Ph.D., Associate Professor E.A. Cherepov
Dr.Med., Associate Professor O.B. Tseylikman
South Ural State University (SRU), Chelyabinsk

Keywords: teenage students, physical education system, sportizated physical education, adaptation, stress tolerance of pupils.

Introduction. According to the Institute of Developmental Physiology of the Russian Academy of Education, current school educational environment creates risk factors associated with 20-40% of negative effects that worsen health of school-age children. The researches of the Institute resulted in a ranking of these school-related risk factors in order of importance and degree of influence on pupils' health [1]:

– stressful teaching tactics;

– discrepancy between educational techniques and technologies and developmental and functional capabilities of pupils;

– noncompliance with elementary physiological and hygienic requirements to organization of educational process;

– parents' incompetency in children's health protection;

– deficiencies in the current system of physical education;

– intensification of educational process;

– functional incompetency of teachers regarding health protection and promotion;

– lack of medical supervision in schools;

– lack of systematic activities geared to form the values of healthy lifestyle.

As a result, in the educational process arranged in the traditional way pupils are subject to constant excessive stress that contributes to the failures of self-regulation of physiological functions and development of chronic diseases. Recent studies indicate that the current school education system is unhealthy for pupils [1, 6, 9].

Today, there are a lot of diagnosed cases of distress among pupils. The distress is pathological stress which has a negative effect on the psyche and health, impairs mental activity, distorts the behaviour, leading to absolute disorganization. It is accompanied by hyperactivation of neuroendocrine systems that may become pathogenic for all the systems and organs in the body,  may cause neurotic and psychosomatic deviations or lead to their exacerbation. Many autonomic disorders caused by distress affect all systems of the body and are often masked as the symptoms of a variety of physiological pathologies [7, 8]. Formation of each particular kind of stress depends on the factors within a stressful situation: mental and physical health, personal characteristics, usual way of responding to stress, the individual mechanism of psychological protection and the degree of pedagogical, psychological and social support [2].

In this connection, the issue of increasing the level of stress tolerance among those involved in school education becomes very important. According to literature sources, the phenomenon of stress tolerance is considered mainly from the point of view of functionality, as a characteristic influencing the efficiency of activity. Stress tolerance is a result of a combination of personal qualities which allow to deal with stress without unpleasant consequences for activity, personality and other people [4].

According to modern researches,  stress tolerance is a personality trait made of the following components: psycho-physiological, motivational, emotional, volitional, information and intellectual. That is why a skilled teacher rather than a physician has a set of necessary tools, methods and conditions to achieve slow, but substantial positive effect on stress tolerance of pupils and therefore positively influence the dynamics of the most significant health indicators. Many scientists share this opinion.

Stress tolerance, as well as other personal characteristics, is formed during activity. Therefore, the planners of educational processes should use the impacts that would not only prevent adverse effects, but also stimulate protective forces of the body and increase its adaptive capabilities and performance, i.e. constructive information on how to strengthen health via purposeful activity. Human behaviour, reasonable with regard to the requirements of physiology and hygiene, is particularly important from all the health-improving effects [3, 5]. And physical exercises, as a specially organized form of motor activity, are the most important behavioural influences.

Experts agree that the present school physical education system should be updated. The concept of sportization of physical education of pupils of secondary schools is one of the most scientifically grounded and practically approved and therefore promising. Sports-centered physical education is focused on the formation of personal sports culture and active socialization of pupils [6, 9]. In the process of sports activities adolescents are learning to be a leader, to use communication skills, perform different social roles (coach, team captain, referee) and define their professional interests. Sports activities simulate different real life situations and their solutions, as the difficulties that are encountered in sports activities are similar to those in everyday life.

 The purpose of the study was to identify the indicators of stress tolerance of pupils in the process of sportization of physical education.

Materials and methods. The peculiarities of formation of stress tolerance in adolescents depend on several factors: psychological and pedagogical culture of teachers and parents, the level of their empathy, mutual understanding and respect between a pupil and an adult, as well as pupil's knowledge and skills necessary to successfully overcome stressful situations. We took into account the entire range of required factors when designing the system of sportizated physical education on the basis of interschool sports club.  

As one of the core components, this sports club is supposed to coordinate all extracurricular activities related to physical education in participating schools, manage sports sections and combine the efforts of youth sports schools. In accordance with our "Modular program of the third lesson of  sports-centered physical education", one of the goals was to introduce pupils into different sports and engage them into classes in sports sections. In addition, all educational activities take place within the health-improving educational space common for all schools, members of the interschool sports club. This educational space is geared to develop pupils' metasubject health-improving competences.

The efficiency of formation of stress tolerance during the experiment was evaluated via examination of cortisol in the saliva of adolescents of the study and reference groups. This method was selected as a result of collaboration with the scientists of the Department of Biochemistry of Chelyabinsk State Medical University because the vast majority of metabolic processes in humans and vertebrates is regulated by glucocorticoids. The unique diversity and prevalence of glucocorticoid effects are probably related with their main function – endocrine regulation of stress and adaptation processes. The metabolic effects of glucocorticoids under stress are well studied. The most notable one is the influence on carbohydrate metabolism and mobilization of lipids and amino acids, the limiting of protein synthesis and the stimulation of proteolysis in various muscle types, etc. Low level of glucocorticoids may reduce the adaptive capacity of the body during long stress. This is due to the preparative function of glucocorticoids, which is expressed in the preparation of the body to subsequent extreme exposures. Unfortunately,  the mechanisms of implementation of the preparative function of the hormones of adrenal cortex are still unexplored. It is known that the level of oxidative and nitrosative stresses may be limited due to the activity of endogenous protective systems the most important of which being the system of heat shock proteins, enzyme and enzymatic links of antioxidant protection, the system of nitric oxide, the system of opioid peptides and prostaglandins [4, 8]. Thus, the level of glucocorticoids characterizes stress tolerance because they are involved in the regulation of endogenous protective systems.

The studies of cortisol were conducted at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year (after summer vacation) and at the end of that year – during this part of learning cycle the pupils are especially vulnerable in the aspect of fatigue with the risk of development of overfatigue that quickly manifests itself in the decreased immunity and in the development of psychosomatic pathology.

The level of cortisol in saliva was determined in a group of pupils aged 12-13 years of the Secondary School No. 118 of Chelyabinsk (one of the schools participating in the interschool sports club). In addition to physical education lessons all pupils from the group attended sports sections, organized in the framework of the interschool sports club. The reference group was formed of the pupils of the same age of the Secondary School No. 73 of Chelyabinsk, who were allowed to do physical exercises. Physical education of children in this group was limited to three lessons in accordance with the school schedule.

The level of cortisol in saliva was determined on an empty stomach before training by an enzyme immunoassay with the use of Salimetrics kits (USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The sensitivity level was in the range from 0.007 to 3.0 μg/dL.

The results and discussion. It was found that at the beginning of the school year there were no statistically significant differences in the level of cortisol between the compared groups (study group: 0.15 ± 0.019 μg/dL; reference group - 0.14 ± 0.021 µg/dL). At the end of the year, children involved in intensified physical activity organized within the interschool sports club had reduced cortisol level in saliva compared to the reference group (reference group: 0.19 ± 0.013 µg/dL; study group - 0.13 ± 0.031 μg/dL; p = 0.021, according to Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test). The level changed insignificantly compared to baseline values (p = 0.232, according to Wilcoxon signed-rank test) (Table 1).

Table 1. The indicators of saliva cortisol in adolescents participating in the experiment

In the control group the cortisol concentration increased compared to baseline values (p=0.014, according to Wilcoxon signed-rank test). The increase of cortisol in the reference group reflects the increased stress associated with intense academic load and other stress factors.

Conclusions. Additional physical loads prevent the increase of cortisol in pupils, indicating their anti-stress nature. Our data indicate primarily the improvement of stress tolerance and of internal mechanisms of psycho-physiological regulation, and therefore higher adaptation potential and health-improving effect of the designed system of sportizated physical education.

It should be noted that the physiological peculiarities of the adolescent's ontogenesis due to quickly developing neurohumoral processes and rapid growth are characterized by morphological and functional immaturity of the cardiovascular and central nervous system, that manifests itself in emotions and behaviour. This, in turn, further reduces the capacity of adolescents to resist the stress of everyday life and particularly at school.

The findings indicate a significant adaptogenic and wellness potential of physical exercises as part of sports training. The main objectives of school administrators, teachers and parents are reduced to finding adequate means and forms of classes and increasing sports motivation among adolescents.

The work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation within the basic part of the state task (project code – 1696).

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Corresponding author: cherepov.e@mail.ru