Developing an Instrument to Measure the Social Capital in Young Tennis Players

Abstract

Social capital consists of connections between individuals from which mutual trust and social networks arise. It is a term that encompasses resources that can be defined as social relations and social inclusion. It is an integral social factor that affects the social norms of an individual’s behavior. Social components are an important factor for achieving better success in sport. The level of social capital can be assessed with different questionnaires. As there were no existing validated instruments for assessing social capital in young tennis players so far, a new questionnaire in relation to competitive tennis players was made. The goal of this research was to construct and validate a questionnaire for assessing the level of social capital in young tennis players. The social capital questionnaire was filled out by 90 participants (age=16.53±1.18; girls N=31, boys N=59), who were, at the time, participating in an ITF level (International tennis federation) tennis tournament. The reliability of the questionnaire was measured with the Cronbach Alpha coefficient. When analyzing the reliability of the selected 12 questions, the reliability was determined Cr. Alpha=0.714 and the questionnaire validity was determined using the Pearson correlation coefficient. It is understood that many factors impact young athletes during their growth and development, and that social components and social ties play an important role in young athletes’ sporting careers. Through the creation of this questionnaire, future researchers will be able to further analyze and investigate social capital in tennis using it as a valid research tool.