Gesondheidsrisikogedrag van hoërskool sportdeelnemers en nie-deelnemers

Abstract

The first aim of the study was to establish whether the health risk behaviour of sports participants and non-participants differed. Secondly the aim was to determine whether these differences are gender and race specific or not. The research group was selected on the basis of an availability sample and consisted of 470 high school pupils (boys n=205; girls n=265) of different racial groups (white n=158; Coloureds n=114 and Indian n=48) between the ages of 13 and 18 years of age, living in the Potchefstroom district in the North West Province. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) questionnaire was used for the study. The questionnaire was completed during specific school hours after informed consent had been obtained. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data. Two-way tables were used to describe percentage participation. Effect sizes were applied to determine the practical meaningfulness. From the results it is clear that participants in sport have a higher percentage participation in four of the six health risk behaviour activities, namely violence, smoking, alcohol, drugs and sexual behaviour than the non-participants. Non-participants showed higher percentage participation with regard to inactivity and suicidal thoughts. This tendency is also reflected with regard to gender and race. Although the sport participants showed a higher percentage participation in health risk behaviour than non-participants, these differences were not practically meaningful. The sport participants and non-participants of this research group therefore did not differ from each other meaningfully. No correlation was found between health risk behaviour, and gender and race.

Keywords: health risk behaviour, adolescents, violence, substance, sexual activity, physical activity

South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation Vol. 27(1) 2005: 89-100