Secondary school students participating and not participating in school sports examining school attachment and socialization levels

The purpose of this study; The aim is to examine the levels of school attachment and socialization of secondary school students who attend and do not participate in inter-school competitions and sports organizations studying in formal education institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Education. The research group of the study consists of a total of 940 secondary school students selected by convenience sampling method, including 470 student athletes who participated in school sports competitions and competitions in Bilecik in the 2022-2023 academic year and 470 students who did not participate in any sports competitions. As a data collection tool in the study, the demographic information form created by the researcher was used by Fredriks et al. (2004) and Turkish adaptation study by Çengel, Totan and Çöğmen (2017) and the Socialization Scale developed by Şahan (2007) were used. Considering the findings of the study, it was determined that there was no difference in the school loyalty and socialization scores of the participants depending on whether the sport was a team or individual sport. When we look at the sports activities of the participants, it is seen that individuals who participate in school sports have higher cognitive and affective sub-dimensions and socialization scores. The fact that the socialization scores of students who participate in extracurricular activities and school sports competitions are higher than those who do not participate in any sports activities reflects the fact that sports should be used as a socialization tool. When students' school attachment scores were examined by age groups, it was determined that the arithmetic average was higher in younger age groups, while school attachment scores decreased in older age groups.