In this part of the paper, the data collection and proposed sample will be discussed. Moreover, the main results will be presented.
Survey
A pre-Easter holiday questionnaire was sent out to all employees at the University of Stavanger. The questionnaire included both self-developed questions in addition to the Beck Depression Inventory, as described in the Methods. The self-developed questions were general questions; asking about the informant’s holiday plans in Easter, vacation length and life satisfaction in general. In order to include both Norwegian speakers and non-Norwegian speakers, the questionnaire was sent out in both Norwegian and English. Four respondents answered the English survey, while eighty-one answered the Norwegian survey. After the recreation experience, a post-survey was sent out. This was answered by twenty-three respondents. With the invitation for the survey, a confidentiality agreement was sent out
which can be found in the Appendix (Appendix C). Moreover, the pre-trip survey invited the respondents to give their email address in order to participate in a prize drawing. Thirty-five respondents entered their email address. Ten of these were given a prize. The prize drawing was conducted in April under charge and with help of one senior executive officer working at the University of Stavanger, Norwegian School of Hotel Management (NHS), and head of department at the Norwegian School of Hotel Management. The prizes were small prizes such as self-made beeswax candles and figures. At the very end of the questionnaire, respondents were invited to participate in an interview.
Interview
Due to shortage in time, not all of respondents who entered their email address were interviewed. Twelve of these informants were interviewed in week 10 and 11. These twelve respondents were chosen and invited for an interview in the sequence they answered the questionnaire which was send out before.
The pre-interviews lasted from approximately 30 minutes to more than 1 hour, the post interviews lasted from approximately 20 minutes to 1 hour. All interviews were conducted in the respondents’ office and recorded by permission of the respondents.
All of the informants were Norwegians; consequently the interviews were conducted in Norwegian. All respondents were employees at the University of Stavanger.
At the very end of the interview, the respondents were asked to participate in a second interview, post-trip interview, in order to gain insight into their thoughts and reflections both before and after their recreation experience. All of them agreed. However, one respondent (nr.
12) was not interviewed after her recreation experience due to her vacation being cancelled.
The post-trip interviews were conducted in week 15, 16 and the last interview in week 17.
The interview respondents were each given a small parcel of chocolate as an incentive for the pre-trip interview and a Swiss chocolate Easter bunny after the post-trip interview.
Moreover, after the post-trip interview the eleven respondents were asked to answer the MBTI Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator, which all of them agreed to do. The MBTI was used in order to gain more information from the interviews and to see if individuals with a certain type preference were more likely to choose a specific recreation activity than people with other preferences.
Survey results
As mentioned previously, 79 respondents answered the pre-vacation survey while less than the half, 24 respondents answered the post-vacation survey. Sixty-one on those who answered the pre-vacation survey planned to go on holiday, while 19 of those who answered the post-vacation survey had been on holiday. (Please see Appendix K for detailed BDI II scores and detailed analysis of the additional questions for the pre and post-trip).
BDI II results
The below presented charts illustrate the Mean, Mode, Median, Standard deviation (SD) and total number (n) for the scored BDI self-reported answers, pre and post-trip. The BDI II scores ask the respondents to pick out the one statement in each group that best describes how they have been feeling during the past two weeks including the present days. As illustrated in Appendix D, 0 represents the least degree of the sadness; loss of pleasure and so on, while 3 presents the highest degree.
Sadness:
The category “sadness” asks the respondents if they do feel sad, ranging from 0 (I do not feel sad) to 3 (I am so sad or unhappy that I can´t stand it).
Sadness Mean Mode Median SD N
Pre-test 0,13114754 0 0 0,34036303 61
Post-test 0 0 0 0 19
Table 2: BDI II category: sadness
As illustrated by the chart the mean for sadness decreased from 0,13114754 before the vacation to 0 after the vacation, indicating that the respondents did not feel sad after the recreation experience.
Loss of Pleasure:
This group of statement covers the loss of pleasure ranging from 0(I get as much pleasure as I ever did from the things I enjoy) to 3 (I can´t get any pleasure from the things I used to enjoy).
Loss of Pleasure
Mean Mode Median SD N
Pre-test 0,2295082 0 0 0,42400639 61
Post-test 0,21052632 0 0 0,41885391 19
Table 3: BDI II category: Loss of Pleasure
This table illustrates a slight increase in loss of pleasure in the mean, from 0,2295082 to
0,21052632.
Loss of Energy:
The category “Loss of Energy” asks the participant if they experienced a loss of energy, ranging from 0 (I have as much energy as ever) to 3 (I don´t have enough energy to do anything).
Loss of Energy Mean Mode Median SD N
Pre-test 0,62295082 1 1 0,61002553 61
Post-test 0,57894737 1 1 0,50725727 24
Table 4: BDI II category: Loss of Energy
Both the pre and post-trip mode indicate that most respondents feel that they have less energy than they used to have due to that 1 was the most frequent score. The mean was slightly reduced from 0, 62295082 before the holiday to 0, 57894737 after the holiday.
Pessimism
This category covers the self-reported “pessimism”.
Pessimism Mean Mode Median SD N
Pre-test 0,21311475 0 0 0,52008826 61
Post-test 0,10526316 0 0 0,31530177 19
Table 5: BDI II category: Pessimism
As illustrated by the chart pessimism was reported to have reduced slightly. The mean decreased from 0, 21311475 to 0, 10526316.
BDI-II Scoring:
Chart illustrating the Mean, Mode, Median and Standard deviation for the scored BDI self-reported answers, pre and post-trip. The answers from each of the 21 items were added for each respondent, then the mean, mode, median and standard deviation was calculated by using descriptive statistics.
BDI total scoring Mean Mode Median SD N
pre-test 6,33333333 1 5 6,73384235 61
Post-test 3,57894737 0 2 3,8631563 19
Table 6: BDI II total scoring
As illustrated by the chart the mean for the total BDI II score decreases which indicates a slight decrease in self-reported depression.
Total Scores Range
0-13 Minimal
14-19 Mild
20-28 Moderate
29-63 Severe
Table 7: BDI II total scores and range of depression severity
Both pre and post-test BDI II total scores are in the range between 0 and 13 which indicate a minimal depression severity. As illustrated by the mean (6,33333333 pre-trip; 3,57894737
post-trip) is seems that this minimal depression decreases after the vacation.