George Parrott, Janine Taylor, Sheila Enes, Nick Galli
California State University, Sacramento
15 March 2001
Perceptions about the self and notably perceptions about the physical self
affect personality development and overall mental health (DiNucci, Finkenberg,
McCune, McCune, & Mayo, 1994). Studies have shown that participation in physical
activities, such as team and individual sports, has a positive impact on a
person's self-perceptions and self-esteem (Ferron, Narring, Cauderay, & Michaud,
1999; Huddy & Cash, 1997; Kamal, Blais, Kelly, & Ekstrand, 1995; Kamal, Blais,
McCarrey, Laramee, & Ekstrand, 1992; Spreitzer, 1994; Taylor, 1995). Huddy and
Craig (1997) conducted a study comparing 139 male participants in a 1993
marathon (an individual type sport) with 500 demographically-matched
non-participants. The marathon runners and the controls were given
multidimensional body-image inventory questions. The marathon participants were
found to evaluate their physical appearance and their health more positively
then the control group. However, the runners were found to be less invested in
their physical appearance than were the non-athletes. Another study of men and
women at the college and high-school levels did not find significant differences
between non-athletes and athletes (in both team and individual type sports) in
self-esteem (Ibrahim & Morrison, 1976). One possible reason for not having found
differences in this study is that the athletic group included both individual
and group-sport athletes. The differences found between athletes and
non-athletes in self-esteem in the Huddy and Cash (1997) study were based on
comparing atheletes involved in individual sports (running and swimming) to a
group of non-athletes. Therefore, it may be the case that individual-sport
athletes benefit more from participation in physical activity than do those
athletes involved in group-type sports when it comes to having a positive affect
on self- esteem.
Other studies have demonstrated that strong links exist between health status
and physical activity, sport practice, and level of fitness, even during the
critical personality development years of childhood and adolescence (Bouchard,
Sheperd, & Stephens, 1998; Baranoski et al., 1992). The research in this area
has been focused primarily on the positive effects that participation in
athletic activities has on self-esteem in young athletes (DiNucci et al., 1994).
Adolescents' participation in sports and their self-esteem appear to be
reciprocally related. Specifically, participation in athletic activities tends
to increase adolescents' self-esteem, and adolescents with higher self-esteem
have also been shown to be more likely to become further engaged in athletic
activities (Ferron, et al., 1999). However, it has also been found that the
amount of time adolescents spend involved in sports and physical activity
generally decreases with age (Illmarinen & Ruthenfranz, 1980).
Because involvement in physical activities has been shown to lead to higher
self-esteem, it was hypothesized that those athletes who maintained their
physical activity level would have higher self-esteem than those athletes who
did not.
Results:
Parrott Fitness Scale
The results in Table 2 indicate a significant main effect of athletic status (p
< .05), but not of age group (p > .05). Specifically, the athletes (M = 57.11,
SD = 8.70) were more deeply concerned with their physical fitness than were the
non-athletes (M = 51.26, SD = 10.66). The athletic status main effect accounted
for 5% of the variability in the fitness scale scores. The Age Group x Athletic
Status two-way interaction was not statistically significant (p > .05).
Rosenberg Self-Esteem
Results of simple effects tests for the Age Group x Athletic Status interaction
indicated that the young athletes and young non-athletes did not significantly
differ on Rosenberg self-esteem (p > .05). However, the older athletes had
significantly higher Rosenberg self-esteem than did the older non-athletes (p <
.05). In addition, the young athletes had significantly lower Rosenberg
self-esteem than did the older athletes (p < .05), but the younger non-athletes
and older non-athletes did not significantly differ from each other (p > .05).
The Age Group x Athletic Status interaction accounted for 9% of the variability
in the Rosenberg self-esteem scores.
Bohon Self-Esteem
The athletic status main effect accounted for 8% of the variability in the Bohon
self-esteem scores. The results also indicated a statistically significant Age
Group x Athletic Status two-way interaction (p < .05). Results of simple effects
tests for the interaction indicated that the younger athletes and younger
non-athletes did not significantly differ on Bohon self-esteem (p > .05).
However, the older athletes had significantly higher Bohon self-esteem than did
the older non- athletes (p < .05). The older athletes also had significantly
higher Bohon self-esteem than did the younger athletes (p < .05), but the
younger and older non-athletes did not significantly differ on Bohon self-esteem
(p > .05). The Age Group x Athletic Status two-way interaction accounted for 6%
of the variability in the Bohon self-esteem scores.
Table 1
Means for the Physical and Psychological Measures by Age Group and Athletic
Status
Age Group x Athletic Status
Young Older
Athlete Non-athlete Athlete Non-athlete
Dependent variable
M SD M
SD M SD
M SD
Parrot Fitness scale 57.50 9.28
51.27 11.45 56.00 6.93 51.25
10.07
Rosenberg self-esteem 26.67 5.35 29.53
6.04 33.64 5.23 27.58 5.52
Cooper-Smith self-esteem 100.23 14.73 99.53 11.88
110.43 14.50 99.33 7.80
Bohon self-esteem 28.13
4.56 27.87 2.95 32.14 4.57
26.83 4.13
Discussion:
The hypothesis that athletes who maintained their physical activity level would
have higher self-esteem than those athletes who did not was supported by two of
the three self-esteem scales used in this study. The results for the Bohon and
Rosenberg self-esteem scales indicated that older athletes (athletes who
maintained their activity level) had a higher level of self-esteem than the
older non-athletes (athletes who did not maintain their activity level). On
these two measures, participants who were older and still active had higher
self-esteem than those who were not active. However, the results for the
Cooper-Smith self-esteem scale did not indicate a significant difference between
the self-esteem levels of the older athletes and non-athletes. In fact, there
were no differences found between any of the groups on Cooper-Smith self-esteem.
The younger athletes and non-athletes were not found to differ from each other
on any of the self-esteem measures. This finding is very surprising, given the
fact that past research has shown athletic activity to have a positive effect on
self-esteem in younger persons. However, because the younger non-athletes in
this study were all college students, it could be the case that a difference was
not found because college student non-athletes have a higher level of
self-esteem than non-athletes who are not enrolled in college. When looking at
the Parrott Fitness Scale, the athletes were more concerned with physical
fitness (regardless of age) than were the non-athletes. This is not surprising
given the fact that the athletic status of the participants was determined based
on their self-reported minutes of physical activity performed weekly. These
findings do support the notion that physical fitness is linked with physical
activity.
[Further references and other details excluded from this summary are available
from: gparrott@csus.edu
This study was compiled and written up by Janine Taylor, a B.A. student of mine
in her assignment from me as part of her undergraduate research methods training
here at CSUS. She treated a part of some larger database that we are working
with examining broad aspects of "lifespan and the self."]