The relationship between sportsmanship behavior and emotion regulation skills in sports science students: Mediation of perceived social support

Aim: This study aimed to examine the mediating role of perceived social support in the relationship between sportsmanship behavior and emotion regulation skills of sports science students. Material and Method: The research was conducted with the relational survey model, which is one of the quantitative research methods. The study group consisted of a total of 401 students, 176 women and 225 men, studying in sports sciences in the 2023-2024 academic year. "Personal Information Form", "Physical Education Lesson Sportsmanship Behavior Scale", "Athlete Emotion Regulation Scale", "Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale" were used as data collection tools. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS.27 package program and AMOS program. Results: While it is statistically significant that the perceived social support score predicts the sportsmanship behavior score and the emotion regulation score predicts the perceived social support score, it is not statistically significant that the emotion regulation score predicts the sportsmanship behavior score. As a result of the Sobel test, the partial mediation effect of family and friends sub-dimensions in the relationship between BYD and PDS sub-dimensions was found to be statistically significant. For sports science students; A significant difference was found in favor of women in the NDK and friend dimensions. In the BYD dimension, in the 3rd grade; A significant difference was found in favor of the 2nd grade participants in the family, friend and special person dimensions. A significant difference was detected in favor of the participants who were not athletes in a club in the family and friends dimension, in favor of the participants who played in the university team in the BYD dimension, and in favor of the participants who did not play in the university team in the suppression dimension. Conclusion: The mediation effect could not be studied because perceived social support predicted sportsmanship, emotion regulation skills predicted perceived social support, but emotion regulation skills did not predict sportsmanship. When the sub-dimensions of the scales are examined; It was determined that family and friend support had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between cognitive reorganization and displaying positive behaviors.