Determination of exercise addiction levels of sports high school students in TR83 provinces

The aim of this study is to determine and evaluate in detail the levels of exercise addiction among students attending sports schools in the TR83 provinces. The research group consists of a total of 580 students, including 366 males and 214 females, from sports schools in Amasya, Çorum, Samsun, and Tokat. A personal information form and the Exercise Addiction Scale, developed by Tekkurşun-Demir, Hazar, and Cicioğlu (2018), were used to collect data. The scale consists of three sub-dimensions: Over-focus and Emotional Change (OEC), Postponement of Individual-Social Needs and Conflict (PINC), and Development of Tolerance and Passion (DTP). The internal consistency of the responses given by the students participating in the study to the scale items was determined with the Cronbach's Alpha test, and it was found to be reliable at a medium and high level (0.70 and above). The assumption of normality of the data was made with the Shapiro-Wilk test, and it was observed that they were normally distributed (p>0.05). Statistically, the data were analyzed to determine whether there was a difference according to the gender variable with the student's t-test; differences according to variables such as family income status, grade level, school attended, sports branch, and year of sports participation were determined with the One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)/Tukey test. The statistical evaluation revealed that the average level of exercise addiction among students was 56.74, and it was determined that the students fell into the dependent group. When evaluating the average scores of the sub-dimensions; the average in the Over-focus and Emotional Change (OEC) sub-dimension was found to be 25.33 points, indicating that participants predominantly had excessive focus and emotional change. In the Postponement of Individual-Social Needs and Conflict (PINC) sub-dimension, the average was 17.90 points, showing that students predominantly postponed their individual and social needs and were in conflict with themselves. In the Development of Tolerance and Passion (DTP) sub-dimension, the average was 13.50 points, determining that the research group predominantly developed tolerance and had an increased willingness to exercise. Additionally, when examining the level of exercise addiction scale and its sub-dimensions with variables such as participants' gender, family income status, grade level, school attended, and sports branch, no significant difference was found (p>0.05); however, a significant difference was observed between the year of sports participation and the exercise addiction scale and its sub-dimensions (P<0.01). In conclusion, it can be stated that the students are addicted to exercise and that variables other than the year of sports participation do not affect exercise addiction.