Abstract
The purpose of this research is to examine how the village community centers are being used and find how to improve leisure activities of elders in rural areas by using them. In order to achieve the purpose of this research, we did convenience sampling from elders using 92 village community centers in one of the counties in Gyeong-gi province, and did field survey to 343 persons. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 18 program, and the results are as follows: The survey on population sociological peculiarity of elders using village community centers shows that most of elders are over 70 years old. As for health conditions, there are more elders who are physically weaker than healthy elders. And the survey shows that most of the elders are suffering from illness such as hypertension, arthritis, neuralgia, and indigestion so such programs related to health are critically required. First, the survey on using village community centers by elders in rural areas shows that they think the village community centers are important for them and use them often. Most of respondents said that they use the village community center so as to meet friends, to enjoy leisure, and to spend time in rural areas where they have difficulty enjoying cultural facilities. Meanwhile, some people dislike to use the village community centers mainly because there is few programs for leisure or each one has a different personality or they don't have enough money to pay for the membership fee. Second, according to the survey on leisure for the elders in village community centers, there are few leisure programs. For men, they spend time by playing Baduk, Janggi, Hwatu and drinking. Meanwhile, women spend time by meeting with friends, listening to radio and TV watching. There are almost nothing to improve leisure activities such as hobby, recreation and health etc. Male elders using centers are suffering from health problems, economic difficulty, and lack of leisure activities, meanwhile, female elders are suffering from loneliness, health problems, and economic difficulty. Third, according to the survey on improving the leisure program of village community center, elders preferred health related programs to improve leisure activities. The most necessary leisure activities in village community center are hobby classrooms, health programs and group travelling. They preferred health related programs for leisure in village community center. Based upon the reality described above, improving the village community centers as leisure facilities is considered to be important for the welfare well of elders in rural areas.
