The effect of participation of recreational activities of individuals engaged with electronic sports on loneliness levels

This study was carried out to examine the effect of the participation of individuals engaged in electronic sports in recreational activities on their loneliness levels. Quantitative method was used in the study. Personal information form developed by the researcher, the Recreation Participation Scale, of which the validity and reliability study was conducted by Kulaksızoğlu et al. (2003), and the Loneliness Scale, which was developed by Russell, Peplau, and Cutrona, (1980) and whose validity and reliability studies were conducted by Demir (1989), were used as data collection tools. 702 high school students voluntarily participated in the study in the Hendek district of Sakarya province in the 2019-2020 academic year. The analysis of the obtained data was made using the SPSS 25.0 program, and since the results showed normal distribution, T and Anova Tests from parametric tests were used. In addition, correlation and descriptive statistics (number, percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation) were also used for data analysis. According to the results obtained with the scales in the study, it was seen that there was a significant and positive relationship between the recreation participation scale and the loneliness scale. For individuals, it was concluded that electronic sports is not important as an escape from loneliness and as a recreational activity, but only for obtaining information about electronic sports.