Examination of the relationship between female athletes' views on gender equality and their fear of negative evaluation

This study aimed to examine the relationship between female athletes' views on gender equality and their fear of negative evaluation. This study is a descriptive research based on the relational analysis technique. This study is conducted with 313 elite female athletes living in the Mediterranean region (Antalya-Burdur). The probability sampling method was used to select the research group. In this study, the "Gender Equality Scale" and "Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale" were implemented in separate forms as data collection tools. Collected data were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 17.0 software. As a result of the normality tests (Kolmogorov- Smirnov, and Shapiro-Wilk), it was determined that the total scores obtained from the scales did not show a normal distribution. To that end, in the present study, Spearman Correlation Test, Mann-Whitney U Test, Kruskal Wallis Test from non-parametric tests; and Bonferroni Test from Post Hoc tests was performed to determine which group caused the significant difference between the groups found as a result of the analysis. Moreover, frequency, percent, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation were used to analyze the data. The significance level was determined as p<0.05. According to the findings of the research, significant differences between the sub-dimensions of the gender equality scale in accordance with the variables of age, education degree, marital status, and the answers given to the question "Have you ever heard of the concept of gender?" were found, while no significant differences were found between brief fear of negative evaluation scale. There was no significant difference between the answers given to the question of income status, the settlement they grew up, and answers to the question "Have you been exposed to gender inequality in the sports environment?" and views on gender equality and fear of negative evaluation scale. In addition, according to the results of the Spearman Correlation Analysis, a moderate, positive, significant relationship (r=,123; p<0,05) between the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE) and the Understanding that Considers Male as Superior (UtCMS) from the sub-dimensions of the Gender Equality Scale; A positive, moderate, insignificant relationship (r=,074; p>0,05) between BFNE and the Understanding that Subjects Females to Males (UtSMF) from the sub-dimensions of the Gender Equality Scale; A positive, moderate and significant relationship (r=,5333; p<0,05) between UtCMS and UtSMF was found. As a result, according to the study, it can be said that age, education degree, marital status, and whether to have heard of the concept of gender before are related to gender equality views, while income status, the settlement they grew up, and the variables of exposure to gender inequality in the sports environment are not related to both gender equality views and negative evaluation levels.