Introduction

The word "satisfaction" has been appeared in English language during the thirteenth century for the first time and it was derived from the Latin word "satis" which means “enough”. There are two basic principles in the interpretation of the concept of "satisfaction. The first of these principles sees satisfaction as a process, and the second sees it as a response.

When looking at satisfaction as a process, it is focused on the underlying factors rather than the satisfaction itself. And when looking at satisfaction as a response, satisfaction is seen as meeting the expectations (NAKTIYOK, 2002). Gellerman (1970) defined the term satisfaction as “a concept that cannot be directly observed by another person but used to describe pleasure or inner peace that can only be described and expressed by the individual concerned". According to Cribbin (1972), satisfaction is an emotional concept rather than being mental. The factor satisfaction is such an element that it is not possible for an individual to feel better without the mediation of this element. Stein and Ravizza (1989) defined satisfaction in sports as reactions influencing positively the emotions and/or perceptions reflected by sports experience such as having fun, loving, and being satisfied (ÖZDEVECIOĞLU; YALÇIN, 2010). Sport is a phenomenon that is frequently used in education and therapy for disabled people to adapt them to society. This phenomenon enables the disabled person to reach the desired standards. By enabling disabled individuals to come together with healthy individuals, sports also fulfill an extremely important function regarding the integration aimed to be achieved in special education. Sport is beneficial to live a healthy and happy life and is important for all people; however, sport has a different importance for people with disabilities. Because sports can open a new window for disabled individuals who are already facing many challenges every day in their lives and living with the stress caused by these challenges. Regardless of the type and degree of disability, moving, exercising, participating in sports activities give pleasure to individuals, and this pleasure of moving increases their motivation for life.

Besides its positive contributions to health of the individuals; by doing sports, the individuals can share their loneliness with other people, establish friendships, learn solidarity, can recognize, and develop their skills, and they improve positive emotions towards themselves, their bodies and other people. All of these can give the individual the chance to catch and maintain a meaningful and satisfying life. In addition, disabled individuals can complete the training process of specially organized competition sports, participate in competitions, and experience success and failure. And in this sense, they perceive themselves as athletes rather than a disabled individual anymore. With the confidence of this feeling, they can learn to overcome obstacles (ÇELENK, 2021; DALBUDAK et al., 2016; DALBUDAK; YIĞIT, 2019; DALBUDAK, 2020).

Due to the loss of physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social skills at different levels, congenitally or subsequently for any reason, disabled individual is a person who cannot be adapt to normal life and needs support even for functions that he / she can perform on his own (GÜR, 2001). According to the report of TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey), there is located approximately 8-8.5 million people with disabilities in Turkey. There are about 400,000 visually impaired people in Turkey (GÜRKAN; ARK, 2015). Although there are many definitions and classifications for the visually impairment, the amount of loss in sight is based on. According to the accepted definition in both international and national literature; “The people whose vision is less than the ratio of 20/200 after all possible corrections, or the people whose vision is less than 20 degrees despite the sight corrective lenses are expressed as blind” (ÖZİDA, 1999; TURNBULL et al., 2004; ÖZYÜREK, 1997). At an international competition, IBSA has specified three classes regarding partially and completely blind athletes. Each class has been applied in the sports games which the visually impaired athletes can play (IBSA, 2006). These are; B1: The athletes in this classification are completely or almost completely blind, they perceive the light but cannot recognize the shape of a hand from any distance, B2: Although they can recognize the shape of a hand, their visual acuity is less than 20/600 and their visual angle is below 50 degrees in the visual environment, B3. The athletes in this class have visual angles which are 5-200. Their visual acuity is from 20/600 to 60/600 (DALBUDAK, 2019). This study was conducted to reveal the effect of demographic characteristics of visually impaired athletes, who are actively engaged in regular sports in different branches and who have different visual levels and disabilities, on athlete satisfaction. The common point of the definitions of satisfaction made by many researchers is that it meets expectations. Every individual has expectations in his/her own living space. This may differ from individual to individual. This difference is even more different in individuals with disabilities. Disabled individuals have more expectations comparing the expectations the healthy individuals have.

Methodology

The Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ) and the "Personal Information Form" prepared by the researcher regarding demographic characteristics of the athletes were used to collect the data. There were two sections. In the first section, there was a personal information form which was used for b1- b2 -b3 visually impaired individuals who do sports (their gender, sport branch, disability, visual level, the period that they have been doing sports, the years of working with the trainer). Expert opinions and literature reviews were used to create the personal information form and determine the scales.

And in the second section, the Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ) was used which was developed by Riemer and Chelladurai in 1998. The scale was prepared as a 7-point Likert- type scale, and in our study the numerical values changed from 5 to 1 which means; “not satisfied at all”, “slightly satisfied”, “moderately satisfied”, “satisfied” and “very well satisfied”. Türksoy (2008), to be used in his doctoral thesis titled “Athlete satisfaction in football and the determination of expected and realized leadership behaviors from coaches”, has created the Athlete Satisfaction Scale in Turkish. Türksoy developed this scale, because of the adaptation of the 56-item ASQ scale into Turkish, by selecting the highest score of 20 items and 7 sub-dimensions, after completing the study of its validity and reliability. Athlete Satisfaction Scale is a 5-point Likert-type scale rated between “strongly disagree” and “strongly agree”. Athletes answered the questions as “Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Undecided, Agree, Strongly Agree”.

In this study SPSS 22.00 Program was used which has been used in quantitative research methods. In the study, T test and One Way Analysis of Variance (One Way ANOVA) were used for meaning, standard deviation, frequency, independent samples. The total Cronbach Alpha value of the Sports Satisfaction Scale was found to be 0.915.

Findings

The distribution of the findings regarding the socio-demographic characteristics of the individuals participated in the study has been given here.

No significant difference was detected according to the t test results according to gender. t ₍₁₀₆₎ = -1.465, p> 0.05).

No significant difference was found according to the results of the t test according to the disability status t ₍₁₀₆₎ = - 1.116, p> 0.05).

No significant difference was detected according to the t test results according to the sports branch. t₍₁₀₆₎ = -.156, p> 0.05).

When the results of one-way analysis of variance according to visual acuity were examined, a significant difference was found (F₍₁₀₅₎ = 32166.291, p <.05). And as a result of the Post-Hoc tests performed to determine the difference between groups, a significant difference was found between b1-b2, b1-b3 and b2-b3 groups. According to this, the highest score was b3 (X = 4.4871), then b2 (X = 3.2) and the least score was b1 (X = 3.075).

According to the results of the One-Way Analysis of Variance, a significant difference was not detected according to the year of working with the trainer (F ₍₁₀₅₎ = 1.258, p> .05).

There was no significant difference between the One-Way Variance Analysis results according to the Years of Doing Sports (F ₍₁₀₅₎ = 2.551, p> .05).

Discussion

This study was conducted to reveal the effect of demographic characteristics of visually impaired athletes with different visual and disability levels who are actively doing sports regularly in different sport branches, on athlete satisfaction.

No significant difference was found according to the t test results of visually impaired athletes according to gender (t₍₁₀₆₎ = - 1.465, p> 0.05). No difference was found between gender variable and sports satisfaction. Riemer and Chelladurai (2001) and Bebetsos and Bebetsos (2006) found similar results between gender variable and sports satisfaction in their studies. According to the disability status of the visually impaired athletes, no significant difference was found according to the t test results (t₍₁₀₆₎= - 1.116, p> 0.05). When the findings regarding the sports satisfaction scores of visually impaired athletes according to their disability status were examined, there was no significant difference found in the sports satisfaction of congenital and subsequently disabled individuals. There are no such studies we have reached to support our study. We can say that sports have a positive effect on people with disabilities, whether they are congenital or subsequently visually impaired. According to his study on visually impaired individuals, Dalbudak (2020) stated that the sports have a very positive effect on visually impaired individuals.

According to the t test results of the visually impaired athletes according to the sports branch, there was no significant difference found (t₍₁₀₆₎ = -.156, p> 0.05). When the findings regarding the sports satisfaction scores of the participants according to the sports branch were examined, there was no significant difference in the sports satisfaction scores of the visually impaired individuals doing individual sports and team sports. In the study conducted by Yiğit (2018), it was found that the difference between the branch variable and the sub-dimension of the athlete's satisfaction scale was significant. This study does not match up with the study we have done. The reason of this is that the visually impaired individuals are satisfied with sports, and it does not matter for them whether it is a team or an individual sport. Because all kinds of sports are an indispensable passion for people with disabilities.

When the results of the sports satisfaction scores of the visually impaired athletes according to the visual degree were examined, it was found that there was a significant difference in the sports satisfaction scores of the participants in terms of vision. When the results of one-way variance analysis are examined according to the visual level of visually impaired athletes, a significant difference (F₍₁₀₅₎ = 32166.291, p <.05) was found and as a result of the Post-Hoc tests performed to determine the difference between groups, a significant difference was found between b1-b2, b1-b3 and b2-b3 groups. Accordingly, the highest score was b3 (X = 4.4871), then b2 (X = 3.2) and the least score was b1 (X = 3.075). We can say that the degree of vision influences sports satisfaction. Because there are no studies like the ones we have done, there are no findings to support our studies.

According to the results of the One-Way Analysis of Variance, no significant difference was detected for the visually impaired athletes' years of working with the trainer (F₍₁₀₅₎ = 1.258, p> .05). When the findings related to the sports satisfaction scores of the participants according to the year, they worked with the trainer were examined, it was found that there was no significant difference in the sports satisfaction scores of the visually impaired individuals according to the year of working with the trainer. In the study conducted by Yiğit (2018), there was a significant difference between the athletes’ satisfaction according to the years of working with the trainer. This also contradicts our work. We think that the difference in our study is caused by visually impaired athletes. The meaning of the sports for visually impaired individuals is to provide light to their blind eyes. Whether the athletes are just starting sports or doing sports for a long time, it does not affect the year of working with the trainer. No significant difference was found between the results of the One-Way Variance Analysis of the visually impaired athletes according to the years of doing sports (F₍₁₀₅₎ = 2,551, p> .05).

When the findings related to the sports satisfaction scores of the participants according to the sports year were examined, it has been determined that there is no significant difference in sports satisfaction scores of visually impaired individuals according to the years of doing sports. Since there are no studies like the ones we have done, there are no findings to support our studies. Sport has a very important effect on the visually impaired individuals. Through the sport, we can say that the people with disabilities become a part of the society and prove themselves in this field. Sport constitutes an indispensable part of the lives of people with disabilities. With the help of sport, they overcome their existing disabilities.

In future studies, it is recommended to evaluate the athlete satisfaction study, which was used for visually impaired athletes, for other disabled individuals, as well. In addition, it is recommended to conduct a new study in which the athlete satisfaction results of visually impaired athletes and other disabled individuals will be evaluated.

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Notas de autor

Información adicional

How to reference this article: ÇANKAYA, C. Examination of satisfaction levels of visually impaired athletes. Revista online de Política e Gestão Educacional, Araraquara, v. 25, n. 2, p. 1513-1523, maio/ago. 2021. e-ISSN: 1519-9029. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22633/rpge.v25i2.15499