Recreational leadership and social integration: An analysis of the behaviors of faculty of sports sciences students

This study analyzes the impact of recreational leadership behaviors of students studying at the Faculty of Sports Sciences on social integration. The study focuses on factors such as the types of recreational activities in which students participate, the frequency of participation in recreational activities, recreational leadership behaviors, and the levels of social integration of the students. The population and sample of the study consist of students enrolled in the Faculty of Sports Sciences at Batman University. A total of 318 students, 164 male and 154 female, participated in the study. To collect data, a Personal Information Form, the Recreational Leadership Scale, and the Social Integration Scale in Sports were applied through Google Forms. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 23 software. To determine whether the data followed a normal distribution, skewness and kurtosis values were evaluated, and the results obtained were found to be within the ±1 range. In all analyses, the significance level was accepted as 0.01 and 0.05, and the results were interpreted based on these levels. As a result, strong and significant relationships were found between the leadership styles of the students and the developmental dimensions of individuals. In particular, the high correlations between democratic leadership and personal development and socialization suggest that the democratic leadership style positively contributes to both individual and social development. This finding can be explained by the fact that democratic leadership encourages participation, increases the individual’s self-confidence, and supports social interactions. In contrast, the relatively low correlations between autocratic leadership and the sub-dimensions suggest that autocratic leadership has a more limited effect on individual development.