Experience of stress and education related to SOC and physical activity : A questionnaire study to upper secondary school students

Public health is important to many areas of society. It is important to have different goals to focus the work with health promotion in different sectors, one such area is the school. In the society of today there are a lot of public health issues like stress, overweight and physical inactivity. To experience well-being physical activity, sense of coherence (SOC) and the individual experience of stress have important functions. School is an important part of the student’s learning, development and socialisation. The aims of the study were numerous: how many of the upper secondary school students are physically active and if physical activity reduces the experience of stress. Other questions of the study were: if the experience of teaching about stress and physical activity relate to students SOC, physical activity and the experience of stress, and also illuminate the relation between SOC, physical activity and stress. A quantitative questionnaire study was performed among 187 students at three upper secondary schools in the south of Sweden. The questionnaire was classified into four different categories; stress, physical activity, pedagogy and SOC. The result showed that the students´ SOC related to the students’ experience of stress and prevalence of different symptoms. The students’ physical activity did not relate to the students SOC and experience of stress. The physical activity education showed a trend to relate to increased physical activity and prevalence of stress education was related to increased stress. The socio-cultural perspective imprinted the study that shows that learning takes place not only in school, but also in other social contexts. The school should open up for physical activity and create a bigger interest in good health and SOC and thereby create opportunities for the future life of the students