Poster #215 - Physical Activity’s Impact on Multiple Facets of Self-Concept in Fourth Graders

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

From a developmental perspective, self-concept plays an important role on many different psychological aspects, such as personality, health, social development, and education. Physical activity, on the other side, is essential for physical health and psychological well-being, and also contributes to a positive and healthy self-concept (Marsh & Craven, 2006).
Today, there is strong evidence that physical activity enhances physical self-concept and to some degree also global self-concept. The impact of physical activity on other aspects of self-concept, however, has rarely been addressed, and, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies investigating the effect of physical activity on the complete range of established self-concept facets simultaneously. Moreover, the persistent lack of answers regarding the question of the amount of physical activity needed to improve one’s self-concept has to be stressed (Leith, 2010).
In addressing these pending issues, physical activity and self-concept were assessed in 146 fourth graders (mean age = 10.3 years). Physical activity (frequency and duration) was assessed by the MoMo-questionnaire (Bös et al., 2004). To determine the required amount of physical activity, three groups representing different activity categories (no-sports, up-to-two-hours-a-week, more-than-two-hours-a-week) were compared. Self-concept was assessed along the eight domains as provided by the SDQ-I (Marsh, 1992), i.e., academic (mathematical, verbal, general school), social (peer and parent relations), physical (physical ability, physical appearance), and general self-concept.
Correlation analyses showed that physical activity was not only significantly related to the physical ability self-concept (r = .347) and the general self-concept (r = .194), but also significantly to the peer relations (r = .270), general school (r = .199), and mathematical (r = .193) self-concept. Thus, although physical activity is primarily related to physical self-concept, it also plays an important role in developing a positive social and school-related self-concept.
The group-comparisons (one-tailed Mann-Whitney-U-Tests) between the no-sports group and the up-to-two-hours-sports group showed substantiated differences in general self-concept (p < .001). The up-to-two-hours and the more-than-two-hours groups differed in physical ability (p < .001), peer relations (p = .044) and mathematical self-concept (p = .009). The no-sports and the more-than-two-hours groups differed in physical ability (p < .001), peer relations (p = .014), general school (p = .048) and general self-concept (p < .001). These results indicate that even a moderate amount of physical activity fosters general self-concept; to improve social and academic self-concept facets, in contrast, volumes of two hours of physical activity or more a week seem to be necessary.
Taken together, the present investigation shows that physical activity, in addition to its positive effects on physical health, positively affects preadolescents’ self-concept. Extending previous work, we demonstrate that physical activity—as a function of weekly training volume—not only improves physical ability self-concept, but also has an impact on the social and academic facets of self-concept. In conclusion, our results point to completely new approaches for engaging in the promotion of preadolescents’ physical, social and academic development.

Authors

• Laura Claude Dapp, University of Bern
  Presenting Author

• Claudia Roebers, Bern University
  Non-Presenting Author