Relationships between social integration, sports participation and academic achievement

The aim of this thesis study is to reveal the relationship between social integration, sports participation and academic achievement of students studying at Rize Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University and to determine whether different variables make a difference on students' social integration. The population of the study consisted of (N=18,130) students studying at Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, while the sample group of the study consisted of (n=674) students within the scope of convenience sampling method. Descriptive-relational survey model was utilized in the study. Data were collected from the students in the study using electronic forms and face-to-face survey technique. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: personal information form and social integration in sport scale. The normality assumptions of the data were examined and it was seen that they did not have a normal distribution. In this context, descriptive statistics, Man Whitney U test, Kruskall Wallis test and Pearson Product Moment correlation were used in the analysis of the data in line with the mean scores of 674 students' answers to the scales. The data were tested at α= 0.05 significance level. When the results obtained in the thesis study are examined in the light of the analyzes, it is seen that there are significant differences in the physical development and moral development sub-dimensions of the social integration sub-dimensions of the students according to the gender variable. Similarly, based on sports participation status, it is seen that there are significant differences in personal development, physical benefit, psychological development, moral development and emotional development sub-dimensions of social integration. Pairwise Comparisons test was conducted to determine between which groups there were differences. Pearson Product Moment correlation test was performed to determine the relationship between social integration, sports participation and academic achievement, and the results showed that there was a weak positive relationship between social integration and sports participation, and there was no relationship between social integration and sports participation and academic achievement.