An investigation of sports and different variables of secondary school students' attention control levels (Bayburt city example)

The aim of the study is to determine the variables that may affect the attention level of the students in secondary education. This study was conducted on a total of 2041 students, between the ages of 15 to 18, including 1022 girls and 1019 boys, who studied in Bayburt city center during 2016-2017 school year. Attention Control Scale, which was developed by Derryberry and Reed (2001) and adapted to Turkish by Akın et al (2013), was used to collect data. In the analysis of the data, T test was used to determine the relationship between the frequency distribution and the two independent variables and the attention control level; and Anowa variance analysis techniques were used to determine the relationship between the two variables and attention control level. The difference between the opinions of the groups was interpreted by considering the significance level of P: 0,05. According to the findings obtained, when the gender, school type, place they stayed together, number of siblings, monthly income level of family, place of residence, education level of parents, sports status and weekly exercising time were examined in terms of the variables and it was found that there was a significant difference between the average scores of the attention control scale. On the other hand, it was found that there is no significant difference between the average level of attention control in terms of the class level they are studying and the type of sports they are exercising. It was observed that male students had a lower level of attention control than female students, the students attending private high schools had a lower level of attention control than students attending other high schools, the students who live in dormitories had a lower level of attention control than the students staying in other places, the students who are the only sibling had a lower level of attention control than the students with two or more siblings, the students whose family income levels were below 1400 TL had a lower level of attention control than the other students with different monthly family income levels. It is also noteworthy in sports status that the level of attention control of the students who exercise is higher than the students who do not exercise and that the level of attention control increases parallel to the duration of weekly sports. It can be suggested that the finding of the positive effect of sports on attention control level suggests that sports activities should be used in order to be more successful in the learning process. It is also suggested to investigate the different variables that will affect the attention control levels in the students.