Resiliency as a factor protecting youths from risky behaviour: Moderating effects of gender and sport

Abstract

We hypothesised that resiliency may protect adolescents against risky behaviours, and that both the practicing of sports, and gender are moderating variables in relationships between resiliency and risky behaviours. The study included 18-year-old pupils from a selection of secondary schools (n = 556). A total of 188 individuals practiced competitive sports and the remaining 368 participants were non-athletes. The participants were examined with the Resiliency Assessment Scale for Children and Adolescents (SPP-18) and with a survey containing questions and statements related to high-risk "experiments with adulthood". Adolescent athletes showed higher levels of resiliency than their peers. The power of the "Determination and Persistence in Action" effect on "Alcohol" scale differed significantly between male athletes and male non-athletes. Only in the athletes groups were higher scores on this scale reflected by lower values on the "Drugs" scale. Moreover, it is possible to observe differences in undertaking risky behaviour between male and female athletes. The analysis of risky sexual behaviour suggests that sport is a risk factor for men, and a protective factor for women. These data suggest that consistent prophylactic and psycho-educative activities, with a special attention to differences between genders, should be provided to all the adolescents, irrespective of their sport performance levels.

Resiliency against stress among athletes

“…All the results are presented in Table 2. discussion Some researchers claim that sportspeople who face immense physical and psychological loads everyday tend to display a higher level of resiliency in comparison to people not engaged in sport (Cevada et al, 2012;Ruiz-Barquin, de la Vega-Marcos, Poveda, Rosado, & Serpa, 2012;Lipowski, Lipowska, Jochimek, & Krokosz, 2015). The obtained average results do not confirm this finding.…”

Physical activity and sport as a protective factor against health- -threatening experiments with adulthood

“…Promoting physical activity is important not only in the context of improving a youth's health, as sport is associated with pro-health behaviors, such as proper nutrition habits, positive psychological attitudes and health practices [19], but also in the context of prevention of risky behavior. Individuals undertaking physical activity or practicing sport have higher levels of traits which are considered to be personal resources, www.balticsportscience.com such as resiliency [14,20] and optimism [21]. Such predispositions are also factors protecting them against involvement in risky behaviors [22,23].…”

“…Factors associated with motivation will indicate whether an individual competing in sports (or an individual that is physically active) will try to overcome barriers and develop their skills, or if will they give up on fulfilling the planned task. Furthermore, determination and persistence are personality traits that protect from engaging in alcohol abuse [14]. It is worth emphasizing that the types of goals and the motivational value thereof depend on the degree of one's involvement in systematic and regular physical activity.…”

“…However, young sportsmen are less likely to smoke nicotine or take illicit drugs. Research on adolescent women who compete in sports show that this group engages in behaviors which pose a risk to one's health, such as smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and risky sexual behaviors, to a small extent [14,29].…”

“…Boys exhibit a stronger tendency towards three categories of risk: thrill-seeking, reckless behaviors, and anti-social behaviors [11]. The male sex is also associated with risky behaviors such as: fights, drinking alcohol, smoking marihuana and risky sexual behaviors [12,13,14,15,16].…”