Examination of Cognitive Flexibility Levels of Young Individual and Team Sport Athletes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the level of cognitive flexibility of individual and team athletes who are students. The study included a total of 237 volunteer athletes, comprising 140 males (59.1%) and 97 females (40.9%) with a mean age of 18.98 ± 2.18 years (range, 16-26 years) who were licensed to participate in individual and team sports. Study data were collected using the Cognitive Flexibility Scale developed by Martin and Rubin (1995), which consists of 12 items in total. International validity and reliability studies were conducted by Martin and Rubin, and Turkish validity and reliability studies were conducted by Çelikkaleli on high school students (Çelikkaleli, 2014). The scores of the Cognitive Flexibility Scale were found to be higher in the team sports athletes compared with the individual sports athletes (p<0.05). No difference was determined between the levels of cognitive flexibility in male and female athletes. The results indicated that the cognitive flexibility levels of team athletes are higher than those of individual athletes.