American Annals of the Deaf

Abstract:

The researchers' primary purpose was to determine which independent predictors affect the probability that physical education (PE) will be popular among teenagers who are deaf or hard of hearing; that they will consider PE important and undemanding; that they will feel comfortable with PE; and whether they will be disappointed when a PE class is canceled. Three predictors were confirmed: (a) teenagers' sports participation (competitive versus recreational versus no sports); (b) gender (boys versus girls); (c) father (participating in sports versus not participating). Sports participation significantly affected evaluation of the difficulty of PE: Teenagers who played no sports were more likely to rate PE as a demanding subject than teenagers who played a sport competitively. Additionally, sports participation significantly affected evaluation of a canceled PE class: Teenagers who played a recreational sport were less likely to be happy about a canceled class.