The Level of Sports Culture and its Relationship to Athletic Identity among Physical Education Students at An-Najah National University

The aim of this study was to identify the level of sports culture and its relationship to athletic identity among physical education students at An-Najah national university, in addition to determine the differences in the level of sports culture and athletic identity according to gender and academic year variables. To achieve that, the study was conducted on a stratified random sample consisting of (152) male and female students in physical education, the samples represents (30.4%) of the study population. To collect data, the (Shahada, 2009) culture sports scale and (Brewer & Cornelius, 2001) athletic identity scale were applied after conducting its validity and reliability coefficients. The study results showed that the level of sports culture among physical education students at An-Najah national university was very high, where the percentage of response for the total score was (84.66%), and the level of athletic identity was high, where the percentage of response for the total score was (77%). In addition, the presence of a positive relationship between sports culture and athletic identity (r= 0.48). Also, the results indicated that there were significant differences in the level of athletic identity according to gender variable for male- students, and no significant differences were found in the level of sports culture according to gender and academic year variables. Based the study findings the researchers recommended the focus on the sports participation of female-students in schools for its importance in constructing the level of athletic identity