Effects of Regenerated Sportive Activities on the Empathic Tendency of Women

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the levels of empathy for regularly exercising women and to determine whether empathy levels differ according to some variables.

The study is planned as a single group pretest-posttest. 178 sedentary and healthy adult women participated in the study as a volunteer. Aerobic-Dance Exercise program was applied to the participants 60 minutes a day, 3 days per week for 8 weeks; then, The Empathic Tendency Scale (EQS) were filled at the beginning and at the end of the exercise program. The validity and reliability study of the scale was conducted by Dokmen (1988).

Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 16.00 software was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the research. One way ANOVA was used to determine the differences between the groups when the data showed normal distribution and after the homogeneity of the variances was tested, the Tukey test was used for differences between the groups and the error level was taken as 0.05.

When the findings are examined; the mean score of " Empathic Tendency " according to the marital status, the study status and the number of children of the participants was statistically significant in the pretest-posttest after the exercise program (p<0.005). But, there was no statistically significant difference between the group's comparisons in terms of the “Empathic Tendency "(p>0.05). As a result, it was seen that exercise had a positive effect on the "Empathic Tendency” levels of the women participating in the study.