Abstract:

The aim of this study is to develop an attitude scale (BETS) towards physical education lesson of secondary school students with Autism Spectrum disorder and to reveal students' attitudes in line with this developed scale. The scale, which was prepared during the scale development phase, was applied to 186 secondary school students with Autism Spectrum disorder, and EFA was performed with it. Afterwards, it was applied to 226 secondary school students again for the CFA for the remaining items. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed that the scale consisted of 22 items and these items were collected under a single factor. It was seen that the construct obtained as a result of the EFA was confirmed by the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The single factor was found to explain 60.288% of the total variance. The item factor loadings were found to range from .730 to .835. These analyses revealed that all the items in the scale could discriminate. In addition, as a result of ANOVA, the attitudes of the students were found to vary significantly depending on the extent to which they are affected by the ASD and whether they do sports or not. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of the unidimensional scale was found to be .96. Validity and reliability analyses revealed that the Physical Education Attitude Scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

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