The impact of sports on above-the-average and high-performing students achievements in Hungarian and Romanian higher education institutions

Abstract

In this paper, we apply such a complex indicator of student achievement to study the effect of sporting habits on higher education students achievement in Romania and Hungary in the Partium region. We created a complex indicator based on 12 dimensions and re-coded the index to a binominal variable: measuring above-the-average and high-performing student achievement. Consequently, our main research question is whether sporting habits contribute to becoming a member of the above-the-average or high-performing student groups. In our analysis, we control for the effect of social background variables and examine also the effects of subjective wellbeing (happiness and life satisfaction), self-assessment on health and resilience (mental fitness, flexibility, adaptability to changed conditions) as the positive influence of these latter factors on student achievement has been verified by others and our previous studies as well.  In the frame of our research, Higher Education for Social Cohesion Cooperative Research and Development in a Cross-border Area (HERD, HURO/0901/253/2.2.2.) a survey was carried out in the three countries of the Partium region (Hungary, Romania, Ukraine). The Ukrainian subsample was eliminated from the current analysis due to low headcounts and biased effects, thus our database included 2619 students. According to our results free-time sporting, subjective health status and resilience increase the likelihood to belong to the above-the-average group, while the two regular forms of sporting and mental fitness promote students to belong to the high-performing group. The level of subjective well-being decreases the likelihood to belong to both student groups. These support the assumption that sporting students are more engaged towards their studies and work as well and consider their studies as more meaningful. Such an attitude serves as a motivational factor for finishing their studies even more successfully, continuing their studies even at the doctoral level. These positive personality traits, values and attitudes that are also related to sporting define advantages in academic and personal lives and the labour market through the transfer-effect of sports.