The comparison of social skill levels of team sports athletes and individual sport athletes

Abstract

Aim: The study is to compare the level of social skills scores of undergraduate students at Mersin University School of Physical Education and Sports according to sport types, gender and class levels. Material and Methods: To test the main hypothesis, a total of 112 student- athletes (47 female and 65 male), performing individual and team sports from the Mersin University School of Physical Education and Sports were involved in this study. Data were collected by ‘Social Skills Inventory” developed by Riggio (1986, 1989) and adapted to Turkish by Yüksel (1998). Results: T -test results showed that the mean scores of 6 sub-dimensions of social skills scale does not change with regard to types of sports. But, there were significant differences of mean scores of social control changes with respect to gender and this score was higher for female athletes compared to male counterparts. Moreover, the results of Kruskal Wallis Analysis indicated that there was a significant difference in all sub dimensions except emotional awareness subscale compared to class level. First year students had the highest scores in terms of emotional expressivity, emotional control, social expressivity, social awareness, and social control. Conclusion: It could be stated that women are more successful in social skills, although the level of social skills of student-athletes does not differ according to sport.