ANXIETY LEVEL IN PARENTS OF CHILDREN ENGAGING AND NOT ENGAGING IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SPORTS

This paper aims to study the level of anxiety and emotional state of parents. Anxiety level refers to the degree of nervousness, worry or fear experienced by parents. It includes both general anxiety and specific apprehension that parents may experience in different situations. This study includes 100 parents, 50 whose children practice sports several times a week after school, and 50 parents of children that do not do not engage in any sport or physical activity except curricular Physical Education classes at school. The study was carried out in the city of Tirana. The instrument used to measure the level of anxiety was the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (Birmaher, B; Khetarpal, S; Cully, M; Brent, D; McKenzie, S. 1997). The instrument is a self-reported one, meaning that the pupils answered about their level of anxiety along the past three months. The instrument is designed to target the group of parents that have children aged 9-11. The gathered data were processed using SPSS. The results of the study showed that parents whose children engage in extra-curricular sports have a lower level of anxiety and a better emotional state than those whose children who engage only in physical activity classes at school.