PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PATTERNS OF TURKISH ADOLESCENTS: INFLUENCE OF SOME SOCIAL FACTORS

Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of the Participants

N
%
Age
< 16
> 16
Total

480
403
883

54.44
45.64
100.00
Sex
Female
Male
Total

484
399
883

54.81
45.19
100.00
Living conditions
With own family
Other
Total

769
111
880

87.39
12.61
100.00
Status in the last report card
1 or more poor grades
No poor grades
Total

438
435
873

50.17
49.83
100.00
Educational level of mother
Primary school or less
Secondary school or higher
Total

518
362
880

58.86
41.14
100.00
Educational level of father
Primary school or less
Secondary school or higher
Total

334
526
860

38.84
61.16
100.00
Socioeconomic status
1
2
3
4
Total

75
218
423
35
751

10.0
29.0
56.3
4.7
100.0
Separated Family
Yes
No
Total
63
814
877
 		7.2
92.8
100.0


problem solving (Happner and Petersen, 1982; adapted into Turkish by Taylan, 1990), self-care (Kearney and Fleischer, 1979; adapted into Turkish by Nahcivan, 1979), and self-esteem (Rosenberg 1963; adapted into Turkish by Cuhadaroglu, 1986). The physical activity patterns were estimated from a series of questions about the type, frequency, and duration of activities performed. Other Demographic information consisted of age, sex, parental education, socioeconomic status (SES), living conditions, school performance, living with or without parents, playmates, and family's attitude about exercise. Living conditions were divided into two categories: those living with their own family, and those having other living conditions. School performance was queried according to the last report card: adolescents with one or more failing grades in the last report card were grouped as low performers, whereas the ones with no failing grades were grouped as high performers. Two types of families were defined according to living with parents: families where one or both of the parents have died, or parents have divorced were grouped as separated families and others as two parent families. Parental education was grouped as low educated (less than secondary school) and high educated (secondary school and more). SES was measured using the scale developed by Neyzi et al. (11). This tool uses the educational status of mother and father, and the occupation of father to calculate a scale from 1 (highest SES) to 4 (lowest SES).