STUDENTS WITH GOOD EXERCISE HABITS HAVE BETTER STUDY HABITS AND ALSO SPEND MORE TIME WITH THEIR FAMILIES

The present paper is a quantitative, descriptive, synchronic, and comparative study, which investigated the exercise habits, the positive impacts of doing regular exercise, sports and other sports-related physical activities on senior high school and college students’ study habits and the time they spent with their families. For this purpose, a self-designed survey questionnaire consisting of 3 multiple-choice questions was distributed among 324 senior high school and college students from three different schools in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Results: First, in general in Taiwan, 29% of senior high school and college students did exercise and sports-related physical activities 3 times or above per week. The percentage, however, came down to 24% if those 21 student-athletes were excluded from the data analysis. Second, in general, 25% of students studied 3 times or more per week after school. Third, the physically active students had better study habits compared to the physically inactive students. Among the physically active students, 40% of them studied 3 times or more per week, compared to only 8% among the physically inactive students. Fourth, it was also found that physically active students spent more time with their families compared to physically inactive students. Among the physically active students, 45% of them spent 5 hours or more with their families per day, compared to only 16% among the physically inactive students. Discussion: The research findings clearly show that students who have good habits of doing regular exercise, sports and sports-related physical activities have better study habits, better academic performance, and spend more time with their families than those students who are not involved in such physical activities.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0423/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>