Investigating Student's Viewpointson the Effect of Peer Groups and Sports on Education and Training Process

The Environmental social factors such as peer groups and sports increase individual enjoyment andhelp them toevolve. Peer groups, physical activities, and sports might be effective factors on accelerating teenagers and youth socialization andpsycho-social evolution. University and school play an important role in joining the students into peer groups and sport teamsand as a dynamic factor in social development and evolution. The purpose of this study was to investigate the students’ points of view of the effect of peer groups and sports on education and training process. This analyticalcross-sectional study wasperformed on406 Yazd University students in 2010-2011 academic year. The students were selected using stratified random sampling and completed a researcher-made questionnaire with a Cronbach Alpha of 82.7%. Descriptive statistics such as mean, medium and standard deviation were calculated and Chi Square, Pearson correlation coefficient, t-test, and one-Way ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses. Resalts: The results, statistically significant, indicated that 88% of the students considered peer groups and 78.2 % considered sports as highly effective factorson education and training process (p≤ 0.01). Among the demographic variables, only the marital status had a significant relationship with peer groups and sports. Also mother’s occupation had a significant relationship with peer groups. There was no significant relationship between other variables and the mentioned social variables. The students’ points of view showed that peer groups and sports have a very high effect on education and training process thus leading to the improvement of social relationship and increasinglearning in different groups. Therefore, strengthening the peer groups and sport teams in educational environments has a very important influence on socialization of teenagers and youth thereby facilitating the acquisition of life skills and learning process and thus the education and training development in society