Psychological aspects of teenagers' involvement in playing sports and their impact on social adaptation

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of the psychological aspects of the involvement of adolescents in playing sports and their impact on social adaptation. The relevance of the topic is due to the lack of knowledge of the mechanisms by which sports activity forms personal and social competencies in adolescence. The aim of the work is to identify and characterize the interrelationships between various parameters of teenagers' involvement in game sports and indicators of their social adaptation. The study used methods of questionnaires, psychological testing, sociometry, and statistical data analysis. The empirical base consisted of 412 adolescents aged 12-16 years engaged in playing sports. It was found that a high level of involvement in sports activities positively correlates with sociometric status (r=0.38; p<0.01), communication skills (r=0.41; p<0.01) and adaptability of adolescents (r=0.35; p<0.01). Significant differences in the level of social competence between athletes engaged in team and individual sports were revealed (t=4.12; p<0.001). The results obtained indicate the positive role of game sports in the socialization of adolescents and open up prospects for the development of psychological and pedagogical technologies for optimizing this process.