E.A. Parkhomenko, associate professor, Ph.D.
Kuban state university of physical culture, sport and tourism, Krasnodar

Key words: social relations, involvement in sports occupations, early professionalization, persons doing and not doing sports, adolescence and preadult age, young adulthood period.

Relevance. Social relations are an essential condition of the individual’s transformation into a personality. Goal sets, views and traits of human character are formed in the active interaction with various collectives or teams. One is to keep in mind that a specific individual is both a subject and an object of the interaction process. An individual is influenced not only by the people around him and the collective but is an active originator of collective and his interpersonal relationship. Hence, formation of the personality structure is determined, first of all, by his relations with society as a whole and various social groups [1, 2].

One of the areas of our study was to investigate the influence of involvement in sports occupations and age, as well as the interaction of these factors on the performance of social interpersonal relations in society.

The purpose of the study was to analyze the peculiarities of involvement in sports occupations on social personal relationships in the educational environment.

Materials and methods. The investigated sample was about 500 people. It was divided into three age groups: adolescence, preadult and young adulthood periods - and included male and female athletes, doing sports, and the group of coevals, not doing sports.

Social relations were established by the questionnaire of N.V. Kuzmina [3, P. 211-224].

To identify the relationships between the studied indicators of involvement in sports occupations, age and social relations a variance analysis was conducted using the program “Statistica”.

Results and discussion. The results of the variance analysis are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Results of the variance analysis of the impact of involvement in sports occupations and age on social relations, F±d

Note. * – significant differences at p≤0,05.

Involvement in sports occupations affects both types of relationships - "I consult", "I appreciate opinion", "I can trust", "I’m sure – he will help", "I’m sure – he will protect", "I want to be like" and the human environment – “mother”, "father", "brother/sister", "friend from class" and "teacher/trainer". Age also affects both types of relationships: "I’m sure – he will understand", "I’m sure – he will help", "I’m sure – he will protect" and the human environment – “father", "grandmother/grandfather” (Tab. 1).

The findings of the variance analysis revealed that both involvement in sports classes and age influence the levels of personality social relationships. The indices of involvement in sports occupations combined with age influence the formation of the type of social relationship: "I want to be like", on the one hand, and on the human environment - "friend outside school" and "teacher/trainer" - on the other (Tab. 1).

For the more detailed identification of the features of interpersonal social relations in the educational environment, we analyzed average values using the “Statistica” software. The differences were detected using the Student’s t-test.

The comparative analysis of three age groups of respondents (12-15, 16-18 and 25-30 years), doing and not doing sports, is presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Average values ​​of social adaptation indices of respondents within the age group (points/percent), Cav±d

Note. * – significant differences in the age group 12-15 years at p ≤ 0,05; ** - significant differences in the age group 16-18 years at p ≤ 0,05; *** - significant differences in the age group 25-30 years at p ≤ 0,05. SR - social relations; 1 - I consult, 2 - I appreciate opinion, 3 - I can trust, 4 - I’m sure – he will understand 5 - I’m sure – he will help, 6 - I’m sure – he will protect, 7 - I want to be like, 8 - mother, 9 - father, 10 - grandmother, 11 - grandfather, 12 - brother/sister, 13 - relatives, 14 - friend from class/team, 15 - school friend, 16 - friend out of school/work, 17 - teacher/trainer

According to the comparative analysis of respondents from the age group 12-15 years, doing and not doing sports, along with the unconditional value of mother as a significant other person in both of the groups of adolescent athletes the role of family (mother, brother/sister, teacher/trainer) and peers (friend out of school) is significantly higher, unlike their peers, not doing sports, for whom only family (grandparents) are more important. Adolescent athletes prefer the following types of relationships: "I consult", "I can trust" and "I want to be like". This suggests that 12-15 year old respondents, doing sports, prefer adult companionship with other important people and want to learn from others [5]. At the same time, 12-15 year old respondents, not doing sports, were proved to like less the relations "I want to be like", which could be a sign of teenage negativity [6].

According to the comparative analysis of the age group of respondents aged 16-24 years, doing and not doing sports, persons from both family (mother, father, grandfather) and extrafamilial environments (friend from team, friend from sports school, trainer) are more important for the ones doing sports. Family (mother, father, grandparents) got less important for respondents aged 16-24 years, not doing sports. Orientation of athletes to help and support the human environment, especially family one, is a result of increased competition in relationships with peers and narrowing of the circle of contacts due to the increased volume of training and competitive loads [4], on the one hand. On the other hand, the need for assistance and protection indicates the intention to adulthood and independence [7].

The comparative analysis of respondents of the age group 25-30 years, doing and not doing sports, showed that persons doing sports with age and with the deepening of professionalization still value family and extrafamilial environment (friend from team, trainer). This suggests that competition and toughness to competition, increasing with the growth of athletes’ skills, affect their relationships with other important people, reduce openness and confidentiality of communication. A decrease in the importance of family and an increase in the importance of friends outside work was marked among16-24 year old respondents, not doing sports (Table 2).

Conclusion. The respondents, doing and not doing sports, differ in the preferences of both people from the inner circle and types of social attitude. Moreover, there were marked different trends of changes of indicators: the value of family decreased with age for the subjects not doing sports and the value of the coevals and friends increased while their peers doing sports tended to give more value to family along with the unconditional value of trainer in the athlete’s life. It must be related to the fact that rivalry and severe competition, being intensified with the rise of athletes’ mastery, provoke the need for psychological support and the first place where they can find it is family.

References    

1. Anan’ev, B.G. Social situations of personality development / B.G. Anan’ev. – Leningrad, 1980. – P.1. – P. 124-135. (In Russian)
2. Antsyferova, L.I. Psychology of personality formation and development / L.I. Antsyferova// Collected research works: Man in the system of sciences. – Moscow, 1989. – P. 426-233. (In Russian)
3. Kuz’mina, N.V. Theoretical-practical methods of analysis of pedagogical situations / N.V. Kuz’mina // Psychology to production and education. - Leningrad: publ. h-se of Leningrad state university, 1977. – P. 211-224. (In Russian)
4. Lyakh, V. Psychological problems of youth sport in the countries of Western Europe / V. Lyakh // International forum “Youth. Science. Olympism”. – Moscow, 1998. – P.151-153. (In Russian)
5. Parkhomenko, E.A. The influence of professional development on social relations of adolescents / E.A. Parkhomenko // Acute matters of physical culture and sport: Memoirs of research institute on the problems of physical culture and sport KubSAPhC. – Krasnodar, 2001. – P. 4. – P. 67-72. (In Russian)
6. Parkhomenko, E.A. The peculiarities of personality and intellectual development of athletes in conditions of early professionalization: abstract of Ph.D. thesis / E.A. Parkhomenko. – Krasnodar, 2002. – 27 P. (In Russian)
7. El’konin, D.B. On periodization of mental development in the childhood / D.B. El’konin // Selected psychological works. – Moscow: Pedagogika. – P. 60 – 77. (In Russian)

Corresponding author: parhomenkokpi@rambler.ru