Attitudes toward physical education classes of primary school students in Turkey.

ABSTRACT

The purposes of this study were to report an investigation of attitudes toward physical education in a sample of primary school students and examine the predictive influence of students' sex, grades in physical education classes, and parents' education and socioeconomic status on students' attitudes. Participants, 963 (474 girls and 489 boys) primary school students from Grades 6 (12.7%), 7 (10.3%) and 8 (77%), completed the Wear Attitude Inventory. Analysis indicated students had positive scores on General Attitudes rather than on Social, Emotional, and Physical Attitudes. In addition, girls (M = 32.6, SD = 3.9) had more positive General Attitudes than boys (M = 32.0, SD = 4.6). Also, students' grades in physical education classes were statistically significantly related to their Attitudes toward physical education (Wilks lambda, F1,1110 = 2.88, p < .05). However, parents' education and socioeconomic status were not. One may infer that ways of encouraging more favorable attitudes might be planned.