Study on the Role of Sport Extracurricular Activities in Reducing Stress and Increasing Socialization and School Adaptation

Childhood and adolescence are acknowledged as fundamental periods in the shaping of man's personality, education having a determining role from this perspective; however, we should emphasize that informational overdose, unpleasant affective and emotional states lived on the school, peer group and family level or a sedentary life can become stressful factors at this age. Our aim is to study the role of sport extracurricular activities on reducing educational stress and increasing socialization and adaptation to school, during adolescence. This transversal research took place during the school year 2011-2012, on a stratified sample, made up of 81 lower secondary education and high school teachers, 105 parents and 175 students (aged between 14 and 17 years) of which 49 shared into two groups, a control group of 25 students and an experimental group of 24 students. The subjects of the experimental group benefited of a supplementary program of extracurricular sport activities. Most of the subjects of the stratified sample (teachers, parents, students) referred to the fact that the educational system is going through a period of crisis caused by organizational and methodological confusions and difficulties, curricular overloading, slow adaptation to the demands of the reform, which constitute stressful factors for the people concerned by the educational process. Referring to the influence of the extracurricular sport activity on stress diminution, increased socialization and school adaptation, 67% of the students answered positively, 22.6% chose the negative answer, 16.4% were undecided and 4% did not answer. The adolescents benefiting of a superior level of expression of their motor skills components adapt much easier to the environment, are more resilient to the factors of educational stress, which is made possible also by the fast recovery capacity of the body's main functions.