The interaction of physical activity, joy of movement and quality of life of high school students at different ages

Introduction: The paper presents the results of the interaction analysis between physical activity (PA), joy of movement (PACES) and areas of quality of life (SQUALA) of high school students with different levels of sport performance and different ages. These factors have wider background. Phenomenon of the subjective assessment “PACES” is stepping to the foreground. “PACES” proves high frequency of interactions with the areas of SQUALA, more than a single volume of PA. Despite of enough PA in week and high level of PACES, no expected interactions with areas of SQUALA in high school students were demonstrated. The low number of positive interactions points to the necessity of monitoring this construct, also in the relation to gender, to different sports level, type of school, region, country and age. Material and Methods: The survey was attended by 16–19 years old (n = 1302) high school students. The quality of life was examined through SQUALA questionnaire, enjoyment of physical activities by the PACES questionnaire and the level of physical activity in hours per week (PAQ) and by sport level. The data are presented by the descriptive characteristics and statistical significance of the differences, respectively the interactions were evaluated by nonparametric methods. Results: The interactions between PA, PACES and SQUALA in high school students with different sports level with different ages have been proven very sporadically. Positive correlations of PA with areas of SQUALA prevails in 18 and 19 years old students. The joy of movement correlates with spiritual well-being in groups of students who carry out the physical activities occasionally and regularly. Positive interactions of joy of movement with physical well-being have not been proven. Negative interactions between the PA, PACES and SQUALA prevails between 16 and 17 years old students. Conclusion: The higher age factor and factor of the regular movement in high school students appears to be very important in this study. The results reaffirm the importance of voluntary and organized physical activities which have potential to raise the level of the joy from the movement in life of high school students.


INTRODUCTION
The quality of life (QOL) can be understood by different layers and perspectives. For our study the quality of life is a concept of the relationship between biological and social aspects mediated by environmental, mental and cultural conditions [1]. According to the World Health Organization [2] the term quality of life represents the individual's perception of their life and their value system in relation to their expectations, goals, standards and involves features as self-perception, subjectivity, satisfaction, physical, cognitive and affective states. The term quality of life can be used many times as a synonym of the health condition [3,4].
Regular physical activity is important in all age groups and it has positive effects on quality of life. There are many benefits of physical activities to psychological-wellbeing which is important especially in age of adolescence. Adolescents are exposed to several stressors from increased demands from school and their personal stormy period lifestyle [5]. Different changes in their lives can be result of decrease in physical activity and increase of emotional and psychological stress which has negative impact to their QOL [6,7].
There are interactions between the quality of life, joy of movement and physical activity. Especially in the process of ontogenesis of adolescents these interactions arise and disappear [8,9]. In academic researches of these interactions we monitor that there are higher positive interactions in early and late adolescence. Lower or no interactions of physical activities with areas of quality of life we monitor in pupils in middle-aged adolescence [10,11]. Another important role in this study is different sports level of adolescents. Correlation between joy of movement and spiritual well-being was found in group of students who perform physical activities occasionally and regularly. According to the [12] participation at any physical activity in the past predicts future overall level of physical activity and the regular physical activity in adolescence has positive impact to be persistently active in the adulthood. Adolescents who did not have any membership in sports club in the past has strong likelihood of being inactive [13]. According to this fact, there is need to organize various sports events which may attract many young people and give them opportunity to find the positive effect of sport for their lives.
The objective of this study was to analyze the interaction between the physical activity, joy of movement and quality of life of adolescents and assess if these interactions differs according to age and sports level.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The questionnaire survey focused on finding the frequency of physical activity in a week, level of sport performance, joy from the physical activity and the quality of life. The survey was attended by 16-19 years old (n=1302) high school students from Slovak Republic. All participants were informed of the procedures and the main purpose of the study. The procedures presented were in accordance with the ethical standards on human experimentation stated in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration. Physical activity in the week was determined from the total realized hours of the week and hours without physical education. Respondents reported their sport performance levels by their subjective evaluation:  Passive athletes -do not seek physical activity, attend mandatory sports activities at school or at work  Occasional athletes -seek physical activity, not regular in a week, physical activity is not organized  Active athletes -regular activity in a week, no membership in sport organization, member  Registered and Top athletes -they are members of sport organization, national level, international level, performance and top sport. For the evaluation of the joy of physical activity we used questionnaire PACES -Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale which consist of 16 statements to which are respondents express themselves by the 5 points, Likert scale. Total score is obtained by the counting of individual answers. High values represent the joy from the physical activity and the low values from summary score represents less joy from the physical activity [14].

RESULTS
By the comparison analysis of 16 to 19 years-old high school students can be said that statistically significant differences between groups with different sports level are very sporadic ( Table  1, 2, 3). The load of physical activities of high school students divided to groups according to sports level is closely related with increasing sports level (p<0.01). With increasing sports level of 16 to 18 years-old groups the joy of movement has also grown (p<0.05). In 19 years-old students with different sports level was the joy of movement at the same level.
Higher values of total physical activity per week are found at 17 years-old (M17 = 8.69, SD = 3.26) and 18 years-old (M18 = 7.97, SD = 3.45) active athletes with comparison with 16 years-old (M16 = 7.68, SD = 2.89) and 19 years-old (M19 = 7.11, SD = 3.36), χ 2 = 12.93, p < 0.01. Groups of passive, occasional and registered -top athletes with different age achieve the same level of total physical activity, out-of-school physical activity in a week and joy of movement (Table 3). By comparing quality of life level between 16 to 19 years-old high school students with different sports level, differences were found rarely. They can be found in groups of passive athletes in evaluation of subjective quality Results of correlation analysis showed differential interactions between the total physical activity, joy of movement and the quality of life areas in 16, 17, 18 and 19 years-old high school students with different sports level (Table 4, 5).
Positive interactions of total PA with PACES and SQUALA prevails in 18 and 19 years-old students who perform physical activities occasionally, actively and passively (Table 4). In occasional athletes in the age of 18 years the total PA correlates with joy of movement (rs = 0.145, p = 0.112), psychosocial well-being (rs = 0.141, p = 0.121), material area (rs = 0.157, p = 0.085) and with the area of appearance and property affairs (rs = 0.177, p = 0.051). In 18 years-old students who perform PA actively the positive interactions with material well-being (rs = 0.209, p = 0.018) and with the area of free time in active athletes (rs = 0.210, p = 0.018) and registered and top athletes (rs = 0.150, p = 0.166) were noticed. Positive interactions of physical activity with the joy of movement have been proven in 19 years-old students who perform physical activities passively (rs = 0.417, p = 0.122), also there were interactions with spiritual well-being (rs = 0.469, p = 0.078) and with material well-being of occasional athletes (rs = 0.281, p = 0.017). Positive interactions of total physical activity with joy of movement have been proven in 16 years-old active and 17 years-old passive athletes. Negative associations of physical activity with joy of movement and the quality of life areas were noticed only in 16 and 17 years-old students.      rs -Spearman's rank correlation coefficient; * p < 0.20; ** p < 0.10; # p < 0.05; ## p < 0.01

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The highest appearance of interactions in both positive and negative terms were noticed at correlation of joy of movement with quality of life areas (Table 5). High appearance of positive interactions with spiritual well-being are found in 16 to 19 years-old students who performs physical activities occasionally (p < 0.05), actively (p < 0.05) and on top level (p < 0.05). Positive interactions of joy of movement are found in education area of 17 and 18 years-old occasional athletes (17 years-old: rs = 0.212, p = 0.012; 18 years-old: rs = 0.134, p = 0.141) and registered athletes (17 years-old: rs = 0.132, p = 0.173; 18 years-old: rs = 0.229, p = 0.033). Joy of movement associated with the material well-being is found in 16 years-old registered athletes (rs = 0.200, p = 0.034) and 18 years-old occasional athletes (rs = 0.159, p = 0.081). In 16 years-old students who perform physical activities passively were found positive interactions of joy of movement with the areas of free time (rs = 0.282, p = 0.146) and appearance and property affairs (rs = 0.433, p = 0.021). Overall, the negative interactions predominate with areas of psychosocial well-being, free time, appearance and property affairs.

DISCUSSION
Adolescence period in high school belongs to the most sensitive period of self-awareness, need to look for regular physical activity connected with joy and subjective need for improving quality of life. It shows that subjective evaluation of satisfaction attribute with areas of quality of life significantly affects results of interactions between defined factors. Joy of movement [17] is one of the main attribute of any free-time activity [18] and it forms a basis of long-term participation on the physical activities [19] and in top sport performance [20] of an individual.
In comparison with all-Slovak researches [10], apart from the influence of gender factor [9], sports level [8,10,21], sport preference, type of high school and region on the observed construct in high-school students, the influence of age factor has also been confirmed. Influence of age factor to the interaction between the physical activity and quality of life was confirmed in the ontogenesis of adolescents and in kindergarten teachers in younger, middle and older adults [22]. Monitored highschool students reached the highest physical activity in the age from 17 to 18 years and they were more critical to the evaluation of their quality of life. Positive interactions of physical activity with joy of movement and quality of life prevails in 18 and 19 years-old students. In 16 and 17 years-old high school students is frequency of positive interactions unique. This fact is probably related with arrival and social adaptation on the high school environment, adulting and preparation for universities.
The joy of movement shows highest occurrence of positive interactions with areas of spirituality (satisfaction with justice, freedom, beauty, art and truth) and with area of education (satisfaction with level of education, school possibilities) in most high-school students with different sports level. In the case of subjective well-being, positive correlation occurs in 18 and 19 years-old students who search for physical activities, performs them actively or they are active athletes. Positive interactions of joy of movement with the area of education are most common in 17 and 18 years-old students who searching for the physical activity occasionally or they are top athletes.

CONCLUSION
Despite of increasing volume of physical activities and reasonable joy of movement, in highschool students divided to groups according sports level and age, the positive interactions with the areas of quality of life has been proven minimally. However, these rare interactions confirm the claim from previous researches about the positive influence of physical activities realized with joy and fun, pleasure and enthusiasm to the areas of quality of life in high-school students who perform organized physical activities regularly.
Low frequency and significance of interactions of physical activities with areas of quality of life points to the necessity of further observation of this construct in the life of high-school students. Questions which will can concretize another determinant factor of this relationship are arise. One of them can by deeper selection of files based on the level of joy of movement.