Young people, sport, and health literacy

Introduction

Common ideal thought about sport connects sport internally to health, sober lifestyle and educational effects. Many studies indicate however that these connections are not so simple and linear. It seems that sport do not necessarily keep young people on straight and narrow. For instance the results about young athletes’ alcohol use do not support that kind of notion. This paper is part of the research project which focuses on the meanings which are loaded to health, alcohol, sport, and physical activities by young people. The main purpose is to compare health literacy between young athletes and non-athlete young people.

Methods

In this study cultural approach is applied. Health, alcohol and also sport are understood as cultural issues. The empirical analysis is based on qualitative and quantitative data. Materials are gathered from 13, 15 and 18 year old pupils in the city of Turku. First qualitative data was collected by writing exercises from 450 pupils and then quantitative data was collected by questionnaire from more than 800 pupils.

Results and discussion

When writing this abstract the phase of analysis is just started. Preliminary results will be presented at the congress.