Psychological Factors and Sports Participation among Public Secondary School Students in Oluyole Local Government Area, Oyo State

Abstract

Sports participation offers several benefits to secondary school students 
because it is favorably associated with social, psychological, physical and 
cognitive health indicators. Given the various benefits of sports 
participation, it would be expected that most secondary school students 
would engage in sports. This, however, is not the case due to several factors, 
including psychological factors. Therefore, this study investigated 
psychological factors and sports participation among public secondary 
school students in Oluyole Local Government Area (LGA), Oyo State.
Descriptive survey research design was employed. Population was all 
students of public secondary schools in Oluyole LGA. A sample of 1,133 
male and female; simple random sampling technique was used to select the 
respondents. Structured and validated questionnaire as research instrument 
for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the 
data. Results of the study indicated that there was a significant positive 
correlation between self-efficacy (r=0.067, p<0.05), self-esteem (r=0.129, p<0.05) and sports participation; while body image (r=0.015, 
p>0.05) did not. There was also a significant gender difference in sports 
participation (t=2.211, df=1131, p<0.05) with male (
x
=26.02) 
participating than their female (24.89) counterparts. It was concluded that 
psychological factors influence sports participation among public secondary 
school students in Oluyole Local Government Area (LGA), Oyo State. There 
was also a significant gender difference in sports participation among the 
students. It was recommended among others, that more female students 
should be encouraged to participate in sports.