PhD, Associate Professor V.V. Drogomeretsky¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.A. Tretyakov¹
PhD, Associate Professor M.P. Spirin¹
PhD, Associate Professor I.Yu. Voronin^1
1Belgorod State National Research University, Belgorod

Keywords: students, physical education, individual mental qualities, special health group, musculoskeletal system, health improvement technologies.

Background. As provided by the WHO-approved definition of health, its physical, mental and social health components are viewed as inseparable; with the health service being particularly important for the student population which is generally known to underestimate the health protection [3] and improvement needs, initiatives and services. This is evidenced by the large number of students assigned to a special training department for health reasons [4]. The educational activity of a physical education department teacher, like any other teacher, is associated with the peculiarities of the students’ personality, their aspirations, emotional sphere, and realization of the dominating needs. Man’s feelings and emotions are inextricably connected with his needs [5, 2, 1, 6, 7]. For the purpose of successful implementation of educational programs and development of new health improvement technologies, it is necessary to consider the above circumstances that determined the relevance of our study.

Objective of the study was to rate the gender-specific mental personality qualities in the academic main health group versus the special health group diagnosed with musculoskeletal system disorders.

Methods and structure of the study. Sampled for the study were the 1-2-year BelSU students (n=500) qualified for the academic physical education courses. Based on the results of the medical examination, the young males and females without health impairments were assigned to the main health group (MHG), and those diagnosed with various musculoskeletal disorders – to the special health group (SHG). After the tests, the data obtained were processed and allocated to the following groups: MHGm – healthy young males; SHGm - young males diagnosed with the musculoskeletal disorders; MHGf – healthy females; SHGf - females diagnosed with the musculoskeletal disorders. The following diseases are attributed to the musculoskeletal disorders: scoliosis of various degrees, osteochondrosis, flat foot, Schlatter disease, arthritis and arthrosis of the large joints.

 The musculoskeletal system functionality was rated using the Trofimov and Lee questionnaire survey forms. The students were asked to indicate which movements during their everyday self-service caused difficulties and to what extent. The total pints were deemed the index values: the higher the score, the worse the state of the musculoskeletal system. Among the methods of psychological testing were: Eysenck questionnaire used to determine both the type of temperament and neuroticism (prevailing emotional states), Dodonov’s methodology used to determine the dominating needs, and psycho-geometric test.

Results and discussion. The test rates are presented below (Table 1). The study of the musculoskeletal system did not reveal any significant differences between the young males and females of the main health group. In the special health group students of both sexes, the Trofimov index approached 5 points, and the Lee index - about 1.5 points. The detected degree of difficulty in performing everyday actions did not differ significantly in both groups. Self-assessment of the functional state of the musculoskeletal system in the special health group was virtually identical.

Table 1.  Indicators in MHGm (n=100), SHGm (n=100), MHGf  (n=100), SHGf (n=100)

The dominating needs of the special health group young males and females were very similar and did not have any statistically significant differences (p>0.05 using the Pearson criterion χ²). The students of both groups preferred social needs above all, followed by their cognitive and biological needs. In the main health group, this test showed that the young males were mostly focused on their cognitive needs, while the females – on their social ones (p<0.01 using the Pearson criterion χ²).

The psycho-geometric test did not show similar choices, all groups had their unique combination of figures. There was a significant difference between the groups (p<0.01 using the Pearson criterion χ²).

The Eysenck questionnaire used to determine the type of temperament enabled to verify a similar level of extraversion in the main health group young males and females (p>0.05 using the Student's t-criterion), which turned out to be slightly higher than 14 points. In terms of extraversion, the main health group students were closer to "extraverts", i.e. more sociable, and focused on the outside world, while the special health group subjects showed themselves to be "ambiverts". The level of neuroticism in all the studied groups differed significantly (p<0.01 using the Student’s t-criterion), but in this rating category it was characteristic of emotionally sensitive people.

Self-assessment of mental conditions showed that the main health group males and females were not anxious, did not have high self-esteem, were resistant to failures, not afraid of difficulties, and showed an average level of aggressiveness. However, their constriction rate differed significantly (p<0.01 using the Student’s t-criterion), in the main health group females it was 1 point higher, although in both groups it fell within the average range. The special health group students had more differences than similarities. For instance, anxiety and frustration differed significantly (p<0.01 using the Student’s t-criterion). The special health group females’ anxiety level was almost 3 points higher than that of the special health group males, and frustration - 3.5 points higher.

Table 2. Correlation analysis of test rates

Correlations in the main health group young males

These data indicate that the more young people are prone to communication, the more they are open, optimistic, impulsive in their actions, not falling into strong control over their emotional sphere, the less problems they have with the functional state of the musculoskeletal system. This is confirmed by the direct correlation with anxiety, i.e. excessive concern over some minor and insignificant matters, which is typical for people with weak nervous processes.

In the special health group females, several average-level correlations were detected between the self-esteem of the musculoskeletal system and constriction (r=0.52) and frustration (r=0.42). This suggests the mutual influence of stubbornness, invariance, or even "rituality" in behavior with the musculoskeletal system functionality. In turn, the stronger and more often the special health group females deluded themselves about their expectations, took offence, felt anger and disappointment in the reality, the worse this affected their self-esteem of the musculoskeletal system.

Conclusions. The study showed that the students assigned to the main and special health groups for health reasons had a number of significant differences:

• The main health group males were mostly focused on their cognitive needs, females - on social ones.
• The students with the musculoskeletal disorders, displaying the qualities of "ambiverts", communicated mainly as and when necessary, while the main health group students were more sociable and focused on the outside world (extraverts).
• The highest level of neuroticism was observed in the special health group females with the musculoskeletal disorders, the lowest - in the main health group males.
• The females of the special health group were characterized by higher anxiety, frustration, constriction and aggression as opposed to other groups.
• The extraversion level in the young males of the main health group was inversely related to the musculoskeletal disorders.

References

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6. Eween B., Jupien S. Stress: hormonal and neural aspects. Encyclopedia of human brain. abstr. Brooklin: AcademicPress publ., 2002; P. 463-474
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Corresponding author: nikulin_i@bsu.edu.ru

Abstract

 As provided by the WHO-approved definition of health, its physical, mental and social health components are viewed as inseparable; with the health service being particularly important for the student population which is generally known to underestimates the health protection and improvement needs, initiatives and services. Objective of the study was to rate the gender-specific mental personality qualities in the academic main health group versus the special health group diagnosed with musculoskeletal disorders. Sampled for the study were the 1-2-year BelSU students (n=500) qualified for the academic physical education courses. The group main health group was rated by the Trofimov and Lee questionnaire survey forms widely popular in the clinical medicine, with the survey data processed by the standard mathematical statistics toolkit. The main health group disorders diagnosed group was tested with the meaningfully worse household self-serviceability versus virtually the same life needs in the both groups. The main health group students were tested more prone to extraversion. A data correlation analysis found that the higher is the student’s extraversion with its openness to communication, optimism, emotions and eased emotional controls – the less problems such a student generally faces in the musculoskeletal system functionality domain. The main health group condition self-rates were found being somewhat distorted by the high personal aggression to somebody or something. It was also found that the more often the special health group students are disappointed in their hopes and expectations and suffer from anger, offence and frustration, the lower are their main health group condition self-rates. The main health group students were tested with virtually the same emotional status self-rates that were gender-unspecific in every aspect save for rigidity.