The Effect of Teaching a Sports and Health Course on the Attitudes of the Hashemite University Students towards Certain Healthy Food Habits and Physical Activities Practice

Abstract

This study aimed at identifying the effect of teaching a sports and health course on the Hashemite University students' attitudes towards certain food habits and the practice of physical activities. The study sample consisted of (100) male and female students, who are enrolled in the sports and health course in the first semester of the academic year 2020/2021. The instrument of Saleh and Al-Ahmadi (2016) was used for our study, which included (40) items distributed over two domains (healthy eating habits and physical activities practice). The scientific coefficients of the study instrument were calculated, and the total reliability coefficient amounted (0.91), as well as the means (M's) and standard deviations (SD's). Furthermore, the Test-Retest and MANOVA procedures were applied to identify the differences among the means and to answer the study questions. The results showed statistically significant differences between the pretest and posttest scores, which were in favor of the posttest. In addition, there were differences in the means of all the domains and the instrument, as a whole, between the pretest and posttest, which are ascribed to the gender variable, in favor of the females in the healthy eating habits domain, and in favor of males in the physical activities practice. The results further showed differences among the means in all the domains and the instrument, as a whole, between the pretest and posttest attributed to the college variable, in favor of the humane science colleges. Moreover, there were differences among the means in all the domains and the instrument, as a whole, between the pretest and posttest ascribed to the academic year variable, which were in favor of the first year in the physical activities practice domain. In the light of these results, the researcher concluded that teaching a "sports and health" course, with its concepts and information, has a positive effect in changing the students' attitudes towards the healthy eating habits and physical activities practice. The researcher recommended that this course should be introduced as a compulsory course for all the university students.

Received: 31 October 2021 / Accepted: 10 December 2021 / Published: 5 March 2022