The concept of social identity in student lives is broad. There are several major factors that influence students’ identities, and Author has chosen to explore profounder one of them - sports activities. This Thesis is a study about students’ relationships with sports activities, where the main goal is to determine how the sports activities are affecting students' identities and social interactions.
In order to investigate this topic, the Thesis consists of four major theories and also concepts that are used in order to analyze quantitative data and qualitative data, and to find out if there is a pattern between students’ identity development, social interactions and sports activities. The data consists of 112 survey responses and 9 self-narratives from students that are in the age group between 18 and 27 years, and who exercise regularly. Furthermore, the main theories in Author’s Thesis are: Social identity theory, Interpersonal and collective identities theory, Student development theory and concepts of Identity and Consumption. This Thesis has been divided in two big parts in order to analyze the problem formulation. These are respectively: Theoretical knowledge and Analysis of the empirical data.
In this Thesis, the Author found out that there exists a pattern between students’ devotion to exercise and that of their parents. Moreover, the students’ benefits from the sports activities are: improvements in mood and attitudes, social skill improvements, expansion of social networks and personality developments. All of these benefits demonstrate the ways in which sports activities affect students’ identities and social interactions.
This Thesis can become a stepping-stone to further research in the area of student identity development, where other researchers can study which other afterschool activities have affected students’ identities, and how these other activities affect students’ social skills. Therefore, this Thesis leaves an opportunity to further exploration of the topic.