Acta Univ. Palacki. Olomuc., Gymn. 2010 40(1): 15-22

Enrolling 6-8 year old children in alpine skiing courses in Slovenia

Nina Makuc, Mateja Videmšek, Jože Štihec

Background: Skiing is clearly a sport activity most children enjoy practising and are thus happy to enroll in various courses organised by skiing schools, societies and clubs.

Objective: The study aimed to analyse parents' reasons for and interests in enrolling their children in an Alpine skiing course and to establish how parents' education and monthly income levels relate to the frequency of children attending a skiing course.

Methods: We surveyed 250 parents of 6 to 8 year old children using a questionnaire with 17 variables. Frequencies and contingency tables were calculated. The statistical significance of relationships between the variables was tested by a contingency coefficient.

Results: The results showed that one half of the parents had enrolled their child in an Alpine skiing course at least once. Parents with a higher level of education and higher monthly income enroll their children more frequently in an Alpine skiing course. The person proposing to enroll a child in the course is mostly the father. In more than one half of the families both parents ski; however, three quarters of the families never or rarely go skiing together. The fathers assessed their skiing skills higher than the mothers. The reason most often stated for not having yet enrolled their child in an Alpine skiing course was financial difficulties. The parents' goals for children concerning skiing are as follows: more than one half of the parents believe their child should learn to ski well and 30% of parents attribute a high level of importance to safety on ski slopes. Only 5% of the parents would like their child to engage in competitive skiing.

Conclusions: Our findings will help organisers of ski courses to better understand parents' reasons for sending children to ski courses. If a child has the opportunity to learn this sport, they are able to develop permanent healthy habits. If some of these habits are dedicated to sports, skiing will undoubtedly figure on the list of their recreational activities.

Keywords: Parents' opinions, children skiing, clubs, schools, questionnaire, analysis

Prepublished online: September 7, 2010; Published: January 1, 2010  Show citation

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Makuc, N., Videmšek, M., & Štihec, J. (2010). Enrolling 6-8 year old children in alpine skiing courses in Slovenia. Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis. Gymnica, 40(1), 15-22
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