Howard Z. Zeng

High School Students' Attitudes toward Physical Education from Four Boroughs of New York City
Written by: Howard Z. Zeng¹, Raymond W. Leung¹, Michael Hipscher¹, Craig Stanco² & George Zanotto³

¹Brooklyn College, the City University of New York, NY; ²Franklin D. Roosevelt High School, Brooklyn, NY; and ³Brooklyn Technical High School.

Email of the Principal Investigator: hzeng@brooklyn.cuny.edu

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude toward physical education (ATPE) and sports/activities preference of high school students from four boroughs of New York City. Participants were 728 9th -12th grade students (249 boys and 479 girls, aged 15-19, M = 16.78 +1.02) from eight public high schools in four boroughs of New York City.

These students participated in PE programs governed by the state and the school district, once per day, and five days per week. Adapted Physical Education Activity Attitude Scale (PEAAS) originally developed by Valdez (1998) was administered to the participants. The PEAAS possesses 20 items with 5-point Likert-type scales. Responses to the items result in PEAAS scores ranging from 20 to 100: scores 20-40 indicate negative ATPE, scores 41-60 indicate neutral ATPE; and scores 61-80 indicate positive ATPE.

Additionally, a Sports/Activities Preference Questionnaire was also administered to the participants. Results showed, the mean PEAAS score over the 20 items was 68.600 (M = 3.430 + .919), indicating participants’ overall positive ATPE. The five items with the highest scores were items 2, 16, 18, 14 and 11 with M = 4.144 + .923; M = 4.136 + .834; M = 4.118 + .920; M = 4.027 + .929 and M = 4.001 + .791 respectively.

These questions related to how the participants feel about PE classes and exercises pertaining to ‘benefits,’ ‘degree of seriousness’ ‘perception’ and ‘value,’ and these factors compose the most essential driving power that structures their ATPE. As for sports/activities preference, 59.20 % students reported they prefer team sports; 25.55 % students reported enjoying individual sports; and 15.25 % of students favor dual game sports.

Aerobic exercises were ranked as favorite, with dance coming in second (41.21 % and 22.25 % respectively). Weight Lifting ranked third with 17.86 %. Outdoor adventure and martial arts came in forth.

The multivariate analysis of variance revealed that significant (p < .01) differences in PEAAS scores existed in specific items with respect to gender: Males scored higher than females in “Maintaining good physical condition makes the effort worthwhile.” Males also scored higher than females on “Just doing normal daily activities is not enough for maintaining a good physical condition.” Females, however, scored higher on “PE classes are just as important as other academic classes.”

In summary, the current ATPE status of the participants from the four boroughs is positive. The crucial factors that structure ATPE are ‘benefits’, ‘degree of seriousness’, ‘perception’, and ‘value’ about their PE classes and daily physical exercises. The participants’ sports/activities preferences are, in rank order: team sports, individual sports, dual game sports, aerobic exercises, dance, weight lifting, outdoor adventure, and martial arts.

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