Involvement in sport activities could improve one's life in terms of physical fitness and mental health. The participation of parents and children in sport activities is crucial in preventing the children from involvement in negative activities especially during their leisure time. This paper examined the involvement of students in sports activities during the school holidays. They normally have fewer activities and therefore may have the tendency to get involved in negative activities since there are less control from parents and teachers during this time. A total of 261 students from two daily schools in Pahang were involved in this study. Only 41 percent or a total of 107 students are interested in sports activities during the school holidays. The common sports activities involve are badminton, football, volleyball and netball. The result shows that students need additional facilities such as bowling center and swimming pool as an alternative sport activities. Providing the facilities according to their interest could give them more enjoyment and exposure to the new sport activities. The students could also experience healthy life style which could prevent them from joining unconstructive pursuits. Hence, the finding of this study is hoped to provide useful information in improving the quality of life among secondary school students in the rural areas.
Social bonding in sport is important in developing self-confident and self-esteem. According to Frost and McKelvie study on physical activities and self-esteem for students, it showed that a higher level of exercise activity is associated with a higher level of self-esteem. During sport tournaments normally students need more support from people around them to increase self-confident. Therefore, sometimes during the games, by touching one shoulder, hugging, shouting for encouragement, calling their names and other kind of gestures are used to increase confident among students that involve in the games. This could make them play harder and tie up their cooperation further which could lead them to a better achievement.
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There were 261 students from various backgrounds that took part in the study. Questionnaire was distributed to them and the data obtained were analyzed using statistical procedures executed by the PASW 18.0 including descriptive statistics, normality test, cross-tabulation table and independent sample t-test. The objectives in this study are as follows: i. To determine students activity in sports. ii. To identify the significance difference in sport between gender. iii. To carry out any suggestion(s) that will be used to improve students life style from negative activity. findings and discussion TABLE I. RESPONDENTS BACKGROUND
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Items Overall Interested in Sports Activity Gender Male Female 139 (53.26%) 122 (46.74%) 24 (9.20%) 83 (31.80%) Parents Education Level No formal education Primary school Secondary school College/ University 10 (3.83%) 66 (25.29%) 125 (47.89%) 50 (19.16%) 3 (1.15%) 25 (9.58%) 74 (28.35%) 8 (3.07%) Family income Per month Less than RM1000 RM1001 to RM3000 RM3001 to RM5000 RM5001 to RM7000 Above RM7001 98 (37.55%) 125 (47.89%) 22 (8.43%) 2 (0.77%) 14 (5.36%) 61 (23.37%) 40 (1.15%) 3 (8.43%) 1 (0.38%) 2 (0.77%)
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As shown in the TABLE I, there are 261 respondents with 139 (53.26%) of them were males. Among them, only 107 students very interested in sports activity such as football, netball, badminton, tennis, etc. Most of the respondents which involved in this study are from the family income with less than RM3000 per month and education level of their parents is secondary school level. The detail of the 107 respondents who interested in sports activity is shown in TABLE II. TABLE II. TYPES OF SPORT ACTIVITY
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