EXAMINATION OF THE SPORTS BRANCH-SPECIFIC LOYALTY LEVELS OF ATHLETES IN EQUESTRIAN JAVELIN AND TRADITIONAL TURKISH ARCHERY SPORTS BRANCHES

Abstract

Belonging is generally explained as a concept that is positively affected by motivation, job identification, increase in self-awareness and human motives. Based on the concept of belonging conceptually, the concept of belonging in sports is expressed as the basic factor that forms the relationship between the sports branch, sports club, athlete manager, athlete coach and athlete fans. Considering these explanations and expressions, in our research, it was aimed to examine the belonging levels of the athletes in the sports branches of equestrian javelin and traditional Turkish archery.  In our study, an 8-question personal information form created by the researchers (Gender, Education Status, Year of Doing Sports, Monthly Income Status, Sportive Status, Sports Branch, Age and How many hours do you train per week) and a 5-point Likert-type  quot;Belonging to Sport Scale quot; consisting of 8 items and two sub- dimensions (identification with the team, being a part of the team), which was validity and reliability study by Allen (2006) and validity and reliability study was conducted by Unlu and Yilmaz (2012) by creating a Turkish form. The sample of the research consists of 238 (n=140 Female, n=98 Male) volunteer athletes who are actively involved in two different sports branches (n=119 Traditional Turkish Archery, n=119 Equestrian Javelin). The data of the analytical cross-sectional study were collected face-to-face after obtaining approval from Siirt University  Ethics Committee. The data obtained in the study were evaluated in SPSS 25.0 package programme. As a result of the normality analysis of the scale, it was seen that the significance values were greater than 0.05 and it was decided to use nonparametric analyses in the analysis. Kruskal Wallis H Test and Man Witney U Test were applied in our study. In the statistical analyses, it was seen that there was no statistically significant difference in the sub-dimensions and scale general scores of the sports belonging scale in the variables of gender, educational status, monthly income status, sportive status, age, while there was a statistically significant difference in the sub-dimensions and scale general scores of the sports belonging scale with the variables of years of doing sports, sports branch and how many hours you train per week. In line with the findings obtained in our research, it was determined that the sport-specific belonging levels of the athletes in the equestrian javelin and traditional Turkish archery sports branches were affected by the hours of training per week, the year of doing sports and the sport branch.