A study on the attitudes and awareness of gifted and typically developing children toward sports

Abstract

This study aims to examine the attitudes and awareness of gifted and typically developing children towards sports. The general survey method was used in the research. A total of 203 students at the Science and Arts Center, Türk Telekom Primary School, Türk Telekom Middle School and Vocational Anatolian High School affiliated voluntarily participated in the research. The Attitude Scale Towards Sports and the Sports Awareness Scale were utilized in the research as a data collection tool. Non-parametric Mann Whitney U, Kruskall Wallis, and Spearman correlation tests were used to analyze the data. When the participants' attitudes and awareness of sports were assessed, a significant difference was discovered in the doing active sports sub-dimension of the attitude scale toward sports of the students who exhibited typical development compared to the gifted students. However, there was no significant difference according to the gender variable. Still, there was a significant difference in the sub-dimensions of interest in sports, sports knowledge and distinguishing the knowledge, and social and individual benefits in the class variable. According to the variable of regular exercise, a significant difference was found in all sub-dimensions. There was a significant difference in the sub-dimensions of being interested in sports and doing active sports based on the variable of going to the gym. A relationship was discovered when the sub-dimensions of attitude and awareness were studied concerning the age variable. As a result, it can be argued that the attitudes and awareness of the participants towards sports differ in terms of variables, but the attitudes of the typically developing students towards active sports are higher. Accordingly, it is recommended to conduct studies on sportive practices in order to increase the attitudes of gifted students towards active sports.