Heredity and Socio-Economic Conditions and Their Influence on Sports Performance of Student Athletes
Chapter One
Research objectives
- To determine the effect of heredity on students’ performance in sport activities.
- To determine the effect of parents socioeconomic status on students’ performance in sport activities.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Students and the Need for Sports Participation
According to Howard and Rosemary (2000), a sport is concerned with the optimum performance that is getting the best of your body and mind. They further expressed the view that with normal development and average liking for physical movement, anyone can enjoy most sports up to a certain level. Similarly, Bucher and Wuest (2001), indicated that sports is an institutionalized competitive activity that involves vigorous physical exertion or the use of relatively complex physical skills by individuals whose participation is motivated by a combination of intrinsic factors. Sports participation has been an important issue which the general public love to talk about especially among students.
According to Kenyan (1999), the nature and degree of participation in sports is directly related to the degree of primary (active) and secondary (spectator) activity during the individual’s youthful age. Robert (2000), classified sports into three spheres on the bases of outcome attributes; Sports of physical skills, strategy and change. He went further to state that participation in sports can be very broad, will be greater or lesser depending on the bases of sex, age, social and other factors. Participation in sports may also be based on the level of interest in sports, be it primary or secondary. Basically a person ‘s relation to sports at a certain point in time is dependent upon a complex interplay between heredity and environmental factors, which include nature, mental and physical disposition, type of activity chosen and experience of success and failure on the skills.
Oduyale (1998) says that throughout, sports has been playing a very significant role in the education, socialization and welfare of man and the society. He cleared this view by quoting Rousseau, a French educator who had this to say, “If you would cultivate the intelligence of your pupils, you cultivate the power to govern and give his body continuous exercise”. In relation to this, governments have seen participation in sports at various levels of education to be very important. In the era of Sir Gordon Guggisberg in the 1920s, he emphasized in his educational policies the need for sports. His ninth principle for instance stated that, organized sports should form part of school life. McWilliams and Kwamena Poh, (2000), Sir Gordon Guggisberg went on to say that, no extension of schools would be sanctioned unless provision is made for playing fields.
Likewise, Kahn (1998) emphasized that the principles of educational sovereignty, the responsibility for sports in schools and universities in the Federal Republic of Germany and the rest of the states.
Various governments have noted the importance sports plays in the socio-political life of the country and therefore have shown interest in helping to develop students’ interest in sports as well as developing sports. Governments are motivated to participate in sports programmes for such reasons as the physical fitness of the citizenry, maintenance of public order and affirmation of national prestige. This is the reason for which governments encourage individuals, club associations and institutions to part in sports.
Bucher (2000) revealed that throughout the world, sports capture newspaper headings and television screens, produce billion of dollars a year and has social, political, legal and educational over tones.
The Nature and Degree of Sports Participation
Throughout Nigeria, schools and most especially the Senior High Schools, run a sports program that is of uniformity with regards to sports competitions. There are a variety of team games such as soccer, volleyball, basketball, handball, and hockey. There are also individual sports such as table tennis, track and field athletics and cross-country. Sports competition is the continuation of the instructional program of physical education in the basic as well as Senior High School level. These usually come or are carried out in the form of intramural. Special attention is given to the planning and conduct of these programs as they run throughout the year. Touching on the organization of sports program, Udoh, Amuso, Sohi and Agbedi (1999), strongly asserted that organization for competition in the intramurals is usually best affected by arranging schedules between recognized groups such as houses, classes, sections, clubs, associations as well as religious groups. Intramural games are aimed at the enjoyment students derive from taking in sports competitions and social interactions. Intramural activities are usually easier to organize and they conform to the general calendar schedule by the schools and colleges sports federation. These games are usually organized with the aim of selecting a team to represent at the zonal and regional level. As such athletes strive to excel in order to be chosen. Like the intramural, extramural competitions are organized at zonal, district and regional bases.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
A quantitative research design was appropriate for the study since the researcher was determining whether there was a difference between Heredity (dependent variable) and performance of students that participate in sporting activities (independent variable). The only way the researcher was to determine whether an independent variable had an impact on a dependent variable was to use a quantitative research design that allowed one to compare the results numerically and quantitatively (Cozby, 2001). The chi-square was appropriate for the study since this involves comparing measurements that was taken from the same individual (Moore & McCabe, 2006).
Population
The target population for the study was Senior High School students that participate in sporting activities. The sample for the study was taken from the senior high school students that participate in sporting activities in Lagos state, Nigeria. The characteristics make up of the school consisted of a total of two hundred (200) students; this number represents boys and girls who participate in sports for the school of which 53% are male students and 47% being girls. A convenience sampling method was used for the study where the grades of students who participate in sporting activities were obtained. This information was obtained from the administration of the school where all of the students who participated in sports was collected. A convenience sampling method was used since it easily allowed the researcher to gather information required for the study as well as being able to gather more observations. When calculating the sample size for the study there were several factors that were taken into consideration. These factors included the power of the study, the effect size of the study and the level of significance.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULT PRENSENTATION
Table-1: Demographics and socio-economic data for the participants and non-sports participants
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Regarding socio-cultural factors, several authors indicate that the social influences on physical activity include parents, siblings, peers and physical education teachers [23]. Several studies have investigated those influences on physical activity habits, but the results are so varied that they prevent drawing sufficient clear conclusions about the extent and the direction of these relations [24]. In our study, the sociocultural barriers played more effect in the perception of non-sports participants while this barrier was not influenced by heredity criteria of participants except for the mother occupation. Lower income and low level of education and occupation for parents were significantly related to the perception of this barrier. This draws our attention and adds more evidence to the speculated effect of SES factors on the psychological and perception of the students towards sports. Peers can influence the sports participation of individual as mentioned earlier [25], and this was clearly visible in the urrent study not only as a barrier but also in relation to heredity of the students. Low education level of parents was an important influencer of the perception of peer pressure barrier in both participants and non- participants groups. Parents education level defines the level of instructions, orientation and personality constitution of children and compromising this aspect makes students who come from poorly oriented families more susceptible to peer effect.
Lack of interest and lower priority barriers were unexpectedly perceived more important by sports participants students who come from families with high income and high parents‟ education. This can create a sort of contradiction to previous findings and hypotheses which indicate that families with high income and high education level give more attention to sports and physical activities. It might reflect a shift in the interest of these families pushing their offspring towards more scientific achievements and academic merits to catch up with their parents‟ high level of education.
Recommendation
This study provides some information regarding the effect of heredity and socio economic factors on students’ performance in sport. The following are recommendations for further research and study.
- Research concerning individuals with varying disability should be conducted using the same topic.
- Research concerning sporting activities at the private school level and parents socio economic status should be conducted.
- Future studies could investigate whether the effects found in this study were stable over time or whether they varied from one year to the next.
- A study should be conducted to determine the effect of parental support in extracurricular activities on academic achievement.
CONCLUSION
It is well established that socio-economic status (SES) is one of the critical factors that influence participation in sports and physical activity. This study demonstrated the effect of socio-economic status on the sports barriers‟ perception of a cohort of participants and non-sports participants in higher education in Lagos state which is poorly addressed in literature. The gender effect and Background on sports participation was reiterated in this study. Family income, parents‟ education level and occupation were found also to affect the perception to sports participation barriers. Low SES was strongly related to the sociocultural barriers against the student participation in sports which need to be considered and awareness about sports importance need to be emphasized in this group of the community. Spots facilities and physical activity programmes in university should take into consideration heredity effect and make sports activities available for all students by providing feasible facilities with minimal costs.
REFERENCES
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- National Center for Educational Statistics, 31 March 2008 http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/glossary/s.asp
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