Study About the Place of Sports Activities in Students Free Time Budget

Abstract

Concerning the location of the residence, the opportunities of some special organized places for physical and sport activities, the objective and subjective matters specifically for the social and educational environment, this study aims to determine the free time budget of the students of the University of Bucharest with the main favorite spare-time activities. The method of the questionnaire, the statisticallymathematical method, the method of graphical representation. The two parts of the students that are included in the presentation are the following: 858 girl and 271 boys, from all the study-years, including the master. They are part of the 18 faculties of the University of Bucharest and of the sport and physical education courses. The social issues influence to some extent the motivation for sport activities in the spare-time (the lack of special-organized spaces) and moreover, other issues are the comfort, education and an unorganized lifestyle. From the processing of the data turns out that the questioned students practice the sport activities in their spare-time, mostly in group. However, the subjects from both categories dispose of spare time of between 1 and 4 hour with a percentage of 84,1 % foe girls and 78,2% for boys. The girls prefer the sport activities that are mainly sedentary whereas the boys prefer sport activities.

Keywords: Time budgetstudentseducationsocial issueslifestyle

Introduction

„The society of nowadays is characterized by alert working rhythms that induce pressures,

sometimes hard to counteract by the subjects, unable to resonate or to synchronize with these. The rigor

which time is shared with leads to the notion of time budget . As any other budget, this mainly implies a

limited resource which has to be wisely managed” (Bota, 2006: 11-13).

Regarding the spare time there always appear new terms and interpretations. This way, Miller and

Robinson (Ganciu in 2010: 39), two tourism analysts in whose presentations we encounter for the first

time the difference between spare-time, which means the time one disposes of after the necessary work or

other activities and liabilities that are met.

“In modern conception, health is considered as a state that contains elements of physical, social

and psychological nature. Not only is it enough for someone not to be diagnosed as ill to benefit from a

good health state, but also to have all their health components placed in the positive pole. In this case

there is a possibility of objectively evaluating a tendency to get to the "good state" (Aducovschi, D. 2012:

266-267).

Yukseloglu and Karaguven (2013: 282-288) studied the academically motivation willing to

identify the factors and efficiency on a group of students. The results showed that, the group, having

common demographical characteristics and specialties had a better efficiency regarding academically

motivation. In their turn, Haron et. al. (2012: 1-23) studied the motivation and the effect on the

understanding and intellectual performance among students.

Students spend a lot of time home, thus their behavior and actions are mainly influenced by their

parents. The level of education their parents have play an important role in the success of educating the

children. The results found by Krug (1989: 248-289) and Forsyth (1991: 53-65) showed that academically

factors are of the same efficiency for the motivation and academically orientation of the students.

„The modern society, through its cultural mutations introduced many models of spending the spare

time, as a generically accepted term, influenced by the social environment, traditions, moral and religious

values etc” (Dumitrescu, R. 2013: 70).

In modern societies, recreational sport represents a phenomenon whose importance increased a lot,

becoming more and more frequent in the daily life.

In the actual conception, the activities that regard moving are described by two fundamental

aspects: practical utility and fighting against tiredness on one hand and the pleasure of moving on the

other hand. If it is judiciously used, the free time becomes a way of forming one's personality and of

permanent education (Ganciu M., 2010: 40).

Hypotheses

Objectives

Determination of the free time budget of the young students of the University of Bucharest, the

main favorite recreational activities and how much physical and sport activities are found amongst these.

Materials and Methods

Both The Commission of Ethics of the University of Bucharest and the participating subjects

agreed on The Department of Physical Education and Sport making this study.

Research Methods

Inquest based on a questionnaire: The questionnaire has been made by the authors, having a

number of nine items with closed, unique or multiple answers.

The statistical-mathematical method: It has been applied the „Square Chi test” (χ2), ) through

which it has been checked the concordance of the distribution of the real data (calculated repartition) with the data of a theoretical repartition, regarding the existence of a systematical factor which significantly

differences the two rows of data. The programme used for the statistical processing has been SPSS,

version 17 and Microsoft Excel 2007.

Results

In the following figures, we emphasize the most relevant answers of the questionnaire we used.

•Do you practice sport activities in your free time?

To this question, the girls answered "yes" in a percentage of 53,9%, whereas a percentage of

46,1% answered "No".

The boys answered "Yes" in a significant percentage of 81,1% and those who admit that they do

not practice any sport activity have a percentage of 18,9% (fig. no. 4).

It turns out that the majority of students are conscious of the necessity of practicing physical

exercise for benefitting from a healthy lifestyle.

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The answers regarding practicing or not practicing any sport activity in the free time are significantly

different in regards to the statistics between girls and boys. P < 0.0001<0.5, for x2 = 64,286 and 1

freedom degree (fig. no. 4).

•How many times a week do you practice sport in your free time?

The answers at this question for the girl subjects were: 43,4% "occasionally", "once"-25,5%, "two

times"-20,4%, "three times" -6,1% and "more than three times"- 4,7%.

Regarding the boy subjects, 32,3% of them answered that they "occasionally" practice sport activities,

followed by the ones who prefer practicing them "twice a week"-23,7%, "more than three times a week"-

21,4% and the answers "once" and "three times a week" are equally represented by a percentage of

11,3%. The percentages of those who practice sport (fig. no.5) are gladdening.

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The answers to this question are significantly different in regards to the statistics between girls and

boys. P < 0.0001<0.5 for x2= 98.968 and 4 freedom degrees (fig. no.5).

•What kinds of sports do you prefer?

For the girl subjects, the first four more frequent answers have been

"aerobics/fitness/bodybuilding"-33,4%, "jogging" 12,3%, "roller blades sports (skateboard, roller skating,

cyclist)" and "swimming" with nearly equal percentages of 11,8%, respectively 11,5%.

With less percentages we identify the last group of four options: "tea games"-9,4%, "tennis"-7,8%,

"others"- 7,3% and "winter games (skating, snowboard and ski)" 6,5%.

The option with the best percentage was the "aerobics/fitness/bodybuilding" with 20,4% showing

the fact that the possibilities of spending the free time have already got to another dimension.

The first four preferences for the boy subjects are a little more balanced: "team games"-21,3% and

"aerobics/fitness/bodybuilding" 20,4% nearly followed by other two preferences: "jogging"-13,1% and

"tennis"-12,5%.

The least percentage is represented by "swimming"-10,3%, "others"-10,1%, then with modest

percentages we identify "roller blades sport (skateboard, roller skating and cyclist)"-6,9% and "winter

sports ( ice skating, snowboard, ski)"-5,4% (fig. no. 6).

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The answers to this question regarding the favorite sports have a significantly different percentage

regarding the statistics between girls and boys. P< 0.0001<0.5, for x2=76.162 an 7 freedom degrees (fig.

no.6).

•Which are the reasons behind your practicing sport activities?

The answered have been shared this way: girls subjects, with a percentage of 35,8% are motivated

by the "family education", 32,5% assume that they benefit from "a great offer variety", 16,8% take

advantage from the short time they spend to arrive at the places where they can practice sport activities"

and 14,9% consider that local administrations did their duty by involving into the arrangement and

modernizing some sport gyms, indicating "the material basis for satisfying the needs".

The boy subjects value the education they received from the family in a percentage of 46,8%, "a

great variety of offers" has a percentage of 24,5%, "the material basis for satisfying the needs"16,2% and

last, "the short time they spend to arrive at the places where they can practice sport activities" has a

percentage of 12,6% (fig. no. 9).

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The percentage of the answers regarding the reasons behind practicing the sport activities is

significant and it statistically differs from girls to boys. P= 0.003<0.05, for x2=13.925 and 3 freedom

degrees.

Conclusions

The subjects from the two questioned parts dispose of 1 to 4 hours of free time in percentages of

84,1% for girls and 78,2% for boys. Also, the ones who said that they do not dispose of any free time are

in percentage of 4,9% for girls and 2,2% for boys. Thus, we can affirm that the first hypothesis is

confirmed.

The most favorite free time activities for girls are " TV shows, online movies and activities on the

internet ", as compared to the boys, who prefer " physical and sport activities ".

The relatively sedentary activities represent a higher percentage for the girls-66,2%, as compared

to 51,1% for the boys. Moreover, physical and sport activities represent a percentage of 33,7%for girls

and 48,9% for boys, fact that confirms hypothesis number 2.

A percentage of 53,9% representing the girl subjects and 81,1% representing the boys stated that

they practice sport activities in their spare time, which indicates that the majority of the students, in spite

of their low free time budget are conscious of the necessity of physical exercise for a healthy and

balanced lifestyle. A significant result is identified for the boys.

The ones who only practice sport activities occasionally have the highest percentage in both

groups of questioned subjects (43,4% for the girls and 32,3% for the boys). On the second place with a

percentage of 25,5% are the girl subjects who manage to practice sport once a week, whereas the boys

who practice sport "two times a week" have a percentage of 23,7%.

It has resulted that the physical and sport activities preferred for girls are

" aerobics/fitness/bodybuilding " in a percentage of 33,4%, and for the boys " team games " with a

percentage of 21,3%.

Both groups prefer to practice sport "in a group of friends"(girls-42,1%, boys-58,8%). Noticeable

is the fact that boys present a higher percentage, indicating a higher grade of organization.

It has been noticed that every group of subjects has identified special organized places (others than

those from the lessons of physical education and sport) for practicing sport activities in the free time

(girls-59,2%- boys-66,4%).

An essential motivation which determines the subjects to practice sport activities is the education

received by their families. The percentage for girls is 35,8%, less than the one for the boys which is

46,8%. This indicates the fact that the sport made in school and sport clubs are less and less trusted by the

parents and they offer less and less opportunities, even though demographically, their number is bigger

than the one for boys. Regarding the boys, we consider that they adapt a little bit quicker to the present

offers and the more and more modest conditions.

Among the reasons for which the questioned students don’t participate in sport activities we

identified the lack of interest, of mentor and the of spare time.

Suggestions

The refreshing of the national politics and infrastructures regarding health, sport for everyone,

whereas the modernization and developing of the sport gyms, investing in building some polyvalent

gyms, sport fields, swimming pools, cycling and skating tracks, etc.

Local administrations should develop some projects regarding the organization of this kind of

special places for spending the free time.

The sport and physical education teachers should benefit from the involving of the leaders of the

institutions where they practice their activity in the organization of as many special events which are

made for stimulating the students' will of practicing free time activities as possible. This way, it is going

to become a life style for the future intellectuals.

Copyright

I declare herewith, that this above-mentioned work (article) is my own original work. Furthermore,

I confirm that: I have clearly referenced in accordance with the requirements, in both the text and the

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