engleski

How high school students spend their spare time during the COVID-19 pandemic

INTRODUCTION: Implementing healthy habits in students’ free time should be our society’s main priority. It is extremely important to maintain physical and mental health, especially now during Covid-19 pandemic when most sport activities are being limited because of the lockdown. Therefore, with this questionnaire we wanted to estimate how our high school students spend their spare time during the pandemic. METHODS: The study was conducted on 99 students of the Lucijan Vranjanin High School in Zagreb, of which 66 were female and 33 male students. The average age of students is 16.8 ± 0.88 years. We used the survey research method. The questionnaire was consisted of 9 questions related to how students spend their spare time and which activities do they engage in. The questionnaire included offered answers, and each student could choose one answer or could write his/her own answer in order to clearly define his/her attitude. Based on the conducted survey, results are presented in percentage for each question. The differences between sexes in the variables were determined by Student t-test for independent samples. RESULTS: Some results of questionnaire on individual question: 1. How do you spend your free time? Watching TV - 5.05%, Reading books - 8.08%, Internet surfing - 49.49%, Practicing sport - 17.17%, Playing videogames - 4.04%, Something else - 16.16%. 2. How many hours do you spend watching television, or on computer? 0 h – 5.05%, 1 h – 22.22%, 2 h – 25.25%, 3 h – 25.25%, more than 3h – 22.22%. 3. Do you participate in any sports and recreational activities in your free time? Yes – 77.78%, No – 22.22%. 4. Why do you participate in sports and recreational activities in your spare time? Achievement – 7.07%, Health – 58.58%, Entertainment – 25.25%, Friendship – 22.22%. 5. Why is physical activity important? Health – 38.38%, Appeal – 14.14%, Friendship – 6.06%, Entertainment – 7.07%, Everything listed above – 56.56%. 6. There is no statistically significance differences in analyzed variables between sexes. DISCUSSION: According to the results of conducted questionnaire it is concerning that majority of the students spend most of their spare time online, watching TV and playing videogames, almost 50% 3 and more hours. Male students are more engaged in sport than female students are, but they also spend more time watching TV and using computer than female do, although the significant difference is not determined. More than 22% of students does not participate in sport or recreational activities at all, and the ones that do participate in sport activities state that the main reason for their participation is to improve their health. Moreover, results highlight the fact that students are aware of how important physical activity is, but the great number of them did not find the adequate activity.

free time ; adolescents ; lockdown ; sports ; activities

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