The effect of university students' attitudes towards sports on their academic self-efficacy and academic achievement levels: The case of Istanbul

The purpose of the study is to determine the predictive power of sports on university students' attitudes towards sports, academic self-efficacy and learning performance. Sport is a social phenomenon with economic, political, historical, institutional and cultural dimensions, making it part of sociological integrity. Starting from the hypothesis that students who engage in sports have higher academic self-efficacy and academic achievements, they were quantitatively tested according to different social parameters such as gender, age, field of study, type of sports practiced and overall academic grade point average. This research is focused on universities in Istanbul. Students enrolled in different departments and participating/non-participating in sports during the 2023-2024 academic year were evaluated within the scope of the study. This study is a quantitative research method employing the "convenience" sampling method, conducted with 300 students. Data for the study were collected using the "Academic Self-Efficacy Scale" and the "University Students' Attitudes Towards Sports Scale." The SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 25.0 program was used for data analysis. Students' attitudes towards sports have the strongest correlation with academic self-efficacy beliefs, with the most predictive factor being academic performance.