Examination of mental endurance levels of sports high school students in terms of demographic variables

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the mental endurance levels of sports high school students in terms of demographic variables. Material and Method: A total of 358 sports high school students, 120 female and 238 male, studying in the 2021-2022 academic year in Gaziantep province, participated in the study voluntarily. Relational screening model was used in our study. ''Mental Endurance Inventory in Sports'' and twelve questions (gender, age, education level, sports branch, sports age, club player, school team player, nationality status, weekly training time, mother and father's education level, economic income level) created by the researcher were used. Personal Information Form was used. ''Mental Endurance Inventory in Sport'' developed by Sheard, Golby and Van Wersch (1) and adapted into Turkish by Altıntaş was used to measure the mental endurance of athletes (1,2). Results: According to our data results, independent sample t-test or Mann Whitney-U test, one-way analysis of variance (Anova) and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were used to test the assumption of normal distribution of the scores related to the general and sub-factor of the scale for the comparison of more than two groups, depending on the distribution of the data and whether the groups were balanced. Statistics were performed with SPSS 25 package programme and statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.05 in all evaluations. Conclusion: According to the findings obtained, no statistically significant difference was found between the mental endurance levels of sports high school students studying in the 2021-2022 academic year and the variables of gender, age, branch (individual-team), national athlete, school team and club player, mother and father's education level, family economic status. It was seen that there was a difference in the sub-dimension of confidence and continuity according to the variables of education level, years of sport, weekly training time (p>0.05). Keywords: Studen, Sport, Sport Psychology, Mental Toughness, Mental Training