Comparıson of self esteem scores o individuals&team sport athletes and nonathletes

The purpose of the study was to determine whether there is any difference between self esteem scores of individuals who engaged in individual & team sports and non-athletes. Furthermore, self-esteem scores associated with age group, gender and years of playing experience variables were examined to determine the differences.Focus group consists of athletes & nonathletes of 13?20 years old individuals living in Ankara, Istanbul and Sakarya. Rosenberg's self-esteem scale was used to measure the self-esteem scores of individuals. The research data were analyzed by SPSS software.According to the results of the study, there was no significant difference between self-esteem scores of athletes and non-athletes. The same result was obtained for individual & team sport athletes and non-athletes, too. In addition, no statistically significant difference was found according to gender variable.The correlation of self-esteem scores of individuals between 13?16 and 17-20 years old was found to be statistically significant (p=0.000, p<0.05). Similarly, the correlation of self-esteem score and sports participation (p=0.027, p<0.05) was found to be statistically significant. Furthermore, the years of playing experience variable showed significant difference between group-1 (1-5 years of playing experience; =19.23) and group-3 (10-14 years of playing experience; =21.73) in favor of group-3; as well as between group-2 (6-9 years of playing experience; =19.15) and group-3 (10-14 years of playing experience; =21.73), also in favor of group-3.Keywords: Self-Esteem, Self-Concept, Indıvıdual Sport, Team Sport, Playing Experience