The effect of secondary school students' doing sports on PEER relationship and socialization

Sport is a main determinant that improves peer relationships and contributes significantly to socialization in many age groups. This strong effect of sports provides significant gains to individuals of all ages. In addition to its psychological, physiological and mental effects, it has a serious effect on socialization. In this study, it is aimed to examine the effect of secondary school students' state of doing sports on peer relations and socialization. Questionnaire technique, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the research. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, data were collected online. The study population consisted of secondary school age students in Turkey, the sample of the participating from different provinces with easily accessible sampling method was created in 2210 a total of 3534 students, including 1324 men women. In the collection of research data, the "Peer Relations Scale" consisting of 18 items developed by Kaner (2002) in order to examine the relationships between adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 and the "Sports and Socialization Scale" consisting of 35 items developed by Şahan (2007) were used. In order to evaluate the normality of the data, kurtosis and skewness values were examined and it was determined that the data showed a normal distribution. Independent t test, one-way Anova test, correlation analysis and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The reliability coefficients of the scales were found as 89 and 84. As a result, age, gender, family income level, regular sports, the duration of regular sports, the type of sports involved, the number of siblings, having an athlete license, the class in which they study, the sport status, the sport orientation, the status of the parents and the survival of the father. Statistically significant differences were found. No statistically significant difference was found according to the living status of the mother. A low level positive relationship was found between peer relationships and sports and socialization. In general, participating in sports positively affects peer relationships and contributes to socialization in secondary school students. It is recommended to increase sports activities for secondary school students.