Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
Abstract
The objective of this research was to investigate the variability of causal relationships between social capital, self-esteem, and academic hope in team and individual elite athletes. For this purpose, structural equation analysis method was used. The population of research included all elite sports students, who could win the medal in Iran’s Students Sports Olympiads during the years 2012 to 2016. Among them, 349 elite athletes were selected using proportional stratified sampling method, which 140 of them were active in team sports and 209 of them were active in individual sports. The data were collected using the questionnaires of Mobaraki Social Capital Questionnaire (2005), Rosenberg Self-esteem Questionnaire (1965), and Sohrabi and Samani Academic Hope Scale (2011). The assumed model of the research was analyzed using Imus software for groups of team and individual athletes. According to the results, the team sports group and individual sports group model explain 25% and 41% of the changes in the hope variations, respectively. In team athletes, two components of social trust and social participation had a direct impact on academic hope. However, in the individual athletes group, only the component of social support showed a direct impact on academic hope. Investigating the indirect impacts revealed that only in the team group, self-esteem is not able to mediate the relationship between the components of social capital and academic hope. However, in the individual group, self-esteem mediates the relationship between the components of social support, mutual relations, social cohesion, and academic hope. Finally, the results were explained based on the theoretical principles and previous studies and some recommendations were provided to use its results.
Keywords
)