An investigation of the relationship between middle school students' attitudes towards physical education course and their sense of belonging to the school

This study aimed to examine the relationship between secondary school students' attitudes towards physical education and sports lessons and their sense of belonging to the school. A total of 980 students, 465 boys and 515 girls, studying in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades of nine public secondary schools in the Korgan district of Ordu province in the 2022-2023 academic year, participated in the population of the research conducted in the relational scanning model. SPSS 22.0 program was used to analyze the data collected within the scope of the research. Cronbach's Alpha internal consistency coefficients were examined to determine the reliability level of the scale data. While Independent Samples T test was used to compare the scale scores according to gender, school type and participation in the school team, Multiple Linear Regression analysis was used to examine the effect of the level of school belonging on attitudes towards physical education and sports. There was a positive and significant relationship below the moderate level between the students' attitude levels towards physical education and sports and their level of school belonging, between their attitude levels towards physical education and sports and their total psychological belonging level to the school, and their level of attitude towards physical education and sports lesson and their level of rejection feeling. It was determined that there was a negative and significant relationship between the two. In this study, when we look at the school belonging scale according to the grade in which the students study, it is seen that it is significant and the school belonging level of 7th grade students is higher than other grades. It has been determined that students with high grade point averages in both the attitude towards physical education and sports scale and the school belonging scale have high attitudes towards physical education lessons and this positively affects their belonging to their schools. According to the data obtained from the research results, it is seen that as the attitude towards physical education and sports lessons increases, the sense of belonging to the school increases and the feeling of rejection decreases.