The effects of attending out-door sports on social integration

159SUMMARYThe purpose of this study is to explore the contribution level of thenature sport communitys on the social integration of their members who camefrom different socio-economic backgrounds, regions and cities of Turkey.The population of the research was composed of subjects who weremembers of the nature sports communities in the universities of Ankara. Thesample of the research was consisted of 587 university students who weremembers of the nature sports communities.Social Integration in Sports Scale, which is composed of 7 sub-factorsand developed by Yılmaz, Karli, & Yetim (2006) was used as the data collectioninstrument. The scale is comprised of two main sections. In the first section, therewere 18 questions seeking demografhic information from the subjects, and in thesecond section there were 32 items evaluating sports effect on social integration.In the statistical analysis of the data, frequency and percentage asdescriptive statistics was used. ANOVA was used in the analysis of effect ofdemographic characteristics such as; age, class, family income, location, residenceplaca, meeting frequency with friends and involving frequency to the activities, onthe sub-factors which evaluates the nature sports on social integration. To identifythe difference causing group as the result of ANOVA, Tukey HSD Test wasconducted. To display if any difference occred in the opinion of subjects about thebenefits of nature sports according to their gender t-test was conducted. In the160statistical analysis of the data x=.05 significance level was taken intoconsideration.The 44.8% of the subjects pointed that the social aspect of nature sport isimportant. There was significant difference in subjects oqinions about the effect ofnature sports on individual development according to their participation level tothe activities. Additionally, significant difference was identifid in subjects?opinions about the effect of nature sports on individual development,socialization, psychological development and moral development according totheir meeting frequency with their friends. Also, significant difference was foundin socialization and physical development aspect of nature sports according to thegender difference.Finally, research, which aimed to analyze the effects of participating tonature sports on the social integration of individuals, resulted that even subjectsvariying demographic profiles, sports have integrative role in society.Key Words: Social Integration, Outdoor sports, sport