| The researcher examined sensation-seeking behaviors of middle school and high school physical education students. The purpose of this study was to find the difference in sensation seeking behaviors between traditional sport participants, skateboarders, non-sport participants and among traditional sport participants and skateboarders. Traditional sports participants for this study consist of students who have played team baseball, basketball, football, soccer, volleyball, track & field, swimming, or softball. Skateboarder for this study consists of students who ride at least three times a week and favor this activity over others. Non-sports participants consist of students who do not play any type of traditional sport or skateboard. Both traditional sport participants and skateboarders are those who engage in both activities on a regular basis. A modified Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) was used to survey 209 middle school and high school physical education students. The Sensation Seeking Scale used two subscales adventure and thrill seeking and risk-taking, to measure and analyze the questions asked on the survey. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 10.0 and the statistical methods consisted of ANOVA, discriminant function analysis, and factor analysis. The primary research question guiding the study was whether skateboarders and traditional middle school sport participants have different sensation seeking behaviors related to the activity they are involved in. It was found that skateboarders and skateboarders and sports players have different sensation seeking attributes then non-sport participants. Within this study it was also found that males scored higher on the Thrill and Adventure seeking subscale. |
