CORRELATION BETWEEN SPORT, MOTIVATION FOR SPORT, GENERAL HEALTH, SATISFACTION WITH WORK AND LIFE IN

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CORRELATION BETWEEN SPORT, MOTIVATION FOR SPORT,
GENERAL HEALTH, SATISFACTION WITH WORK AND LIFE
IN SLOVENIAN ARMED FORCES
CISM International Symposium 2009

• Tkavc Suzana, M.Sc., Ministry of Defence,
  Headquaters of Slovenian Armed Forces, Ljubljana,
  Slovenia
• Tuak Matej, Ph.D., University of Ljubljana,
  Faculty of sport, Ljubljana, Slovenia (e-mail
• 
  matej.tusak_at_fsp.uni-lj.si), SPORT PSYCHOLOGY
• Masten Robert, Ph.D., University of Ljubljana,
  Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Dimec Tjaa, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of
  sport, Ljubljana, Slovenia

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INTRODUCTION

• The army represents a special area of a person's
  life and work with specific working conditions,
  which require a lot of mental and physical
  strain.
• The armies worldwide have been increasingly
  integrating and performing common tasks, such as
  peacekeeping in war zones or common actions in
  combat in different war zones of the world with
  various conditions (climatic, geographic,
  cultural, etc.). For that an individual has to be
  well-prepared for such conditions.
• Numerous researches (Diener et al., 1997 Myers
  Diener, 1995) stated that people, who are more
  satisfied, are also more successful in various
  areas of life satisfaction is related to
  successful outcomes.

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• We wanted to examine various psychological
  characteristics of life and work in the Slovenian
  Armed Forces. (human resources in SA)
• The basic aim of the research was to discover
  the meaning of sport, its value among the
  soldiers and officers and its motivational effect
  and the correlation between sport in the army and
  general health and satisfaction with life.
• We also tried to research the positive effects of
  sport on the work efficiency in the Slovenian
  Armed Forces.

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METHOD

• PARTICIPANTS
• 141 employees of the Slovenian Armed Forces (75
  soldiers and 66 officers) collaborated in the
  research. In our sample were included employees
  of Slovenian army from different units
  (Ljubljana, Maribor, Kranj, Vrhnika, Slovenska
  Bistrica, Postojna in Bohinjska Bela).
• INSTRUMENTS
• - Participation Motivation Questionnaire PMQ
  (Gill, Gross Huddleston, 1983) with a list of
  30 potential motives or reasons for sports
  participation.

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THE BENEFITS OF SPORT

• Better motivation
• Better reaction in stress, coping stress
  managment
• More emotional stable behavior
• Less anxiety and depression
• Better social skills
• Time management
• Better in coping with success and failures
• Etc.

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A STORY OF SUCCES
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SELF IMAGE SELF ESTEEM SELF CONFIDENCE MOTIVATI
ON SC X GOALS
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• Satisfaction With Life Scale SWLS (Diener,
  Emmons, Larsen Griffin, 1985). The scale
  consists of five items to which an individual has
  to answer on the scale from 1 (not true at all)
  to 7 (completely true).
• General Health Questionnaire - GHQ (Goldberg,
  1972). The instrument was adapted for use for the
  purpose of this study. It consists of 13
  questions to which the participant has to answer
  on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (a lot more
  than usually). A high number of points means
  absence or lack of health.
• Self-motivation Inventory (Dishman, Ickes
  Morgan 1980) includes 40 statements.
• Work Efficiency Scale It is composed of 19
  statements to which the participant answers on a
  five level scale (1 not true at all for me and 5
  completely true for me).

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• Work Efficiency Scale It is composed of 19
  statements to which the participant answers on a
  five level scale (1 not true at all for me and 5
  completely true for me).
• Values Scale (Musek, 1993, 2000) It is composed
  of 54 items, which represent 54 independent
  values.
• For finding out the intention of points of view
  on sport we composed The Point Of View Scale On
  Sport (SS) (Tuak Korenjak, 2006). It is
  composed of 35 statements (e.g. "I like
  competing at competitions", "Sport represents
  enjoyment to me").
• We made questionnaire concerning intention for
  abandonment of workplace (IAW)(Celin, 2006). It
  consists of 10 statements.
• The participants forwarded us some demographic
  data (age, body weight and height,) and data
  about their work in the army (distance from work,
  satisfaction with the occupation).

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PROCEDURE

• After previous agreement with the Slovenian Armed
  Forces and their consent to collaborate in the
  research, we collected data in different units.
• The subjects filled in the questionnaires
  individually and considering the instruction
  added.
• Statistical analysis of data was made with SPSS

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RESULTS
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FINDINGS

• We've also found out that individuals who are
  more satisfied with employment in the Slovenian
  Armed Forces are more satisfied with life,
  healthier, more effective in their work and more
  self-motivated. They also do not think about
  leaving their work place. They have a very
  positive point of view on sport, and they are
  involved with sport activity in the Slovenian
  Armed Forces because they like comradely spirit,
  wishing to remain in a good shape, be physically
  fit and healthy, to improve their skills and
  learn new skills, they like being the part of the
  group (team) and they also like the coaches and
  leaders.

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FINDINGS

• In a view of value orientation, we can say that
  those who wish to remain in the Slovenian Armed
  Forces highly value diligence, patriotism, sport
  and recreation, loyalty, cohabitation and peace
  between people, respect the laws, harmony with
  nature, love of children, nationality pride and
  sport and movement. On the other hand, those who
  do not wish to stay in the Slovenian Armed
  Forces, highly value a comfortable life and good
  food and drink.

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CONCLUSIONS

• Longer employed in Slovenian Armed Forces are
  also more satisfied with their lifes, more
  efficient at work, with bigger self-motivation,
  not thinking about leaving their work place.
  About the value orientation the results showed
  that they also highly value moral principles,
  respect the laws, nationality pride, enjoyment in
  the art and on the other hand they care very
  little about food and drink.
• Individuals who are more satisfied with
  employment in the Slovenian army are more
  satisfied with life, healthier, more effective in
  their work and more self-motivated.
• Individuals who have more positive point of view
  on sport are also more interested, reliable and
  effective at work.
• Through these results we can confirm very
  positive effects of sport on the general life and
  work in the army. New researches should follow to
  discover more directions for practical
  suggestions.

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SPORT AS A MODEL OF PERSISTENCE BEHAVIOR, SEEKING
FOR CHALENGES