Examining the Relationship between Academic Motivation and Social-Emotional Competency in Student-Athletes

The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between academic motivation and social-emotional competency of student-athletes in terms of gender, grade, and active participation in sports. The study group consisted of 200 volunteer student-athletes studying at a sports high school. The Academic Motivation Scale and the Delaware Social-Emotional Competency Scale were used. According to the results, there was a significant difference between the mean scores related to the sub-dimensions of "Intrinsic motivation (IM)-to accomplish, Extrinsic motivation (EM)-introjected regulation, and amotivation" according to the variable of doing active sports, and "self-awareness, social-awareness, and EM-identified regulation" according to gender variable by independent sample t-test. The one-way ANOVA analysis results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of "self-awareness, social-awareness, and IM-to know" sub-dimensions according to the variable of grade. The Pearson Moments Multiplication Correlation test showed that there was a negative relationship between the sub-dimensions self-awareness and social-awareness via EM-identified regulation. This study showed a low negative correlation between academic motivation and social-emotional competency in student-athletes. Significant differences were found between various sub-dimensions according to the variables of gender, grade, and active participation in sports. [This paper was presented at the 13th FIEP European - 29th FIEP World Congress in Istanbul in September, 2018.]