Correlation Between Physical Activity and Student Life Satisfaction: A Study on Junior High School Students

Indonesian Journal of Kinanthropology (IJOK) Volume 5 Number 1, January 2025 https://doi.org/10.26740/ijok.v5n1.p21-28 E-ISSN: 2775-2178 Indonesian Journal of Kinanthropology (IJOK) Open Access Correlation Between Physical Activity and Student Life Satisfaction: A Study on Junior High School Students Muhammad Labib Siena Ar Rasyid 1, Himawan Wismanadi1, Noortje Anita Kumaat1, Afif Rusdiawan1, Nisa Hamidah Nur Azizah1 1 Universitas Indonesia Negeri Surabaya, Jl. Raya Kampus Unesa, Lidah Wetan, Kec. Lakarsantri, Surabaya, Jawa Timur 60213, Correspondence: (Received: 06 Dec 2024 | Revised: 10 Jan 2025 | Accepted: 21 Jan 2025) ABSTRACT Background: Evidence shows that the level of physical activity of adolescents in the world is still very lacking, while physical activity itself has a holistic effect, both physically and mentally, including on one's life satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between physical activity and student life satisfaction. Methods: Correlational research was used in this study. A total of 58 students of Jogoroto 1 Junior High School (JHS) consisting of 29 boys and 29 girls. SLSS and IPAQ-SF instruments were used in this study and data analysis techniques used descriptive statistics and Spearman's rho rank correlation test. Results: he correlation test results showed a positive correlation coefficient and significance less than 0.05 between physical activity and student's life satisfaction, both in terms of METs value (r=0.875, p=0.000<0.05) and physical activity category (r=0.929, p=0.000<0.05). Conclusions: There is a significant correlation between physical activity and student's life satisfaction. The higher the level of physical activity, the higher the level of student's life satisfaction. Keywords: physical activity; student life satisfaction; junior high school students 1. Background Young adolescents have many opportunities to plan for the future during education. Having a happy life, useful to others, far from worry is the dream of many people. The main thing that a person must have to be happy is life satisfaction. Life satisfaction can be expressed when positive feelings are more dominant than negative feelings. Satisfaction and happiness are two different things, happiness is obtained from daily activities in life according to what is adhered to in its principles (Schafer et al., 2013; Sran et al., 2021). Life satisfaction itself has many meanings, but the literature compiled by Gold (2013) defines life satisfaction as "a cognitive evaluation of well-being based on actual achievements with desired conditions" and having long-term goals in one's life. Current world conditions show that around 80% of adolescents do not meet the WHO's minimum recommendations for activity (World Health Organization, 2024). In Indonesia, data shows that around 65% of children and youth have a low frequency of physical activity, and as many as 77.12% of children aged 10-15 years show a low level of physical fitness (Mutohir et al., 2023). Physical activity is defined as body movement (involving skeletal muscles) that expends energy, which if done regularly can provide physical and mental benefits (World Health Organization, 2022). Physical activity is a movement carried out by the body that expends energy and can automatically cause physical and biological changes. Regular exercise can improve cardiovascular fitness, ideally, a person should Indonesian Journal of Kinanthropology (IJOK) | Volume 5 | Number 1 | 2025 | 21-28 21 Muhammad Labib Siena Ar Rasyid, Himawan Wismanadi, Noortje Anita Kumaat, Afif Rusdiawan, Nisa Hamidah Nur Azizah Correlation Between Physical Activity and Student Life Satisfaction: A Study on Junior High School Students do it for 30 minutes a day for moderate-intensity physical activity (Sran et al., 2021; WHO, 2018; World Health Organization, 2024). Research shows that there is a link between physical activity carried out by students and fitness, psychological well-being or mental health, and academic achievement (Guddal et al., 2019; RedondoFlórez et al., 2022; Wu, 2022; Zhai et al., 2022). Thus, students who lack physical activity are more likely to have poor physical fitness, mental health, and academic achievement. Therefore, to get life satisfaction for students, it can be done by doing physical activity regularly. There is research that shows a link between physical activity and a person's life satisfaction. Individuals who routinely do physical exercise three times a week feel more satisfied with their lives than people who are not physically active (Broďáni et al., 2015). This research shows that physical activity strengthens the relationship between life satisfaction and a person's mental well-being (Zayed et al., 2018). This also has the potential to apply to adolescents who are studying at the secondary education level or junior high school. Students in school have challenges in dealing with academic stress (Bohman et al., 2024), and academic stress can also have an impact on students' life satisfaction (Sari, 2019). The higher the academic stress experienced by students, the lower the level of life satisfaction (Dureja & Sharma, 2024). From previous research, on the subject of college students, it appears that life satisfaction is negatively correlated with student academic stress (Rathakrishnan et al., 2022). On the other hand, to reduce the academic stress experienced by students, an active lifestyle is needed. If students have an active lifestyle, the better the level of life satisfaction experienced by students (An et al., 2020). From the description that has been explained above and several references that have been mentioned, only a few have studied the correlation between physical activity and life satisfaction in adolescents who are studying at the junior high school level, especially in East Java, Indonesia. Therefore, this study aims to investigate this using the Student's Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) and IPAQ instruments.Bagian Latar Belakang harus menjelaskan latar belakang penelitian, tujuannya, ringkasan literatur yang ada dan mengapa penelitian ini diperlukan atau kontribusinya ke lapangan. 2. Methods A quantitative approach was used in this study, with the type of research being correlational research. This study used participants from State Junior High School (SMPN) 1 Jogoroto, Jombang Regency. The purposive sampling technique was used to determine the research sample with the criteria of third-grade students with a minimum age of 15 years and willing to participate in the study voluntarily. A total of 58 students were selected as research subjects consisting of 29 boys and 29 girls. The research instruments used were the Student's Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) to measure students' life satisfaction (Huebner et al., 2022; Jiang & Huebner, 2017) and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form version (IPAQ-SF) to measure physical activit (...truncated)