Investigation of self confidence levels in elite extreme athletes

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine self-confidence levels of extreme sports athletes in terms of variables such as gender, sport experience and sports level. Methods: A total of 1660 athletes in skiing, snowboarding, mountaineering, motor-car and motor-bike racing participated in the study. “Self-confidence scale” developed by Akın (2007) was used to find out athletes’ characteristics of self-belief, being able to control emotions and taking risks. Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test were used for data analysis. Results: Skiers and motor-car racers were found to have the highest self-confidence values, while snowboarders had the lowest values. Although there were less women in the study, significance was found only in external self-confidence in favour of women (p<0.05). Significant association was found between self-confidence values in terms of sport experience and sports level (p<0.05). Conclusions: Extreme sports should be generalized, supported and introduced to raise successful and self-confident individuals. This will contribute to the fast development of these sports which are known as dangerous sports throughout the world.