Social Identity in Team Sports: A Quantitative Study of University Student-Athletes

The predominance of psychological approaches in sport-related social identity research highlights the need to examine social identity within a broader sociological framework, particularly in the context of team sports. This study aims to investigate the levels of social identity among university students engaged in team sports and to determine whether these levels differ across various demographic and sport-related variables. Rather than conducting a process-oriented qualitative analysis, this study examines social identity quantitatively through measured social identity levels and selected demographic and sport-related variables. The study used a quantitative descriptive survey design with a sample of 266 university students participating in amateur-level team sports. Data were collected using a personal information form and the Social Identity Questionnaire for Sport, and analysed using descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Spearman’s correlation analysis. The findings indicated that participants’ social identity levels were close to moderate. While no significant differences were observed with respect to gender and age, significant differences were found in favour of participants who held leadership roles, engaged in out-of-team social interaction, and had longer sport experience, as well as across different sport branches (p < .05). Furthermore, a positive and significant relationship was identified between sport experience and social identity levels. In conclusion, social identity in team sports appears to be more closely associated with social interaction, in-group roles, and accumulated sport experience than with individual demographic characteristics.