An investigation of sport sciences faculty students’ emotional distance towards individuals with disabilities

Our knowledge of what we see as the "other" is often very superficial and one-sided. The marginalized individuals who cannot benefit from the rights enjoyed by their peers experience problems. Individuals with disabilities (IWD) are one of the most affected groups by the problem of marginalization in societies. In this context; this study was conducted to examine the emotional distance of the students of the Faculty of Sports Sciences towards the IWD according to various demographic variables. The research was designed in the general scanning model, which is one of the descriptive research methods. 747 students from six universities in the Eastern Anatolia Region voluntarily participated in research. A personal information form created by the researchers and the Emotional Distance Scale developed by Yılmaz (2018) were used as data collection tools. As a result of the data analysis, it was seen that there were significant differences in the sub-dimensions according to the variables of age, gender, university, department, having an IWD in the family, and being a sports trainer for an IWD. According to the sports branch variable, no significant difference was found in the sub-dimensions. The study results suggest that both PK-12 and college education curriculum should not only include components that will increase positive attitude and awareness towards IWD but also contain activities providing students with first-hand communication and interaction experiences with IWDs.