The effects of eight weeks of sports activities on self-sufficiency, social skills and some physical fitness parameters in children 9-10 years of age

Cyprus International Conference on Educational Research (CY-ICER) -- FEB 08-11, 2012 -- Middle E Tech Univ No Cyprus Campus, CYPRUSWOS: 000342764800210In this study, the effects of 8 weeks of sports activities on self-sufficiency, social skills and some physical fitness parameters in children 9-10 years of age were examined. The sampling of the study was composed of a total of 45 students with 25 in the test group (10 males and 15 females), and 20 in the control group (8 males and 12 females), attending the Petkim Latife Hanim Primary School in Izmir. Different sports activities (athletics, yoga, basketball, educational games and dancing) were implemented for the test group for a total of 32 class periods. The "General Self-sufficiency Scale", "Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY)" and the "Physical Fitness Tests" were implemented with the first test, final test method. The SPSS 15.0 program was used in the analysis of the data, the " Paired Samples T-Test" was used in the determination of the differences within the group, whereas, for the independent groups, the " Independent Samples T-Test" was used. It was found from the results obtained that there was not a statistically significant difference in the social skills and self-sufficiency values between the test and control groups (p>0.05). When the change within the test group was considered, it was observed that there was a positive statistically significant difference in the height, weight, flexibility, balance and fat percentages, whereas, it was observed that in the control group there was a positive statistically significant difference only in the height, weight and balance parameters (p<0.05).Cyprus Educ Sci Assoc, Acad World Educ & Res Ctr, Near E Univ, Eastern Mediterranean Univ, Ataturk Teacher Training Acad, Int Cyprus Univ, Girne Amer Univ, Cyprus Educ Sci Asso

Flow experience and performance: A study of elite Turkish handball players

The aim of this study was to determine the flow states of elite handball players and to examine its effects in terms of several variables. 34 (19 female- 15 male) athletes aged 27.22± 5.44 competing in Turkish Handball Super League participated in the study and as a result of a total of 17 matches (men 10, women 7), 142 participations were included into evaluation. At the end of the matches, the athletes were given Personal Information Forms together with the form on their perceptions of the difficulty levels of the competition and the Dispositional Flow State Scale-2, which was developed by Jackson and Eklund (2004) and adapted into Turkish by Aşçı et al. (2007). As a result of the study, it was found that elite female handball players had higher flow experiences than elite male handball players. Flow experiences of handball players aged 30 and over were found to be significant at a higher level than those of handball players aged 30 and under; it was also concluded that the relationship between perception of difficulty and flow state, duration of game, gender and age are effective determiners. © JPES