PERCEIVED FACTORS KEEPING STUDENTS IN OR AWAY FROM DOING SPORTS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES IN TAIWAN REGION

Abstract

In the last six or so decades, researchers have investigated, proved and shown the benefits of sports and physical activities on students’ physical and mental health, academic performance and overall personal development. However, many researchers found that more and more students were staying away from sports and physical activities. Today, more than 80% of adolescent and 40-50% of college students globally did not meet the current physical activity per day recommended by the World Health Organization, thus keeping them unhealthy and unfit. This led researchers around the world to investigate the perceived facilitators and barriers that keep students away from these healthy activities. But, so far Taiwan region is concerned, no internationally published study has been done on this topic. To fill up the gap, the present quantitative, descriptive cross-sectional study investigated what perceived benefits and barriers keep in or away Taiwanese students from doing sports and physical activities. 9 self-designed multiple-choice paper survey questionnaires were administered among 199 students of different age groups, studying at different class levels at three educational institutes in New Taipei City, Taiwan during the six months, April to October, 2021. The collected data was then analyzed using Microsoft Excel Pivot table. Results: 82% of students knew doing physical activities could keep them physically and mentally healthy, but only 28% did enough exercise. Main responsible factors were: too much school works, part-time jobs, not enough social encouragements, lack of interest, no self-confidence in sports, and lack of knowledge respectively.

最近六年或者說幾十年來，研究人員經由調查，求證，展示出運動競技和體能活動對於學生們的身心健康、學業成績和全人發展的助益。但是，許多研究人員也發現，有愈來愈多的學生選擇了疏遠運動競賽和體能活動。今日全球有超過 80% 的青少年和 40-50% 的大學生並沒有達到世界衛生組織當前每日體育的訓練量，導致他們不健康和不良的體態。世界各地的研究人員想要利用調研，找出學生保持或遠離運動與體能活動所感知的有利的與障礙因素。但是，有關於台灣地區，目前國際上還沒有發表過相關研究。為了填補這一空白，目前的定量、描述性橫斷面研究調查了台灣學生進行運動競技和體能活動所感知的好處和障礙因素。 2021 年 4 月至 10 月的六個月期間，筆者在新北市三所教育機構的不同班級學習的 199 名不同年齡組學生中進行了自行設計的9題複選的問卷調查。然後對收集的數據進行了分析使用 Microsoft Excel 數據透視表。結果 有 82% 的學生知道從事體能鍛煉可以保持身心健康，卻只有 28% 學生的訓練是足夠的，其主要因素分別為：學校作業過多、兼職工作過多、社會鼓勵不足、缺乏興趣、對運動缺乏自信、知識匱乏。

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