Investigation of the attitudes and opinions of Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School students on sporting activities of mental disabled individuals

This study was conducted to examine the attitudes and views of Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School students. students towards the sportive activities of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Convergent parallel design, one of the mixed research methods, was used in the study. Personal Information Form developed by the researchers, "Attitude Scale towards Sports Activities of Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities" developed by Esentürk and Yarımkaya (2016) and three semi-structured interview questions determined by the researchers were used as data collection tool. In the study, the study group consisted of 177 students in total, the Department of Child Development and Education (108) and the Department of Patient and Elderly Services (69), continuing their education in Bulanık Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in Bulanık in Muş and the qualitative study consists of a total of 170 students. SPSS 22.0 statistical program was used in the analysis of quantitative data in the research, descriptive statistics and Shapiro-wilk and Kolmogorov smirnov normality tests were used in the analysis of the data. Since the data did not show normal distribution, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests which are non-parametric tests were applied. Content analysis technique was used in the analysis of qualitative data. In the mixed method findings obtained, it was found that the participants had positive and high attitudes in the scale questions within the questions about socialization, personality and the effect on health. However, the positive expressions they used in the sub-themes of breaking the walls, developing my personality, physical impact status and well-being were determined as the converging aspects. However, it was determined that the participants used negative expressions in the sub-themes of building a wall, I cannot develop my personality, ineffectiveness and no negative attitudes were found in the quantitative findings. As a result, it has been determined that although the participants have high positive attitudes in quantitative data, they have negative attitudes in qualitative findings. It is thought that our study will contribute to the literature due to the limited number of studies in the literature on the effects of mixed and sports on individuals with mental disabilities.