Determining Turkish secondary school students’ in and out of school time physical activity level on the basis of gender and provinces

Aiesep Congress, Banff, Kanada, 7 - 10 Haziran 2021, ss.118

The study aimed to determine Turkish secondary school students in and out of school time physical activity

(PA) level on the basis of gender and three provinces representing the country’s eastern, central and western

regions. A cross sectional survey study involving 1471 (743 girls and 728 boys) in 7th grade (11-13 years old)

students were voluntarily participated in this study. The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C), a

self-administered 7-days recall questionnaire, was applied to assess physical activity levels in school time (physical

education (PE) class, recess and lunch) and out of school time (right after school, evenings and weekends).

Independent samples t-test resulted that boys’ PA level were higher than girls’ in PE class, recess, lunch, right

after school and weekends, p< .05. One-way ANOVA results showed a significant difference among provinces

in PE classes, F (2, 1407) = 5.33,p<.05. According to Post-Hoc test, PA level of students in the Central region in

physical education classes (M= 4.09, SD= .98) was significantly lower than from those in the West (M= 4.30, SD=

.82) and East (M= 4.25, SD= .96) regions. In conclusion, the results of this study could be useful for teachers to

differentiate their teaching environment to increase the level of PA of students in and out of school by gender

and regions.