Examination of the Relationship Between High School Students' Physical Activity Levels and Perceived Social Support Levels

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between high school students’ physical activity level and perceived social support level. Additionally, the study aims to evaluate the impact of certain socio-demographic variables on these two characteristics. The study sample consisted of a total of 553 high school students studying in the Kadirli district of Osmaniye province during the 2022-2023 academic year. This group includes 167 students from the Science High School, 275 students from the Anatolian High School, and 111 students from the Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School. A 'Personal Information Form,' specifically designed for this study, was used to collect data. Additionally, the 'Cognitive Behavioural Physical Activity Questionnaire,' developed by Schembre et al. (2015) and adapted into Turkish by Eskiler et al. (2016a), was used. The revised form of the 'Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support,' developed by Zimet et al. (1988) and adapted into Turkish by Eker et al. (1995a), and revised by Eker et al. (2001), was utilized as a data collection tool. The analysis of the collected data was conducted using the SPSS software package. The research results indicate a low to moderate positive relationship between students' physical activity levels and their perceived social support levels in the sub-dimensions and total scales (p<0.01). Additionally, significant differences were found in some sub-dimensions and total scales between students' physical activity levels and perceived social support levels based on certain demographic variables (p<0.05). These findings are significant for understanding the relationship between physical activity and social support and for evaluating the impact of demographic factors on this relationship.