An examination of goal commitment among students in the faculty of sports sciences

The purpose of this study was to examine the goal commitment levels of students in the Faculty of Sports Sciences. The study group consisted of 252 students from the Faculty of Sports Sciences who voluntarily participated, including 116 males (46%) and 136 females (54%). For the descriptive statistics of the participants, a demographic information form was used, and to assess goal commitment, the "Goal Commitment Scale," initially developed in nine items by Hollenbeck, Williams, and Klein (1989) and revised to five items by Klein, Wesson, Hollenbeck, and Wright (2001), was utilized. The scale was adapted into Turkish, and its validity and reliability were confirmed by Şenel and Yıldız (2016). Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS Statistics 23. Upon examining the skewness and kurtosis values of the data, it was determined that they fell within the range of +1.5 and -1.5, indicating a normal distribution (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013). Independent Samples T-Test was used for binary comparisons, and One-Way ANOVA was applied for comparisons involving more than two groups. Bonferroni Post Hoc Test was employed to identify differences between the variables. As a result, it was found that students who were licensed athletes had significantly higher goal commitment scores compared to those who were not. Significant differences were also observed among certain income groups in terms of goal commitment. Analyses based on parental status revealed that students with cohabiting parents had higher goal commitment scores than those whose parents were separated. In contrast, age, gender, and class level variables did not have a significant effect on goal commitment. These findings suggest that being a licensed athlete, income level, and family structure may have an impact on goal commitment.