Análise quali-quantitativa da influência das atividades físico-desportivas na saúde de crianças e jovens pertencentes a um programa de educação pelo esporte na Cidade do Natal - Brasil / Quali-quantitative analysis of influence of sports activities in the health of children and young people in a Program of Sports Education in Natal-Brasil

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Verify in a specific social totality of lower socioeconomical level, what would be the main interest for parents to place their children in an Educational Program Through Sport. To evaluate and classify children and young people as to physical aptitude related to health through scientifically validated indicators and to relate them to socioeconomical condition. To verify compatibility between qualitative and quantitative researches. METHODS: The sample of the qualitative study is composed of 22 subjects, characterizing itself as a non probabilistic sample of the causal type. Semi structured interview techniques in an individual situation and free evocation of words were used, based on the presuppositions of the Theory of Social Representations. A mixed sample, of the quantitative study, is composed of 67 children, where the possibility of relationship of the family income variable was confirmed with the variables Body Composition and Flexibility, that compose the physical aptitude indicator related to health and the social representation of the parents. RESULTS: The qualitative results refer to biological aspects of health that constitute the central nucleus of the social representation of sport. In the quantitative aspect, it is verified that there was no correlation statistically, significant between the indexes of physical aptitude and the family income. CONCLUSION: The reason attributed to the physical-sport activities by the parents or relatives of the children, is based on the benefits to biological health and is shown by the children's good performance in the applied aptitude tests. There is not significant correlation between the index of physical aptitude applied to health, which reinforces the possibility of the parents social representation and the children's behavior.