Features of physical activity and school anxiety in pupils of the secondary general education school and the cadet corps

Abstract

Relevance. The relevance of the study is due to the high significance of school anxiety in the formation of psychosomatic diseases and nervous disorders. Identification of risk factors for increased anxiety, one of which is low physical activity, is important for the timely organizing of preventive measures.The aim: to assess the characteristics of physical activity and school anxiety among schoolboys of secondary school and the cadet corps.Materials and methods. The observation group consisted of 47 schoolboys studying in a secondary general school at the age of 13–16; the comparison group consisted of 140 schoolboys of the cadet corps. The comparative assessment of physical activity bases on the analysis of the physical education implementation in educational organizations and the results of a survey according to the author’s questionnaire. A comparison was made of the parameters of bioimpedance analysis (BIA) of body composition, the content of cortisol and serotonin in the blood serum, and indicators of the Phillips school anxiety test.The results. Physical activity in the school system was limited to 3 hours per week, and in the additional education system there are only 14.9 % of schoolboys who devote 6–8 hours a week to sports, which is 3 times less than in the comparison group (46.4 %). Lower values of indicators of physical activity and body composition were found in secondary school boys relative to those in cadet corps (p = 0.015–0.038). The level of cortisol in the blood serum was 1.4 times higher, and the serotonin was 1.2 times less in schoolboys of the schools comparatively to cadets (p = 0.001–0.037). In secondary school schoolboys, relative to cadets, significantly 1.9–3.9 times more often increased values were recorded for the factor general anxiety at school, frustration of the need to achieve success, fear of self-expression, fear of the situation of testing knowledge, fear of not meeting the expectations of others, problems and fears in relations with teachers and general anxiety oppositely directed correlations of weak and moderate strength were established between the frequency and duration of physical education, BIA parameters, cortisol in the blood serum and factors of school anxiety.Conclusion. The values of the factors of school anxiety schoolboys of secondary general school are higher than in boys of the cadet corps and possibly they are associated with irregularity, relatively low duration of physical activity and the degree of development of metabolically active tissues.