Abstract:
The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that affect the participation of high school students in athletics sports in Lideta Sub-city, Addis Ababa. A 'sports participant' is an athlete who engages in some way in a sporting activity or event. The students' perceptions of athletics sport participation make them elite athletes through a suitable environment, sports facilities, parental support, socioeconomic influences, and teacher motivation. A descriptive research design was used for this study, which employed a mixed research approach. The total population of the study subjects was 2762 from the three high schools. There were 349 study participants selected as a sample. The collected data was entered and computed using SPSS version 20.0 software. The sample selection method employed a random sampling technique from Lideta Sub-City high schools. The methods of data analysis were descriptive statistical techniques, namely frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The findings show that the students were not satisfied with the sports facilities and equipment, their family's socioeconomic status, or the teachers’ motivation demanded by their school environment. The researcher recommends that this research contribute to the existing literature on student participation in athletics sports in the Ethiopian context and provide insights for educators, policymakers, and school administrators to promote more student engagement in school athletics sports events. Future studies could further explore interventions and initiatives to improve student participation and assess their effectiveness in high schools.
