The role of extracurricular sports activities in syrian students' life satisfaction and school attachment: An experimental study

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Syrian students' participation in extracurricular sports activities with Turkish students on their school attachment and life satisfaction. Material and Method: In this study, a full experimental design with pre-test post-test control group was used. The study was carried out in a secondary school in İslahiye district of Gaziantep province in the 2021-2022 academic year. Half of the 136 students in the study were experimental (n=68) and half of them were control (n=68) groups. While the extracurricular exercise program was applied to the Syrian (n=34) and Turkish students (n=34) in the experimental group, no intervention was made to the control group. "Satisfaction with Life Scale" and "School Attachment Scale" were used as data collection tools. In the analysis of the data obtained in the study, MANCOVA, dependent groups t test and independent groups t test were applied. Results: It was found that the post-test scores of Syrian students in school attachment and life satisfaction scores were generally higher than the other groups. It was observed that the intervention program applied led to a significant increase in school attachment and life satisfaction scores, especially in Syrian male student groups. No significant difference was found in Turkish students after the experimental procedure. Conclusion: Based on these results, it is important to increase extracurricular sports activities in order to increase the life satisfaction and commitment of refugee students to school, especially in mixed schools in terms of ethnicity, and to improve their relationships with their friends and teachers. Keywords: Refugee student, Syrian student, sports activities, school attachment, life satisfaction