Self-esteem, self-concept and academic performance in middle-school students according to their sport context

• Autor(a) principal: Honório, Samuel
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Ramos, Luis, Santos, Jorge, Serrano, João, Petrica, João, Batista, Marco
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.11/8539
• topic: Self-concept; Self-esteem; Academic performance; Sports Context; Children

Introduction: Academic performance is favored in students who practice sports with body contact and develops an increasing value in self-concept when a comparison is established with those who don’t are engaged in sports without body contact. Methods: This study aimed to analyze and relate variables of self-concept, self-esteem and other variables such as aerobic capacity (VO2 max), handgrip strength and academic achievement, within the modalities that they practiced, with and without body contact. 132 middle-school students between 10 and 11 years old (69 boys and 63 girls) who attended the 5th and 6th grades participated. Results: It was found a mean level of behavior, physical appearance, school competence, social acceptance and higher academic performance in the group without body contact. A T-test was applied on self-concept variables, self-esteem, aerobic capacity (VO2 max) and academic performance, and the Mann-Whitney test on physical appearance variables and handgrip strength, finding only differences in the behavior variable, with a value of α = 0.014. A linear regression analysis was also presented in order to identify the best predictors of academic performance Conclusions: The practice of sports with body contact promotes a significant increase in behavior levels, compared to students without body contact, however the practice of this type of sports doesn’t show higher levels of self-esteem and academic performance, once compared to other students practicing sports without body contact. The best predictors identified were global self-concept, school competence and aerobic capacity.