Background: Stress is common in adolescence and may occur more often at this time than at any other life stage. Although research showed a positive relationship between physical exercises and stress reduction, inactivity is prevalent among students. This study examined the current situations of exercise participation, exercise self-efficacy, stress perception, and stress coping in junior high-school students. Purposes: To examine the relationship of exercise participation, exercise self-efficacy, the stress of life and the stress coping of the junior high school students. Methods: SPSS for Windows 12.0 was used for the statistical analyzes; ANOVA, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, and Stepwise Multiple Regression were used for data analyses; this study self-designed a questionnaire for Stress, also adopted Exercise Self-efficacy Scale (Hsu, 2000)、Students Stress Coping Inventory (Shum, 2004), and Exercise Participation Scale (Blair, 1984) for collecting data purposes. Using stratified clustering sampling method, 1050 were recruited from 3 classes at six middle schools in Yunlin County, after discarding incomplete questionnaires, 879 valid samples left for the analyzes. Results: 1. Junior high school students participated in higher levels of exercise was significantly (p<.05) higher than students with mid-level and low-level exercise participation in the scores of exercise self-efficacy, and stress coping total score and the six subscales of stress coping, including resources from family and friend, enthusiastic, self-satisfaction, emotion , peer relationship, self-control (hi>Mid>low); 2. Exercise self-efficacy (r=.268), stress coping (r=.151) were significantly correlated with exercise participation in Junior high school students; and the correlation of life stress with stress coping (r=-.365) was significantly (p<.05) different from zero indicating the higher the life stress, the lower the ability in coping with stress; 3. Life stress, exercise self-efficacy, academic performance and exercise participation were found to be significant (p<.05) predicators of 'stress coping', they accounted for a total percentage of explained variance of 25.9%. Conclusion: The Junior high students, who have the higher level of exercise participation, tend to have higher exercise efficacy, lower life stress perception, and better stress coping ability.
Background: Stress is common in adolescence and may occur more often at this time than at any other life stage. Although research showed a positive relationship between physical exercises and stress reduction, inactivity is prevalent among students. This study examined the current situations of exercise participation, exercise self-efficacy, stress perception, and stress coping in junior high-school students. Purposes: To examine the relationship of exercise participation, exercise self-efficacy, the stress of life and the stress coping of the junior high school students. Methods: SPSS for Windows 12.0 was used for the statistical analyzes; ANOVA, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, and Stepwise Multiple Regression were used for data analyses; this study self-designed a questionnaire for Stress, also adopted Exercise Self-efficacy Scale (Hsu, 2000)、Students Stress Coping Inventory (Shum, 2004), and Exercise Participation Scale (Blair, 1984) for collecting data purposes. Using stratified clustering sampling method, 1050 were recruited from 3 classes at six middle schools in Yunlin County, after discarding incomplete questionnaires, 879 valid samples left for the analyzes. Results: 1. Junior high school students participated in higher levels of exercise was significantly (p<.05) higher than students with mid-level and low-level exercise participation in the scores of exercise self-efficacy, and stress coping total score and the six subscales of stress coping, including resources from family and friend, enthusiastic, self-satisfaction, emotion , peer relationship, self-control (hi>Mid>low); 2. Exercise self-efficacy (r=.268), stress coping (r=.151) were significantly correlated with exercise participation in Junior high school students; and the correlation of life stress with stress coping (r=-.365) was significantly (p<.05) different from zero indicating the higher the life stress, the lower the ability in coping with stress; 3. Life stress, exercise self-efficacy, academic performance and exercise participation were found to be significant (p<.05) predicators of 'stress coping', they accounted for a total percentage of explained variance of 25.9%. Conclusion: The Junior high students, who have the higher level of exercise participation, tend to have higher exercise efficacy, lower life stress perception, and better stress coping ability.