The socio-economic factors affecting sports preferences of elementary school students in edirne

SUMMARY In the research, the socio-economical factors affecting the sportive preferences of 1457 licenced athletic students who study in elementary schools of Edirne and participated in the competitions in the 2005-2006 education year. The research data were obtained via questionnaires. The questionnaire used in the field research is composed of 33 questions. The validity and reliability studies of the questionnaires were made. The data obtained via field research were analysed by SPSS pocket programme. To evaluate the results of research Chi-Square interest analysis test was applied. 0,05 meaningness level was approved. According to the research?s results the socio-economic factors affecting the athletic student?s preferences which are the student?s sexes, ages, place of birth, place of live; their being with their families or not, family sizes, number of siblings, the school type, their class, the education background of their parents, their families? income levels, their dweling type, the age that they started sport, the class in which they started sport, their year of experience in sport, their making sport in a clup or not, their statues in the relevant sport branch, the sport branches that the athletic modelled by their family members and by the individuals of their environments choose are meaningful relationship with sportive preferences. The athletic students? preferences are concentrated in football, volleyball and basketball branches. The least preferred branches are karate and weight lifting. It is also found that the rate of the team sports being preferred is higher than the rate of the individual sports being preferred.