Journal of Health, Medicine and Nursing www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8419 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.42, 2017 103 Assessment of Sportsmanship in Case of Institutionalized Adolescents, Deprived of Parental Cares Nezabravka Gencheva 1* Mariana Angelcheva 2 Todor Marinov 3 Ignat Ignatov 4 1. PhD, Professor, Department of Kinesitherapy and Rehabilitation, National Sports Academy Vasil Levski, 1 Gurgulyat St., Sofia 1000, Bulgaria 2. PhD, Medical Doctor, Senior Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesitherapy and Rehabilitation, National Sports Academy Vasil Levski, 1 Gurgulyat St., Sofia 1000, Bulgaria 3. PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Kinesitherapy and Rehabilitation, National Sports Academy Vasil Levski, 1 Gurgulyat St., Sofia 1000, Bulgaria 4. DSc, Professor, Scientific Research Center of Medical Biophysics (SRCMB), 32 N. Kopernik St., Sofia 1111, Bulgaria Abstract Sportsmanship is a behavior, coherent to the normative standards concerning social and moral interrelation communications in the field of sport activities. Our aim is to study the purposefulness to a sportsmanlike behavior in the group of actively sporting children deprived of parental cares, who were brought up in the Bulgarian special social institutions. The respondent group includes 36 children – 27 girls, training basketball and track-and-field athletics, and 9 boys, training basketball; all are coming from children social institutions. We evaluate the meaningfulness towards fair sportive behavior using the Multidimensional Sportspersonship Orientation Scale Measurements, MSOS, developed by Vallerand, Briere, Blanchard and Provencher (1997). The children, deprived of parental cares, who were engaged in various sports, do not demonstrate lower sportsmanship standards than the children, coming from normal families and engaged in the same form of sport activities. Social status of the institutionalized children does not negatively influence their respect for the established fair play rules in case of purposeful sport activities. The athletic behavior helps to diminish the ill- tempered or harmful sportsmen manifestations in a sport competition environment. However, whether it will be transferred into a normative practice into their everyday life out of the sport terrain is a subject matter to future studies. Keywords: sportsmanship, adolescents, social institution, sport. 1. Introduction It is proved that in human communication sport is a universal language and powerful tool for mutual understanding. Due to its capacity to unite people without paying attention to their culture or religion, it could contribute to the development of behavioral skills as tolerance and reconciliation as universal values. The idea about the fair play is a focus, a central spot at each athletic level (Knortz, 2002). Sportsmanship is a multifactorial construct, constituted of five subscales that measure the attitudes towards the rules and norms established in the respective environment; toward the training and competition process; the opponent athletes and officials; towards empathy for the rival; it is an attitude towards the training process, per se. Sportsmanship is coherent to the normative standards of social and moral relationships in the sporting field. Usually sportsmanship is bound with behavioral virtues and norms, consistent with the sportive spirit (Stornes & Bru, 2002). According to Arnold (1984) the sportsmanship is depicted as generosity/magnanimity, good sense of humor, respect, good manners and civility, amiability, compassion, altruism and liberality. The good sportsman holds in the competition spirit; in his mind its perception is strongly connected with the above-mentioned virtues. To be a sportsman means to adhere to the dividing lines drawn by the imposed already set of stereotypes for what is permitted, what is collegial and moral; some sportsmen often jump over these limits because of their will to win a victory “at any cost”. (Georgiev , Fenerova. 2014). The sportsmen, even the most renown, possess some defects that are typical for everybody in the general human population. They also follow some explicit behavioral lines, they have their own personal life-standards and norms like all common people. Participation in competitions imposes on them specific rules and norms which quite often unfavorably and destructively influence over the competitor, himself/herself. Thus, s/he may demonstrate lack of respect and self-control, intolerant behavior, and even aggression towards the people around him/her - athletes, trainers of the opposite team, judges, officials. In other cases, the athlete refuses to fulfill the trainer’s instructions and breaks through every restraint. Each behavior may be non-sportive if the sportsman uses unallowed, illegal, i.e. non-sanctioned actions against their opponents and so affects the final results. Children, who start to attend sport activities, learn about sportsmanship from their trainers, parents and relatives, from the television sport broadcasts. The grow-ups perceive the behavior models of their sport idols and if they operate in sportive manners, the future sportsmen will set up a conduct, adequate not only to the field of sportive games, but also to the field of the life games. In any case, no matter whether the final result is