Comparison of the loneliness levels of youth by sport involvement

VI SUMMARY The purpose of this study was to compare the loneliness levels of young people in terms of sport involvement (participating or not participating in the sport). Given this purpose, sport involvement variables of youth such as starting age of the sport, sport type, sport level, and the frequency of training, as well as personal variables such as residential area and monthly salary, that might affect the loneliness levels were examined. The participants were 493 undergraduate students, ranging from 17-25 years of age (females=202, male=291), from the physical education and sport department in physical education teacher education, sport management, and coaching programs, from the applied science department in banking and finance program, and from the foreign trade department in computer programming program. While UCLA (University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale) was used to measure the loneliness levels of youth, the personal information form was used to collect personal information about university students. The independent variables were analyzed through t test, ANOVA and MANOVA by using the SPSS 10.0 statistical software program. Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference was preferred as a post hoc test to determine the differences among independent variables. Results indicated that the loneliness levels of participants showed a statistically significant difference (p<0.01) when they were compared in terms of sport involvement. The loneliness levels of young people did not reveal any significant differences when they were compared in terms of starting age to the sport, sport type (team vs. individual sports), and sport level (professional vs. amateur)(p>0.05). However, significant differences existed in the loneliness levels in terms of the frequency of training. Multiple analysis of variance results showed that there were significant differences among sport involvement, gender, and loneliness as well as among sport involvement, residential area, and loneliness(p<0.05). On the other hand, no significant differences were detected among sport involvement, monthly spending allowance, and loneliness (p>0.05). Key words: Loneliness Level, Sport Involvement, Youth, Undergraduate College Student, Team Sports, individual Sports.