Investigation of athletes' mental training skills, self-efficiency, struggle and anxiety in sports

The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes of high school students with special needs and Anatolian high school students towards physical education classes, and to identify whether there are differences between the two groups in terms of their leisure time management. The study group consists of a total of 334 students, including 77 students from a special education high school and 257 students from a general high school, all of whom were enrolled in two different types of high schools located in the central Yüreğir district of Adana province, affiliated with the Ministry of National Education during the 2024–2025 academic year. During the research, the "Physical Education Course Attitude Scale" developed by Güllü and Güçlü (2009) and the Turkish version of the "Leisure Time Management Scale" adapted by Akgül and Karaküçük (2015) were administered to the participants. In addition to descriptive statistics, parametric tests such as the independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for comparing group mean scores across more than two groups, and Pearson correlation analysis for examining the relationships between variables were used to analyze the data. A significant and positive relationship was found between attitudes toward physical education classes and leisure time management. Based on these findings, it has been determined that physical education classes not only contribute to physical development but also play a supportive role in individuals' emotional and social development. In this context, physical education classes are expected to play an important educational and psychosocial role for both students with special needs and those with typical development.