DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PHYSICAL FITNESS PROFILES OF MACEDONIAN ADOLESCENT IN URBAN AND RURAL AREAS IN STRUMICA, REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

2 Abstract: Anthropological characteristics of the children often have been subject of researching in the kinesiology, but still there is a small number of researches that studied the influence of the residential status among the physical fitness and anthropometrical characteristics, especially in our state. The theoretical and empirical research was conducted on a sample of 2097 participants, drawn from 9 primary schools from the Municipality of Strumica, Republic of Macedonia, from which 5 are situated in rural and 4 in urban environment. The differences in the variables between the participants with various residential statuses are analyzed with multivariate and univariate analysis of variant (MANOVA and ANOVA). The boys from rural environment achieve better results in many test for evaluation of fitness' level, have lower height, weight, percentage of body fat and index of body mass. The girls who go to school in urban environments, from the early school ages, have low systolic pressure and achieve better results in the fitness tests: sit - ups for 30 seconds and sit and reach, whereas the girls who go to school in rural environment achieve better results in the fitness tests: plate tapping, hang grip and shuttle running 4 x 100 meters. On the basis of the achieved results it could be assumed that the environmental factors in different environments contribute for differences in the anthropological characteristics of the participants.