The attitude of the faculty of sport and physical education students toward cross-country running

Irina Juhas,Nenad Jankovic,Milan Matic,Ana Orlic,Dusanka Lazarevic

doi:10.5937/fizkul1101046j

Abstract

The syllabus of the track and field subject at the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education includes cross-country running - running in nature. The main objective of this study was to determine the structure and intensity of students' attitude toward the cross-country running. Besides, the objective was to check the connection of the students' attitude towards the cross-country running and the achieved results of cross-country running, as well as of doing sport and recreational running. The sample comprised 69 students of the second year of studies who attended the cross-country running classes. For measuring the attitude toward the cross-country running, the Connotative differential instrument was used consisting of 15 pairs of opposite adjectives presented in a form of seven-part bipolar scale grouped into three dimensions: affective, cognitive and conative. This instrument was applied within an extensive questionnaire which included questions about doing sports, jogging, as well as the results of cross-country running at the end of the teaching period. The descriptive analysis has shown that students have a positive attitude of moderate intensity toward cross-country running, observed through all three dimensions of attitude. The correlation analysis between the dimensions of attitude toward cross country running and the results achieved at cross country running showed that the correlations are negative and statistically significant, suggesting that if the result of running is better, the students' attitude toward cross country running is more positive. Competitive sport is not connected with the quality of attitude toward cross-country running. The results obtained by the study give grounds for assuming that, given that attitudes are an important component of the motivational aspect of personality, it can be expected that the students' positive attitude toward cross country running would contribute to cross country running application in their future professional activity and encourage this form of physical activity.

Highlights

One of the efficient ways to eliminate the harmful consequences of sedentary way of life is to use running as a natural form of movement
Starting from the basic research objectives related to the determination of the structure and intensity of attitude of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education students toward cross-country running, a descriptive analysis of data obtained by connotative differential was performed
The obtained values which indicate that the students of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education showed a moderate, but not a distinctively positive attitude, can be regarded as expected, given that cross-country running as an object of attitude does not belong to a group of phenomena, such as significant social ones, to which people most often have very intensively pronounced attitudes

Summary

Introduction

One of the efficient ways to eliminate the harmful consequences of sedentary way of life is to use running as a natural form of movement. Running provides the necessary quantities of oxygen to the body, improves heart and lungs function, activates blood circulation and metabolism, improves sleep, work ability, and plays an important role in health preservation (Stefanovic, Juhas, Jankovic, 2008) It has numerous positive psychological effects such as emotional tension and anxiety reduction as well as good general psychological condition (Weinberg & Gould, 2007). Based on knowledge of attitudes toward specific objects, behaviour can be predicted with some degree of confidence With this in mind, the knowledge of the structure and intensity of attitudes of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education students to the various forms of physical exercise is important for predicting the quality of their future professional engagement

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Conclusion