The Effect of Sport on the Level of Positivity and Well-Being in Adolescents Engaged in Sport Regularly

Abstract

Sport, an element of universal culture, is a prominent tool that brings individuals with different languages, races and religions together. Sport is generally defined as activities that positively affect the psychological health of people and bring about social and moral benefits besides its physical benefits. Mental well-being is defined as the individual's awareness of their own abilities, their abilities to overcome stress in life, being productive and useful in business life and contributing to community via the their ability (WHO, 2004). Positivity is defined as the main determinant of subjective well-being and is expressed as a tendency to evaluate all aspects of life that is already good. This study aimed to investigate whether sport is effective on mental well-being and positivity. In the study pre-test, post-test experimental design with control group was used and “Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being (WEMWBS)” scale developed by Tennant et al. (2007), which was adapted into Turkish by Keldal (2015) and “The Positivity Scale” scale developed by Caprara and et al. (2012), and adapted into Turkish by Çıkrıkçı, Çiftçi and Gençdoğan (2015) were used as the data collection tools. When the original form of mental wellbeing scale compared with its version adapted into Turkish are compared, the reliability coefficient Cronbach Alpha was found to be as .92. On the other hand, the internal consistency coefficient for the Positivity Scale was found to be .75 and its test-retest reliability coefficient was found to be .91. As parametric assumptions are met, Variance Analysis, Tukey test, Paired-Samples t-test was used. For the analysis of data obtained through counting, Chi Square was used and level of significance was taken as 0.05. The study group is composed by forming 3 groups of 20 students from 10th grade students. The groups were equalled in terms of some variables like age, gender, sports background etc. The groups were called as the sports activities group, social activities group and the control group. While the participants in the experimental group were engaged in regular and scheduled sports activities including training and contests, the participants in the social activities group engaged in regular social activities. The participants in the control group led their routine lives. After a period of 10 weeks, the tests given at the beginning of the study were administrated again, and test scores of the students in all three groups were compared.

According to the results of the study, when the pre-test and post-test positivity scores of the individuals in all three groups were compared, the differences between the groups were not found to be insignificant (p>0.05). When post-test mental well-being scores were compared, the difference was found significant (p<0.05). It was seen that the source of difference was between the sports activities group and the control group.

In terms of positivity scores, the difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the sports activities group and the social activity group was found to be insignificant (p>0.05). There was a decrease in the positivity scores of the control group from the pre-test to post-test and difference was found significant (p<0.05). When the pre-test and post-test mental well-being scores of the three groups were compared, the differences between measurements were found significant (p<0.05). While there was an increase in mental well-being scores of the sports activities group and of the social activities group, it was seen that there was a decrease in those of the control group. No significant difference was found in mental well-being and positivity scores of the participants in terms of gender and academic achievement (p>0.05).