This study purposed to This study tries to understand rural old women’s culture based on their experiences of practice in life sports. In order to fulfill such a purpose of this study, I have selected 8 rural old women at the ages of 65~79, who we...
This study purposed to This study tries to understand rural old women’s culture based on their experiences of practice in life sports. In order to fulfill such a purpose of this study, I have selected 8 rural old women at the ages of 65~79, who were recommended to me as they continuously participated in life sports for more than one our per session, more than once a week, for one year or more than one year, and I have carried out deep interviews with them via an ethnography approach.
With the recommended participants in the study, deep interviews were carried out by appropriately mixing unstructured and semi-structured forms for use. The contents of the interviews were recorded and transcribed with portable recorders under the participants’ agreement, and a collaborative method of analysis was used in which the participants checked the results of the information collection via non-participatory observation and documents. In addition, as there were unclear parts of the participants’ experiences due to unsatisfactory earlier interviews, I asked supplementary questions up to saturation via subsequent interviews and continuous comparison. As for data analysis, continuous comparative analyses were performed simultaneously with data collection, following the procedure consisting of data abbreviation, data allocation, conclusions, and verification in Miles and Huberman’s (2000) qualitative data analysis. Consequently, total 40 concepts, 12 sub-categories, and 4 categories were derived.
From the results of this study, it has turned out with the following details that the rural old women’s participation in life sports as social minority for the purpose of health promotion and life quality enhancement is increasing and that various factors work in the practice of exercising.
First, this study has found out that the motivations for the rural old women’s involvement in life sports include physical aging, being frequently sick, desire for freedom from stress, and curiosity.
Second, as for the worrying factors for the selection of life sports among the rural old women, it has been found out that the reasons for hesitating the participation in life sports include difficulty in participating while working, unavailable exercise time, lack of information about the effects of exercising, and lack of the recognition of sports programs, and that the mixed existence of similar kinds of sports causes confusion. Lastly, fear for a hurt from a fall and burden of fitness are included in the factors.
Third, the factors for the continuation of the practice of exercise among the rural old women include changes of intimates’ recognition, of self-recognition, and of physical states, and interesting factors due to stress-freedom via the joy of sports and meeting with peer old people. Also, pride in senior sports, exemplary practice of exercising with their sons and daughters, and the public office led programs are the most important factors as they play the role of social support.
Fourth, the interfering factors with exercise practice among the rural old women include places and members of exercise, boredom of similar programs, problems of life sport leaders’ qualification, exercise damages, burden of fitness due to aging, difficulty in memorizing motions, and conflicts with peer old people.
The practice of life sports among the rural old women was contributed to building a course in which their own culture was formed and developed. Rural old women are placed in more particular situations than common old women. That is to say, they cannot help being vulnerable to exercise practicing due to the lack of information about health and welfare, compared to general old women living in cities. Thus, the perspective of the practice of life sports for the purpose of the health promotion among rural women who are placed in the farthest side of the national health promotion should be applied in consideration of physical, psychological, and environmental situations of rural areas. We believe that this study can be used as a basic material for the extension of the foundation of life sports among rural old women.