THE PHYSICAL FITNESS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS: AN OVERVIEW OF REGION AND AGE WISE DIFFERENCE

Abstract

Physical fitness parameters play a considerable role in performing the fitness of college students. To encourage students to feel more optimistic about a range of leisure activities will make them more likely to be physically active. The purpose of the study was to compare and assess physical fitness parameters (agility and balance) among college students (19, 20 and 21 years) of Jammu and Kashmir. To achieve the purpose, 1200 male college students of age group 19 to 21 years, were randomly selected from two regions (Jammu region and Kashmir region) of union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The physical fitness parameters selected for this study were agility and balance and were measured by Shuttle run and stork stand test. The collected data on selected criterion variables were statistically analyzed by using 2 × 3 factorial ANOVA to find out the significant difference, whenever the interaction effect was found to be significant the simple effect and then least significant difference (LSD) post hoc test was applied to find out the paired mean difference. In all the cases 0.05 level of confidence was fixed to test the hypothesis. Findings disclose that significant difference in agility while as insignificant difference was found between the interaction of region and age. The data will serve as an advocacy tool to promote physical activity among college students. The study concludes with recommendations for an appropriate evaluative measures and early intervention programmes for college students.