Methodological Analysis of Articles in Social Discipline of Sports

This study was aimed to examine the methodological approaches of the articles in the social aspects of sports in the journals of sport sciences. In the research methods, design, data collection tools and sub-discipline of the articles were investigated. Document analysis was used in the study. Three journals, which have been publishing articles at least ten years, in the field of sport sciences have been examined. Between 1990 and 2016, 400 articles in the social field of sports sciences were classified based on subject, research methods, design, data collection tools and research areas. These articles were examined in three historical periods; 1990- 1999, 2000-2009 and 2010-2016. The classified data was analyzed by using content and descriptive analysis. The findings showed that 78% of the 400 articles were quantitative, 13,2% were qualitative research method, and 8,8% of the articles were review. In studies conducted with quantitative research methods, correlational design was mostly used research design with 68,6%, in 78,2% of the studies, scale was used as data collection tool. The findings showed that articles were frequently conducted in different sub-disciplines such as sport psychology (55,5%), sport management (20,8%), sport sociology (13,5%) and recreation (6,3%). The results indicated that quantitative methodology is dominant in the social disciplines of sport. Moreover, researches are frequently planned with correlational design by using scales as data collection tools. Qualitative method designs remain in the background and sports psychology is most studying sub discipline of social field of sports sciences