The food manner of elit and amateur footballers between the age of 15-17, self respect and research of personal specialities

Eating behavior is a phenomenon affected by psychological, physiological, and sociological factors. In every stage of human development, food and eating have played major roles in terms of survival. However, eating behavior may manifest itself in healthy or unhealthy under certain circumstances with the influences of individual factors. Adolescence is one of the development stages related to eating behavior and body image issues due to rapid changes in physical, social, and psychological features of youngsters. Additionally, psychosocial development of adolescents may explain possible problematic issues related to this developmental stage. In this stage, eating behavior may be transformed because of need for approval from their peers, desire to increase popularity by having physically attractive features. Adolescents may be engaged in unhealthy eating behaviors due to reaching their weight loss goals as well as muscle improvement. Because of the importance of eating behavior during adolescence, this study mainly focused on male adolescents' eating behavior, self-esteem, and basic personality features in addition to individual differences and information about nutrition. For the study, male soccer players between the ages of 15 and 17 from both elite and amateur football clubs were recruited and their data were compared by using certain measurement instruments for the research variables. 102 male soccer players from four different elite and amateur football clubs in İstanbul, Trabzon, and Kahramanmaras participated the study. For data collection, "Eating Attitude Test (EAT-40)", "Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale", "Basic Personality Inventory", "Personal and Demographic Information Form", "Nutritional Information Form" were used as measurement instruments. Based on the results of the study, eating attitudes were found as significantly different among elite and amateur soccer players. Eating attitude scores were found as higher among elitr soccer player than elite soccer players. Besides, self-esteem was found as moderate in two groups. Self-esteem were not found as correlated with eating attitudes and personality in this study. Eating attitudes were also found as significantly different based on weight and height, number of siblings, fathers' education level, neighborhood, type of school. Results related to personality features also indicated that amateur footballers reported significantly higher scores in openness to experience and negative valence subscales in Basic Personality Inventory. It also implies that amateur footballers in this study were more open to experience and less positive than elite footballers. In this study, the information about eating attitudes with psychosocial variables including self-esteem and personality were provided with the research results. Football is one of the best-known branches in Turkey. It is also a branch impressing individuals in both Professional and amateur levels. Because football is really popular in Turkey, male adolescents highly prefer as a sport branch and a type of physical activity. Therefore, the study is important in terms of detecting possible factors related to levels of footballers, their self-esteem levels, personality features, individual variables, and nutritional information. In order to provide appropriate support for elite and amateur footballers by considering the factors related their performances as well as well-being will be beneficial for both specialists and footballers. With the results, the study is viewed as contributive for further research and practice in related areas. Key words: Football, Eating Attitudes, Self-esteem, Personality, Adolescence