opinion that spare time should be spent on activities that the family enjoys together. Although these parents are anxious about a possible decline in their sons' and daughters' scholastic performance as a consequence of the recent introduction of the 5-day school week, they have little dissatisfaction with their sons' and daughters' use of their spare time. Compared to the degree of their anxiety about the scholastic decline, their concern about the 5-day week is low, and they rarely insist that the school and community do something about their sons' and daughters' use of their leisure time. In contrast, parents of children and youth with disabilities believe that the school and community should have some educational concern about their sons' and daughters' use of their spare time, and should consider how it could be used to benefit them. They are relatively dissatisfied with their sons' and daughters' spare time activities, and have more expectations for the role of the school and community than do parents of children and youth without disabilities. Considering the differences found in the present study between these 2 groups of parents, it was discussed how young people's spare time should be appropriately spent when a 5-day school week system is fully implemented.
