Sport şi Societate (May 2017)
SITUATIONAL ANXIETY AND SPORTIVE VARIABLES AS PREDICTORS OF SPORTSPERSONSHİP ORIENTATİONS IN HANDBALL PLAYERS
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the association between sportspersonship orientations, state anxiety and sporty factors in female handball players. Participants were 144 amateur women handball player participating in the handball tournament held in Amasya and Giresun and completed Turkish versions of Multidimensional Sportspersonship Orientation Scale and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and also reported demographics and sporty factors. Correlation analyses suggested that respect for the social conventions of sport, respect for one’s commitment toward participation in sport, respect for rules and officials subscale scores associated with state anxiety scores, duration of sport, and played league (stars, minor, major league). Multiple regression analysis also showed that state anxiety scores and duration of sport negatively predicted the scores for respect for the social conventions of sport, respect for one’s commitment toward participation in sport, respect for rules and officials. However, played league positively predicted the scores for respect for one’s commitment toward participation in sport and respect for rules and officials subscale. This study found that state anxiety and duration of sport negatively associated with sportspersonship behaviors. In order to increase sportspersonship behaviors in handball players, practitioners should focus on decreasing anxiety levels of players before competitions and highlighting positive role models during competitions. Additionally, practitioners also focus on senior handball players to improve sportspersonship behaviors from different leagues. Because this study was only performed on amateur female handball players, further studies can be performed in both female and male amateur handball players or samples that included the professional league players.
