INVESTIGATING HOW PARTICIPATION IN SPORTS INFLUENCES ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE, SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING AND PSYCHOSOMATIC HEALTH OF TEEENAGERS IN GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN.

Abstract

Students’ academic performances in school are linked to several interacting factors such as well-being, health and sports participation. However, students’ participation in sports is still a great challenge in schools and requires more attention. Research indicates that the discussion of sports in schools in Europe started in the 1960s, but it is still a challenge even in recent times. Nevertheless, sports and health government departments have as main policy objectives to increase sports participation in schools as a means to promote citizens’ health and well-being. In Sweden for instance, since the early 1970s, the fields of education and sports have been in continuous debate as to whether they should operate parallel of each other or be treated as completely different fields. As a result, this study aimed to find out what effects does sports participation have on academic performance, subjective well-being and psychosomatic health of grade nine pupils in Sweden. Academic performance is the term used to indicate a student’s achievement after completing a course or subject from an institution, hence measuring the student’s learning across various academic subjects. Subjective well-being is how people experience and evaluate specific domains and activities of their lives and psychosomatic health on the other hand is a physical condition or illness caused by a mental or internal factor. Previous research has indicated a drop of teenage children from sports in Sweden, most of whom are in grade nine. Combined with this is the fact that in grade nine, there is a national grading for student’s performances which could be used as a measure of academic performance, hence, why grade nine pupils where the favourable choice for this study. Methods: Primary data was collected from different schools to analyse the potential influence of sports participation on academic performance, subjective well-being and psychosomatic health of students. The indicators are based on the theoretical framework of Bourdieu’s theory of capital and habitus and students’ self-perceptions. Results: The findings from the statistical tests perform on the variables showed no significance. That is, there was no significant relationship between sports participation and academic performance, subjective well-being and psychosomatic health of grade nine pupils in Gothenburg.