Social interactional effect of participation in different sports by inmates of ILESA prison in OSUN State of Nigeria

Abstract

Social interaction is limited during imprisonment. Social exclusion hinders inmates’ social reintegration after release. It is widely believed that the impact of sports on social outcomes-cohesion and inclusion is greater than the limited evidence base suggests. The study employed experimental pretest-posttest control research design. This study was carried out over a 10 week period at the Ilesa prison in Osun State, Nigerian. 140 inmates were selected for the study. The respondents were grouped into four sports- athletics, badminton, table-tennis and volleyball. The social wellbeing domain aspect of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF) was used for the study. The data collected were analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The study showed that there is a correlation between participation in athletics (r=0.272), badminton (r=.163), table tennis (r=.373) and volley ball (r=.248) which is significant at (P