SELF-FORGIVENESS AND SELF-COMPASSION IN TAEKWONDO ATHLETES

The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of self-forgiveness and self-compassion among taekwondo athletes as an approach to training and performance improvement based on a number of variables. Through convenience sampling, 532 taekwondo athletes (246 females, 286 males) were selected. Data were collected using the Self-Forgiveness Scale developed by Griffin Worthington et al. (2018) and adapted to Turkish by Kaya et al. (2021), and the Self-Compassion Scale Short Form adapted to Turkish by Yıldırım and Sarı (2018). The distribution of the participants's background information was displayed using descriptive statistics (e.g., percentages and frequencies) and skewness-kurtosis values were checked for normality. In addition to descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used due to the non-normality of the data. Participants' self-forgiveness levels varied significantly by gender, age, athletic background, and category. No significant differences were found in the sub dimensions of SFDPS and SCS based on previous injuries (p>0.05). A discussion on the study's limitations took place, and suggestions for future research were provided.