| Recreational youth sport programs can help students build lifelong sport habits and learn sport skills, social skills, and sportsmanship. While having fun, recreational sport programs also provide parents and their children a positive channel of communication and an opportunity to build good relationships with others and to reduce youth delinquency. With a limited educational budget, junior high schools in Taoyuan City do not have after-school recreational sport programs. The purpose of this study was to analyze after-school recreational sport programs for a selected group of boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 14 in Taoyuan City, Taiwan. Research questions included the willingness of the children and their parents/guardians and teachers to participate in the after-school recreational sport programs, parents'/guardians' and teachers' willingness to be involved as volunteers for the after-school recreational sport programs, and parents' willingness to pay for their children to participate in the after-school recreational sport programs.;Descriptive research was conducted in this study. Four sets of survey questionnaires developed by Dr. Tang Yong were modified to meet the needs of this study. Subjects who were selected from five schools (Tung-De Junior High School, Wen-Chang Junior High School, Fu-Fong Junior High School, Chin-Hsi Junior High School and Da-You Junior High School) included students (N=1090), students parents/guardians (N=1090), general education (GE) teachers (N=120), and physical education (PE) teachers (N=70) in Taoyuan City, Taiwan. The effective rate of returned survey from students was 92.29% and from parents or guardians was 91.92%, from the GE teachers was 96.67%, and it was 87.14% from the PE teachers.;The results of the study revealed that 55.2% of the male students and 44.2% of the female students expressed interest in after-school recreational sport programs. Independent t-test at an alpha level of .05 showed significant difference between male and female students, as t(1004) = 3.492 and p = .001. More than 70% of the fathers, 58.8% of the mothers, and 45.8% of the guardians who responded to the survey agreed to allow their children to participate in after-school recreational sport programs. The ANOVA showed no significant difference among fathers, mothers or guardians, as F(2, 999) 1.554 and p = .212. Most of the GE and PE teachers who responded to the survey agreed to encourage children to participate in after-school recreational sport programs regardless of gender and the subjects they taught. Independent t-tests revealed no significant difference between male and female teachers. The GE teachers revealed a t(63.767) = .915 and p = .364 and the PE teachers revealed a t(174) = .306 and p = .760. |
