The Role of Professional Sport on Social Development Indicators in Iran

The present study was designed and conducted with the aim of investigating the role of professional sports development on the indicators of social development in Iran. The present study is one of the mixed researches which was done qualitatively and quantitatively. The statistical population included elites and experts in the social and sports fields and were familiar with the research topic. Based on the targeted sampling method, 13 people were identified as participants in the qualitative research section. Also, based on the selection of the total number, all of these individuals were examined as a research sample in the quantitative section. The data collection tools in the present study included an interview and a researcher-made questionnaire. In order to analyze the data of the present research, coding was used in the qualitative part and structural equation method was used in a small part. All the process of data analysis of the present research was performed in the software of version 20 and version 2 of the software. In the qualitative stage, 42 characteristics were extracted through interviews, which were classified into 7 general indicators of social development, including justice, social capital, social vitality, social welfare, social development ethics, social security and social health. The research results showed that the development of professional sports on the social capital index (effect= 0.857, sig= 0.001), social welfare (effect= 0.748, sig= 0.001) and social health (effect= 0.718, sig= 0.001) is more effective than other indicators of social development.