Sedentary Behaviour and Life Satisfaction in High School Students

Abstract

In the context of cultural and socio-economical changes, emerging from the dynamic development of technical civilization, a sedentary lifestyle is a phenomenon which is more and more common. The relationship between a sedentary lifestyle and health in the biological dimension is very often investigated, but attention should also be paid to the psychosocial aspect of being inactive. The aim of this paper is to determine the time spent in a seated position and life satisfaction in high school students, and to study whether physical inactivity correlates with overall satisfaction with life. For the purposes of this study 301 students, 184 women and 117 men, of the five largest high schools in Kielce (Poland) were tested. To assess the level of satisfaction with life, the SWLS test – The Satisfaction with Life Scale in Polish adaptation by Juczyński – was used. The respondents also described how much time per day they spent sitting last week, not counting the weekend. Respondents estimated the daily average of being seated in the working week as 8 hours. Fifteen per cent of high school students declared a completely sedentary lifestyle (12 hours or more in a sitting position). Almost 38% of the respondents reported on average, 32% low and 30% of the high level of satisfaction with their own lives. There was no statistically significant difference (p<0.05) due to the gender of the respondents. There was no significant correlation (p<0.05) between the degree of satisfaction with life and the amount of time spent in a sitting position: for the total sample (r=0.0311, p=0.591), in women (r=0.018; p=0.812) and men (r=0.046; p=0.625). Organized forms of physical activity, health training and recreational sport serve valuable purposes which may be an individual challenge that provides to an opportunity to increase life satisfaction.