Examination of sustainable consumption behaviors of adult individuals who do sports regularly: A mixed method study

The aim of this study is to examine the level of sustainable consumption behaviors of adult individuals who regularly do sports, how the sustainable consumption behaviors of these individuals are affected depending on some socio-demographic parameters, and whether these individuals differ according to the preferred sports center (public and private) with the "exploratory sequential mixed method", one of the mixed research methods. Within the scope of the research, a total of 327 individuals, 163 female and 164 male, aged between 18-59, who do regular sports, were surveyed using the 5-point Likert-type Sustainable Consumption Behavior Scale developed by Doğan, Bulut, and Çımrın (2015), via Google Forms, and the data obtained were supported by qualitative data. Qualitative data were obtained from face-to-face interviews with 8 participants, 4 male and 4 female, who were voluntarily selected among the 327 participants who participated in the study, after explaining the purpose and scope of the study and signing the voluntary consent form. In the light of the data obtained, In the light of the data obtained, it was observed that the scores of women were higher than men in the sub-dimensions of sustainable consumption behavior, environmental awareness and savings (p<0.05), and that individuals exhibited more sustainable consumption behaviors as their age increased (p<0.05). It was observed that the scores obtained from sustainable consumption behavior, environmental awareness, non-essential purchasing and saving dimensions differed statistically significantly according to the graduation degree of the individuals (p≤0.05). In the sub-dimensions of sustainable consumption behavior, non-essential purchasing and reusability, it was observed that the scores of individuals who preferred public sports centers were higher than individuals who attended private sports centers (p≤0.05). In the reusability sub-dimension, individuals who have a license in any sport (past or present) have higher scores than those who do not have a license (p≤0.05). Individuals who attended the sports center between 6 months and 1 year had higher scores in all sub-dimensions of the scale than individuals who attended the sports center for 3 months (p≤0.05).