The Impact of the Place of Residence on Middle School Pupils' Attitudes towards Physical Culture

Introduction. Differences and inequalities connected with the place where a person lives are a subject of interest to social sciences, sociology in particular. Empirical findings indicate that residents of urban and rural areas differ significantly in terms of such variables as physical development, health condition, life expectancy, affluence, education level, access to power, cultural capital and so on. It is interesting to check whether the above regularity also applies to young people's attitudes towards physical culture. The aim of this study was to examine attitudes which middle school pupils (ages between 13 and 16) in Poland's urban and rural areas held to physical culture. Material and methods. The study involved a survey conducted between 10th November 2011 and 10th March 2012 on a purposive sample of 336 children. They were pupils aged 13-16 in two middle schools in Świętokrzyskie province: the Jan Karski no. 4 Middle School in the city of Kielce and the John Paul II Middle School in the village of Masłów, Kielce county. The diagnostic poll method was used in the study and an original, categorised poll was the research tool. The surveying technique was an auditorium questionnaire. Results. After analysis, empirical data obtained from the survey shows that the place of residence causes slights differences in middle school pupils' attitudes towards physical culture. The data allows for the conclusion that pupils from urban areas possess a little better knowledge of physical culture than their peers from rural areas. Pupils from villages have, in turn, a slightly more positive emotional approach to physical culture than pupils in cities. Urban middle school pupils manifest more positive behaviours within physical culture than rural pupils. The place of residence does not cause such striking differences in attitudes to physical culture as it does in other social and cultural variables, such as affluence, education level, access to power, health condition, fitness, participation in culture and so on.