Correlating physical literacy with life skills: A study on high school students

Abstract

Introduction: Physical literacy (PL) studies have noted its various contributions to students’ physical and health needs. Unfortunately, PL reports that explain the relationship of PL to students’ life skills (LS) are almost difficult to find, even though PL features are likely to support students’ LS. Objective: This study aimed to examine the correlation of PL with students’ LS. Methodology: The sample consisted of 2250 high school students, with 845 males (37.6%) and 1405 females (62.4%) determined using a convenience sampling technique. Physical literacy data were collected using the nine-item Perceived Physical Literacy Instrument, while LS data were collected using the 47-item Life Skills for Sport Scale, both scales using a 5-point Likert scale. The data of the two variables were then analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank correlation using the Microsoft Excel program and SPSS version 29. Results: The test results prove that PL is positively and significantly correlated with LS with a correlation value of 0.547, which is in the moderate category (0.40-0.69). The same thing is also recorded in the intercorrelation test, where all PL indicators correlate positively and significantly with all LS indicators. Discussion: Physical literacy is one of the positive arenas for training students’ LS, so teachers need to integrate LS into various physical activities of students. This agenda will enrich students with physical activity useful for attitudes and behaviors that are meaningful to students’ lives. Conclusions: Future studies could investigate students’ transition experiences using PL and their success in implementing LS.