Fair play behavior in futsal: Study in high school students

Abstract

This study aimed to examine fair play behaviors of futsal players in high school regarding some variables. Totally 187 high school students including 76 males and 111 females participated in the study in 2017-2018 education period. The Fair Play Scale in Physical Education and Sport, developed by Hassandra et al. [7] and adapted to Turkish by Mirzaoglu [12] was used to collect data. The scale has four subscales including 16 items. The scale consists of the factors of respect towards teammates, cheating, respect conventions, and gamesmanship. The descriptive analysis of demographic variables and exploratory factor analysis for validity were used; Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated for reliability. The relationships were determined by using correlation analysis, and independent t-test was used for comparison between groups. Factor loadings ranged between 0,563 and 0,913. Moreover, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was found to be as 0,838 indicating that the scale had high reliability. In correlation results, the gender variable was only found to be significant (p<0,05) and negatively correlated (r=-,144) in “gamesmanship.” This result showed that boys are more prone to “gamesmanship” behaviors than girls. The only difference was found in “gamesmanship” when fair play behaviors of futsal athletes were compared according to genders (p<0,05). This result showed that boys are more prone to “gamesmanship” behaviors than girls. The underlying reason for this may be that the sense of justice of boys is lower than the girls. Consequently, within the scope of the studies to create consciousness and realize required structural changes related to ethical values of sport, especially school physical education lessons and extramural competitions should be used as an environment to bring athletes in proper fair play behaviors. It is understood that fair play understanding can be achieved by facing students with problematic conditions in longer and continuous learning process, not with campaign, messages, sanction or transmission of plain moral theories.