Somatotypes of Physical Education Students in Botswana

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in English; abstract also in Chinese.In the present study the somatotype characteristics of Physical Education students at the University of Botswana were evaluated. A second purpose of the study was to compare the physical characteristics of students across academic years of study. A total of 125 Physical Education students (52 males and 73 females) at the University of Botswana were measured. The students were attending certificate course, Diploma (year 1 and 2)，Bachelor's degree in Education (B. Ed) (year 1 to 4) in Physical Education. All the students were measured by one of the authors and their mean ages ranged from 23.8 to 28.6 years for males and 25.8 to 30.8 years for females. Anthropometric measurements were taken according to the protocol of the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK). These included body mass, stature, two breadths (humerus and femur), arm girths flexed and tense, calf girth and four skinfolds (triceps, subscapular, supraspinal and iliac crest). All the subjects were somatotyped using the Heath-Carter anthropometric somatotype method. Among the study group, the SAM values ranged from 1.2 to 2.1. The present sample is clustered in the mesomorph endomorph and mesomorphic endomorph categories with male students being more endomophic than female students. It is important in future studies to investigate the cultural diversity of the Botswana population as that might shed more light on the preponderance of endomorphy in the male group.本文旨在分析波斯尼亞大學體育本科生的體型結構，利用ISAK國際量度體型標準，量度了125名年齡由23至30歲學生的體型，結果顯示學生體型的分佈狀況，與文化背境的因素可能有關。