Gender Differences in Quality of Life and Physical Activity of High School Students

This article demonstrates the gender differences between the physical activity (PA), the joy of physical activity (PACES) and quality of life areas of boys and girls from high schools with different sports level and in the different ages. In this survey participated 630 boys and 672 girls from high schools in the age from 16 to 19 years. The quality of life is measured by the SQUALA survey, joy of the movement by the PACES survey, and the level of physical activity per week in hours by PAQ survey. The level of sports performance is defined by levels (occasional, active and registered sportsman). The data are presented by descriptive characteristics (n, M, SD) and the significance of differences and the relations are measure by non-parametric methods (W, rs). Differences in the PA, PACES, SQUALA levels at the group of boys and girls in the different age and sports level are rare. Different load of physical activity relates to sport level. It was not proven that with the increasing sports level, the joy of the physical activity also rises. The interactions between indicators of PA, PACES, and SQUALA in boys and girls in the different age and sports level were proven sporadically with a predominance of negative correlations. In most cases, the positive interactions of PA with PACES and areas of physical well-being was not proven. The higher appearance of positive correlations of PA with areas of SQUALA prevails in 18-years old girls. Boys show the higher number of interactions of PACES with areas of SQUALA. The joy of the movement positively correlates with spiritual well-being in groups of 18-19 years old boys, which perform physical activities in all sports levels. The gender differences between monitored indicators show that the gender factor is very important in this study. The age and sport level factor contributed significantly in the differentiated results of high school boys and girls.