The effects of a structured badminton program on social and emotional learning in adolescents

Background This study aimed to examine the effects of a structured badminton exercise program, which naturally incorporates social interaction, decision-making, and emotional regulation elements inherent to the sport, on the social and emotional learning (SEL) levels of adolescent students. Method A quasi-experimental design with a pretest–posttest control group was employed. The study included a total of 65 adolescent students (32 females and 33 males; mean age = 12.98) attending a public middle school in Aksaray Province. A structured badminton exercise program was implemented for the experimental group for 12 weeks, twice a week during physical education classes, with each session lasting 90 minutes. No additional intervention was applied to the control group, which continued with standard physical education classes. Data were collected using a personal information form and the Social and Emotional Learning Scale for Adolescents (SELS). A 2 × 2 × 2 mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to examine changes in SEL scores before and after the intervention and to determine differences according to gender. Effect sizes were calculated using partial eta-squared ( ηp 2 ). Results The findings indicated that the experimental group showed a statistically significant increase in post-test SEL scores compared to the control group. No statistically significant main effect of gender was found. However, the mean SEL scores of female students were higher than those of male students, and a significant Time × Group × Gender interaction indicated that the magnitude of improvement was greater among female students. Conclusion The findings suggest that participation in a structured badminton program was associated with positive changes in the social and emotional learning levels of adolescent students. No separate SEL curriculum was implemented; the observed improvements emerged naturally as a byproduct of the structured badminton intervention.