Physical Activity and Its Relationship with Life Satisfaction among Middle School Students: A Cross-Culture Study

Sisi Chen,Walter King Yan Ho,Md Dilsad Ahmed

doi:10.3390/su12176932

Abstract

This study examined the association between physical activity (PA) levels and life satisfaction for middle school students from Macau, Taipei, and Qianjiang. A total of 1002 middle school students (grades 7 to 9) were recruited in 2015 from three cities (Macau, N = 322; Taipei, N = 325; and Qianjiang, N = 355). Physical Activity Rank Scale-3 was used to evaluate the frequency, intensity, and duration of the PA. Further, students’ PA behaviors and life satisfaction were assessed using the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS) devised by Zhang. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, t-test, and one-way ANOVA were conducted to process the data. In both Macau and Taipei, the life satisfaction of adolescents was significantly associated with adolescents’ amount of PA (p < 0.05). A significant relationship was observed between self-satisfaction and PA in students from both Macau and Taipei (p < 0.05). The study results indicate the importance of life experience in PA. The more PA that a student engaged in, the higher the level of life satisfaction they obtained. There was a significant difference in the overall life satisfaction among adolescents in Macau, Taipei, and Qianjiang.

Highlights

Quality of life is a common concern of many people due to its link with health development, personal success, and even societal wellbeing
Over half of the students did not engage in sufficient physical activity (PA), with 53.4% in Macau, 57.8% in Taipei, and 54.3% in Qianjiang
The percentages of students involved in a large amount of PA were 30.1% (Macau), 23.7% (Taipei), and 18% (Qianjiang), respectively (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Quality of life is a common concern of many people due to its link with health development, personal success, and even societal wellbeing. Frisch [1] defined quality of life with an emphasis on the aspects of goodness and wellness for human survival. It involves the study of two perspectives. The subjective perspective focuses on internal evaluations and the satisfaction of different external conditions. In this manner, life satisfaction is the term used to describe the subjective understanding and satisfaction level toward these objective perspectives. Roberts and Clement shared the perspective of adopting life satisfaction as a method of measuring the quality of life [3]. A reserved situation is recognized with the association between lower life satisfaction and quality of life

Objectives

Results

Conclusion