An examination of aggressive behaviors among football spectators: causes and influencing factors

The aim of this study is to examine the views of spectators who regularly watch amateur football matches in Bingöl province regarding the factors that cause aggression in football. A total of 204 individuals participated in the study on a voluntary basis. A personal information form related to the research topic and the "Football Spectator Aggression Scale" developed by Özmaden (2004) were used as data collection tools. Descriptive statistics including arithmetic mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentage distributions were presented to gain insight into demographic information and group-related questions. In order to determine the relationship between the data collected through the Football Spectator Aggression Scale and certain demographic variables, Independent Samples T-Test and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were applied. The data were analyzed using the SPSS Statistics 22 software package. The results were evaluated at a 95% confidence interval and a significance level of p<0.05. As a result of the study, it was found that participants who had negative opinions regarding the adequacy of laws, the sufficiency of penal sanctions, and the impartiality of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) had relatively high average scores across all sub-dimensions, although the differences were not statistically significant. It was also concluded that variables such as sports background, level of education, and the environment in which the match was followed had no significant effect on the factors causing aggression in football.