**Abstract**

The benefits of sports activities and all kinds of physical activities for well-being and feelings of happiness are important to investigate at various times of life. We studied adolescents to broaden the knowledge of well-being and feelings of happiness in the sample of sports-active and sports-inactive boys and girls. The EPOCH questionnaire was used for the research. We found statistically significant differences in the comparison of the individual qualities of social and emotional well-being: Engagement, perseverance, optimism and connectedness versus quality Happiness between sports-active and sports-inactive girls, sports-active and sports-inactive boys, between the level of sporting activity, where the level of sports does not matter because any sport brings significantly greater feelings of happiness for people who do sports in any way compared to people who do not do sports and do not engage in these activities. It is interesting to note that those who play sports six times a week experienced the greatest degree of happiness, and in the other qualities of well-being with the qualities of engagement, perseverance, optimism and connectedness, they reached statistically significantly better feelings than individuals without sports activities in their lives.

**Keywords:** engagement, perseverance, optimism, connectedness, happiness, adolescents, boys, girls, sporting activities

## **1. Introduction**

Being happy is the desire of the vast majority of people. Happiness is a composite of life satisfaction.

Happiness is a strong emotion that can be seen as a judgement of satisfaction with one's life or as an overweight of positive over negative feelings in one's emotional state [1]. The author stated that happiness centrally includes a positive evaluation of one's life or important aspects of it at the same time, and an implicit judgement that one's life is going well. This is the evaluation of a positive level of life, which we can describe as well-being. But the author's view [1] on this issue is that happiness includes a judgement of one's welfare, but it is not a judgement of one's happiness, so the explanation for this is that happiness and welfare are distinct but closely related.

In my opinion, happiness can be the outcome of well-being for someone, and well-being can result in feelings of happiness for someone.

### **1.1 Adolescence**

A critical period in human life is the period of being an adolescent. It is the phase of life that bridges childhood to adulthood, and experts mention the range of age from 10 to 19 years. The great majority of adolescents are included in the age-based definition of a child as stated in Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child [2], where the child is indicated as a person under the age of 18 years.

Why the critical period? Adolescence is characteristic of changes in psychological, social, moral, sexual and physical growth and maturation. In most cases, it is an unexpected birth of a new individual personality with personal integrity with strong feelings of belonging to peers and mates from their own age category. Authors [3] present that in adolescent, neurodevelopment occurs in brain regions associated with motivation, impulsivity and addiction. The adolescent years are characteristic of changes in body composition, physical fitness and behavioural changes in participation in physical activity, especially in adolescent girls [4–11]. Comparison of some opinions on perceiving one's body in the research by [6] shows that the research results revealed that the most satisfied with their body image were sports-active adolescent boys, and the highest pride in their own bodies in terms of attractiveness felt sports-active adolescent boys as well. Negative emotions and bad feelings about their appearance were statistically significantly experienced more by sports-inactive adolescents and even much more by girls.

Worrying trends in declining physical activity have been reported for several years [12]. The period of the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the deflection from the physical activity of young people [10] with the result that the biggest differences between the mean frequency score of doing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were in activities allied to sporting activity (Δ = .80). The curfew slowed outdoor activities and has also brought sudden changes in the lives of young active people. This was a time of uncertainty and stress. A significant decline in leisure time sports and exercise activities also presents research by [13]. A scoping review of 84 studies on the physical activity of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic from 1672 searched studies brought evidence of a decrease in physical activity [14]. Evidence in an article [15] reported significant decreases in physical activity, increases in sedentary behaviour and disrupted sleep schedules/sleep quality in children and adolescents. The decrease in physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic is a health concern [16]. The absence of a healthy lifestyle negatively influenced well-being. Students with poor lifestyles had higher anxiety, depression and stress [17]. Our personal experience is that many adolescents who were forcibly forced to stop their organised or nonorganized physical activity and sports due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have not returned to it today.

### **1.2 Well-being**

Well-being is an area of study, investigation and research in psychology and focuses on interpreting whether a person is functioning well and feeling well.

The term well-being appears as a link on Google in the number of 9,310,000,000 as of October 5, 2022. Here is the evidence that the interest in this term is currently enormous.

*Well-Being and Happiness Feelings in Sports-Active and Sports-Inactive Adolescents DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108957*

Most people are interested in a comfortable life. Most people are trying to enjoy life because people live for emotions and mostly for positive emotions. Well-being is the state of feeling healthy and happy, simply said feeling well in various areas, emotionally, physically and socially. The tendency to think positively brings greater emotional well-being. Being physically fit brings greater physical well-being. Having satisfying relationships and being surrounded by close people bring social well-being. Being emotionally, physically and socially fit is the way to well-being and quality of life.

### **1.3 Happiness**

Subjective well-being and life satisfaction are often called happiness. Happiness is related to positive emotions. For someone, happiness is not the result of having money and being rich. For someone, happiness is not the result of not having illnesses and being healthy. The feeling of being happy differs from person to person. Happiness is an emotional state that is characterised as a feeling in the present moment. Those who strive for an eternal feeling of happiness are often disappointed and ultimately sad because their expectations were not fulfilled. It should not be a goal in life of a person to feel happiness in every minute of life; happiness is not the permanent state of mind. People should rather be oriented to contentment, that is, satisfaction with life and well-being.

As Veenhoven [18] said, happiness is a state of mind and the degree to which a person evaluates the overall quality of his/her present life-as-a-whole positively.

If we assume that the experience of joy and happiness can improve life, then we can say that sporting activity improves life because sport brings joy, happiness and satisfaction with life and brings positive feelings to an individual. Emotions are also an integral part of exercising and sporting activities. Exercise reduces stress and increases the feeling of happiness [8]. The article by the author [19] presented that the literature on subjective well-being (SWB), which also included the area of happiness and various other components of subjective well-being, is among experts in large scale discussed and the components of SWB are harder to measure.

For one's certain pleasant state of mind can be tended to say that one is happy. Friendship connections and social support are important to people's happiness. In the article [20], the presence of happiness is described as a positive effect, with social connection, trust and wellness. Studies of thousands of people in the research work of [21] show the key to being happy. The best advice is to learn the hidden power of complete inner engagement, for which the author uses the term flow. Undertake things and tasks for your own sake and challenge yourself with tasks that require a high degree of skills and commitment.

### **1.4 Benefits of physical activity and sports for well-being and happiness**

Physical activity is defined [22] as a multifaceted movement of an individual that a person performs with their organs of movement. It is a physical activity stimulated by muscular work. With its effects, it contributes to the proper development of a person, plays a very important role in the field of ontogenesis and affects the overall growth and development of skeletal tissue. In addition to physical health, it also has beneficial effects on the mental health of a person.

The terminology of sport [23] characterises this term 'sport' as an organised, specific and competitive activity aimed at achieving maximum sports performance, thus significantly focusing on the difference between the terms sport and physical activity.

Physical activity also has a positive influence on the psychomotor development and psychological well-being of a person. The positive influence of sports helps improve the quality of life of an active participant. Two subjective dimensions of quality of life gave evidence [8] that sporting activity positively influenced the perception of the dimension of quality of life enjoyment and satisfaction and the dimension of global satisfaction with life among adolescents. Sports-active boys are statistically significantly more satisfied with the domain of quality of life enjoyment and satisfaction in comparison with sports-inactive boys (p = 0.027). In global satisfaction with life, the statistical difference between sports-active boys and sportsinactive boys (p < 0.001) and sports-active girls and sports-inactive girls (p = 0.026) was found.

Boys spent more time participating in sports activities than girls [24], and boys reported a higher perception of self-competence and global self-worth than girls. Both boys and girls who actively participated in sports activities were more likely to perceive a higher level of self-worth than sports-inactive boys and girls.

Adolescents studying high school have an increase in sedentary life due to the time devoted to the necessity of spending time in school and spending time learning the high school curriculum. Interventions that promote healthy lifestyles for all are people encouragement in physical activities and sports.

Adolescents, boys and girls who participated in after-school sports showed higher levels of quality of life perception in the research [25].

A systematic review [26] with 87 articles included in meta-analyses from the years 2006 to 2018 demonstrated strong evidence that physical activity improves the quality of life.

The results of studies conducted by Penedo and Dahn [27] have shown that physical activity interventions have beneficial effects on health-related quality of life.

## **2. Methods**

### **2.1 Study design and data collection**

### *2.1.1 Participants*

The sample consists of 216 students from secondary schools in Slovakia, mainly from schools located in the capital city of Bratislava (**Table 1**). The selection was intentional based on the accessibility. The determination of sports activity and sports inactivity was based on the level of participation in extracurricular sporting activities. We investigated the mode of sporting activity. Sports-active adolescents are those who are involved and participated in regularly organised sports (with club membership and perform sports activities more than twice a week for a total of at least 120 minutes). Sports-active adolescents are also those who are involved in sports regularly nonorganised, the so-called recreationally (without club membership, but more than twice a week for a total of at least 120 minutes). Sports-inactive adolescents are those who play sports only occasionally recreationally (irregularly) and those who do not engage in sporting activities.

The decimal age of sports-active boys was 17.37 (SD = 1.20), and in sports-inactive boys, the decimal age was 17.33 (SD = 1.13). The mean decimal age of sports-active

*Well-Being and Happiness Feelings in Sports-Active and Sports-Inactive Adolescents DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108957*


*The abbreviations in the whole text: n = number of participants or frequencies; % = percentage; cm = centimetres, kg = kilogrammes, SD = standard deviation.*

### **Table 1.**

*Representation of sports-active and sports-inactive male and female adolescents in the sample.*

girls was 17.61 (SD = .89), and in sports-inactive girls, the decimal age was 18.05 (SD = .92).

The amount 50 of sports-active boys is composed of boys who are involved in regularly organised sports and represent quantity 19, regularly nonorganized sports with quantity 15, regularly organised and regularly nonorganized sports with quantity 9, regularly organised and recreational occasional sports with quantity 2, and regularly nonorganized and recreational occasional sports with quantity 5 (**Table 2**).

The amount 51 of sports-inactive boys is composed of boys who are involved in sporting activities only occasionally recreationally (irregularly, less than twice a week and less than 120 minutes a week) with the quantity 27 and those who do not engage in sporting activities with the quantity 24 (**Table 2**).

The amount 61 of sports-active girls is composed of girls who are involved and participated in regularly organised sports and represent the quantity 4, regularly


**Table 2.**

*Mode and variety of the sporting activity, according to gender.*


**Table 3.**

*Body height and body weight of members from the sample.*

nonorganised sports with the quantity 32, regularly organised and regularly nonorganised sports with the quantity 1, and regularly nonorganised and recreational occasional sports with the quantity 24 (**Table 2**).

The amount 54 of sports-inactive girls is composed of girls who are involved and participated in sporting activities only occasionally recreationally (irregularly, less than twice a week and less than 120 minutes a week) with the quantity 32, and those who do not engage in sporting activities with the quantity 22 (**Table 2**).

Basic anthropometric data, such as body height and body weight, are presented in **Table 3**.

In a comparison of the range of performing a weekly sporting activity between sports-active and sports-inactive boys it is evident that a greater number of minutes were devoted to sports among sports-active boys 402.40 minutes per week (SD = 142.14) than among sports-inactive boys (recreational occasional sports) 41.77 minutes per week (SD = 42.03).

The ratio of this range of performing a weekly sporting activity between sportsactive girls and sports-inactive girls (occasional recreational sports) is 215.90 minutes per week (SD = 70.66) to 57.78 minutes per week (SD = 66.18). The frequency of sporting activity per week is shown in **Table 4**. Mostly 21.3% of persons from the sample


**Table 4.**

*Weekly frequency of performing the sporting activity in the entire sample.*


*Well-Being and Happiness Feelings in Sports-Active and Sports-Inactive Adolescents DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108957*

### **Table 5.**

*Weekly frequency of performing the sporting activity in sports-active and sports-inactive boys and girls.*

did not do any sporting activity or the same percentage performed sporting activities three times a week. The smallest number of people who performed weekly sporting activity with the highest frequency seven times a week was 7 representing 3.2%.

Dividing the sample into sports-active boys, sports-inactive boys, sports-active girls and sports-inactive girls, the presented numbers and percentages are created that are presented in **Table 5**.

In total, 173 (80.1%) members of the entire sample (n = 216) felt mostly healthy and 43 (19.9%) felt not mostly healthy (3 sports-active boys—1.4%; 11 sports-active girls—5.1%; 16 sports-inactive boys—7.4%; 13 sports-inactive girls—6.0%).

### *2.1.2 EPOCH questionnaire*

Happiness is difficult to measure and investigate due to its subjective nature. To measure social and emotional well-being, which includes the happiness domain, we used the EPOCH Measure of Adolescent Well-being Questionnaire [28], which contains 20 items from individual qualities of social and emotional well-being. Many studies attest to the validity of subjective self-report measures, where happiness also belongs [29–32].

The EPOCH measure of adolescent well-being created by [28], as a brief, reliable and positively worded multidimensional measure, is the contribution to empirical testing for the well-being of adolescents.

The EPOCH well-being measure orientates to five domains of positive characteristics in adolescents that could foster well-being, physical health and other positive outcomes in adulthood.

The findings support the EPOCH measure as an adequate scale and inform about sensitive approaches to comparing mean scores across cultures [33]. The reliability and validity of the measure for the Slovakian adolescents were realised [34]. The findings of several studies [35–37] provide a recommendation based on empirical support for using the EPOCH questionnaire to investigate adolescent well-being.

The EPOCH Measure for Adolescent Well-being is a brief multidimensional measure that contributes to the empirical testing of well-being to assess adolescent positive psychological functioning. EPOCH consists of five subcomponents, five domains, five different positive characteristics that together support the assessment of a higher level of well-being [28]:


Each quality consisted of four items that the respondent rated on a FIVE-point Likert scale (**Tables 6** and **7**).


**Table 6.**

*Distribution of items or determining individual qualities of social and emotional well-being in the EPOCH questionnaire.*


**Table 7.**

*Evaluating scale in the EPOCH questionnaire.*

*Well-Being and Happiness Feelings in Sports-Active and Sports-Inactive Adolescents DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108957*

### *2.1.3 Methods of processing and evaluating the data obtained*

We used basic mathematical-statistical methods and the IBM SPSS Statistic Data Editor statistical program, Version 27, to process the data obtained. We used the Shapiro-Wilk test to determine the normality of the data distribution. We found that the normality of the data distribution did not apply to most of the comparison groups. We used the Mann-Whitney U-test to compare two independent groups for which the normality of data does not apply. Wilcoxon test was used to compare two paired samples and check whether the mean values of two dependent groups differ significantly from each other. We also used the Microsoft Excel program to process the results into graphs.

### **3. Results**

The results verify whether in this research design of measures of well-being and happiness in adolescent boys and girls, sports-active and sports inactive boys and girls we can find some 'gender gap' or 'sports-active versus sports-inactive gap'. In this results section, we compared the research samples between boys and girls, sportsactive and sports-inactive boys, sports-active and sports-inactive girls for each factor from EPOCH Measures for adolescent well-being and for overall well-being, too. In each factor, we compared each item (statement) of the factor between the mentioned research samples. It is necessary to write that the score given for each item of the questionnaire depends on the final decision of the individual and is given according to the momentary emotional condition of the individuals.

### **3.1 The factor: Engagement**

Engagement involves intense concentration, emotional involvement, psychological absorption, focus and commitment [21]. Engagement influences happiness [38]. Engagement is about dedication, devotion, enthusiasm and passion. Being engaged describes being proactively involved in some activities, being there not just with the head, but also with the heart.

### *3.1.1 Comparison of engagement in boys and girls*

Between the statements on factor engagement, we did not find statistically significant differences in the comparison boys versus girls (**Figure 1**).

In each statement from the factor, engagement had adolescent boys higher scores of evaluations than adolescent girls. It seems that boys when they are involved in some activity, which they like, are a little bit more engaged in than girls and are more absorbed in what they are doing with the difference in comparison between boys and girls Δ = .18 (in favour of boys). The highest score from the factor engagement for both boys and girls is assigned to the item E1 ´When I do an activity, I enjoy it so much that I lose track of time´ with the difference in the score comparison between boys and girls Δ = .12 (in favour boys).

### *3.1.2 Comparison of engagement in sports-active and sports-inactive boys*

In comparison, between the score of items from the factor engagement and the overall factor engagement, we found the statistical difference at the 5% level of

### **Figure 1.**

*Engagement: Partial statements and overall factor in boys and girls.*

### **Figure 2.**

*Engagement: Partial statements and overall factor in sports-active boys and sports-inactive boys.*

significance only in item E2 ´I get completely absorbed in what I am doing´ (U = 964, p = .027) between scores of sports-active boys and sports-inactive boys with the higher evaluation of own engagement in sport-active boys (**Figure 2**).

A comparison of the assigned scores for the individual items of the engagement factor in sports-active boys shows that there are also statistically significant differences in the assigned scores in up to five comparisons. The result of the statistical comparison of the third item E3 with the first item E1 shows the significance Z = 3.012, p = .003. The fourth item E4 with the first item E1 shows the significance *Well-Being and Happiness Feelings in Sports-Active and Sports-Inactive Adolescents DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108957*

Z = 3.770, p < .001. The third item E3 with the second item E2 shows the significance Z = 3.363, p = .001. The fourth item E4 with the second item E2 shows the significance Z = 5.112, p < .001. The fourth item E4 with the third item E3 shows the significance Z = 3.019, p = .003. The highest difference between the individual items is the difference between the second item E2 and the fourth item E4 (E2 – E4 = Δ = .96) where higher score is in the second item.

In a comparison of the scores for the items of engagement in sports-inactive boys, the statistical significance was found in four comparisons: E3 to E1 (Z = 3.832, p < .001); E4 to E1 (Z = 2.819, p = .005); E3 to E2 (Z = 3.292, p = .002); E4 to E2 (Z = 3.138; p = .002).

There is no statistical significance in the overall factor engagement—the mean of (E1 + E2 + E3 + E4)/4—between sports-active and sports-inactive boys.

### *3.1.3 Comparison of engagement in sports-active and sports-inactive girls*

Between sports-active and sports-inactive girls, we found one more statistically significant difference than between sports-active and sports-inactive boys (the ratio is 1:2) in comparison of engagement items. The overall factor engagement reached a statistical difference at the 5% level of significance (**Figure 3**).

Statistically significant differences in the assigned scores are in comparison to the items: E2 ´I get completely absorbed in what I am doing´ (U = 1151.500, p = .004); E3 ´I get so involved in activities that I forget about everything else´ (U = 1264, p = .027). The overall factor ´Engagement´ shows significance (U = 1265.5, p = .032) compared to sports-active and sports-inactive girls. Sports-active girls are significantly more engaged when they do activities.

The level of evaluation of individual items from the factor of engagement among sports-active girls shows such a difference that it reaches to have three statistical significances of the differences in evaluation: E4 to E1 (Z = 2.518, p = .012); E3 to E2 (Z = 3.124, p = .002); E4 to E2 (Z = 4.133, p < .001).

In the comparison, the assigned score for individual items from factor engagement among sports-inactive girls is found to have four statistically significant differences in

**Figure 3.**

*Engagement: Partial statements and overall factor in sports-active girls and sports-inactive girls.*

### **Figure 4.**

*Engagement: Partial statements, and overall factor in sports-active boys, sports-inactive boys, sports-active girls and sports-inactive girls.*

evaluation: E2 to E1 (Z = 3.184, p = .001); E3 to E1 (Z = 4.155, p < .001); E4 to E1 (Z = 3.781, p < .001); E3 to E2 (Z = 2.263, p = .024).
