Abstract:

This research aims to determine the predictive effect of attitude towards sports on mental well-being. The sample of study consists of 120 male and 100 female participants who are studying at the Faculty of Sport Sciences of Gazi University in 2018-2019 spring term. The personal information form, the Scale of Attitude towards Sport, which was developed by Şentürk (2014), and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale, which was developed by Tennant (2007) and adapted by Kendal (2015), were used as data collection tools. Cronbach alpha values that were received from the data set were calculated to be .97 and .86 for the scales, respectively. With the Shapiro-Wilk test, it was found that skewness and kurtosis values showed normal distribution of the data. In the analysis of the data, One-Way ANOVA, Independent-Samples T Test, Pearson Correlation and Simple Linear Regression Analysis were used. As a result of the analyses made, the attitudes of the participants towards sports were found to be below the average (X ¯= 2.13) and their mental well-being levels were high (X ¯=4.06). The attitudes of the participants towards sports display a significant difference in favor of the male students when gender variable is considered, t (218) = -2.90, p <.05. When the department variable is taken into consideration, it is observed that the attitudes of the participants in the sports management department towards sports (X ¯=2.49) were significantly higher than those who are studying in the departments of coaching training (X ¯=2.39) and physical education and sports teaching (X ¯=1.92), F(3,216)=4.66, p<.05. When the mean score of Mental Well-being Scale was taken into consideration, there was not any significant difference according to the gender and department variables. Examining the dual and partial correlations between the students’ attitudes towards sports (predictor variable) and mental well-being (predicted), it was determined that there was no significant relationship between predictor and predicted variables (R = 0.44, R2 = 002, p> .51). Considering the regarding variable, it is determined to explain 02% of the total variance.

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