Читать книгу Deporte e Inclusión Social. Herramientas para el trabajo con grupos humanos. Sport and Social Inclusion: Tools for working with human groups - Dolores Limón Domínguez - Страница 38

There is no unambiguous definition of social functioning. The concept is mentioned in several publications, but it is not explained exactly what it means and what factors make up social functioning (Pohjolainen, 2014; Metsävainio 2013).

The publication of the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL, 2020b) mentions that the whole of social functioning consists of dynamic interactions between the individual, the social network, the environment and the community. This aspect of functional capacity manifests itself, for example, as social activity and experiences of inclusion (THL, 2020a).

Social background factors in health are the conditions in which people are born; grow up, live, work and age (Lääkäriliitto, 2016).

According to Pynnönen (2006, p. 5, p. 12):

Social networks define and reinforce meaningful social roles through opportunities for participation. Social roles make you feel valued, belong to something and feel committed. These emotions and roles are positively associated with quality of life and experience of ability, as well as lower rates of depressive symptoms. Participating in productive activities, such as gardening and volunteering, can maintain feelings of ability and usefulness and strengthen a sense of life control. Feeling useful and capable of oneself can be a factor that manifests the positive effects of social activity.

Seniors who participate in physical activity are more interacting with their families and loved ones and have better health, ability to work, and more stable mental health. Participants in the sport also had a better level of financial success as well as quality of leisure. Oh, A-R. & Yi, E-S. (2017) found in their study that health determinants such as fun, maintaining health, and stress relief had a large effect on motivation to participate in exercise.

“Social networks build a social identity, self-esteem and enable the use of resources for seniors. A social network can include relatives, friends, hobby relationships, and other human relationships” (Partala 2009, p. 17).

Recreational football is intended to offer seniors the opportunity for a low-threshold form of exercise where previous special skills in sports such as golf or volleyball are not required, but fitness football can be played without previous sporting background or experience in football (Julin 2019a).

In team sports, the social side of physical activity also comes to the fore, which offers seniors the opportunity to socialize alongside physical activity. The Danes have developed a form of low-threshold training from football and called it recreational football. (Krustrup et al., 2010).