Investigation of judo athletes perception of success and happiness levels

The study aims to determine whether the relationship between the perception of success and happiness levels of judo athletes differ in terms of some demographic variables. The research group consisted of 314 licensed judo athletes who did sports within the body of Manisa Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports in the years 2021-2022.Perception of success was measured by an adapted version of "Success Perception Scale" (Roberts, Treasure and Balague, 1998) by Kazak and Çetinkalp (2006). Degree of happiness was measured by an adapted version of "Oxford Happiness Scale Short Form-OHS-S" (Hills and Argyle, 2002) by Doğan and Akıncı Çötok (2010). ANOVA and t-tests were used to analyse the effect of demographic variables on dependent variables in question. Group dfferences were analyzed with post-hoc tests. Education level was found to have a significant effect on athlethes' degree of happiness, for high school- and university gradute athlethes scoring higher compared to others (p<0,05). Athlethes with yellow belt and the brown belt were found to have significantly higher degree of happiness (p<0,05). No significant results were found according to the participants' gender, sports age, nationality level, training hour variables (p>0,05). Result, a significant positive correlation was found between perception of success and degree of happiness, it can be said that there is a significant relationship between education level and happiness levels of belt colors. It can be said that education level and belt color are important factors that can be considered on the success perception and happiness level of judo athletes. Keywords: Judo, athlete, perception of success, happiness.