VOLUNTEERING IN THE DOMAIN OF ONE'S LEISURE TIME

Volunteering as an activity enables the development of an individual's competency and is also an area of interest both of society as a whole, as well as the academic community. The goal of this study is to determine the relationship between volunteering and the domain of leisure time within the student population. Undergraduate and graduate students of the University of Zagreb were included in the study, along with the students of integrated undergraduate and graduate studies, aged 20,86 +/- 3,81, (N=161). For the purpose of this research, a questionnaire about volunteering was used, along with inquiring about the general sense of happiness and satisfaction with one's own free time. According to the results, a third of the questioned students has had an experience with volunteering. Students put most value in the altruistic motives for volunteering, regardless of their experience in the said field. Students' satisfaction with their leisure time and their sense of happiness, regardless of whether they take part in volunteering activities or not, spans from 60% to 80% which is the scaling maximum, while the students that have volunteered for church/religious organisation in the past 12 months were statistically happier in life and were significantly more satisfied with their free time than the students who took no part in volunteering. The results of this study provide an opportunity for developing more guidelines in promoting volunteering activities within the young population and the society as a whole.