Self-esteem in the everyday life of students, depending on nutritional status and motives for physical activity

Introduction. Balanced nutrition and physical activity are key determinants of human health at any age.The aim of the study was to analyse the relationship between self-esteem in everyday life, nutritional status and motives for physical activity among students of fields related and unrelated to health care.Material and methods. The study was conducted among 400 students of the State Higher Vocational School in Tarnow (200 students of fields related to health care and 200 students of other fields). The Motives for Physical Activity Measure – Revised (MPAM-R) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) were applied. Measurements of body weight and height were carried out to calculate the Body Mass Index (BMI). Basic descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis test, chi-squared test and Spearman’s correlation index were used to describe the results. Differences were considered significant when p<0.05.Results. 67 students (16.75%) were overweight, 19 (4.75%) were underweight and 8 (2.00%) were obese. There were no statistically significant differences between the field of study and nutritional status of students (p>0.05). Students of health care-related fields gave higher ratings for their physical fitness (p<0.05). The average rate of motivation for engaging in physical activity among the studied group was 144.6 (± 37.0 points). Students gave the highest ratings for the domain of “fitness”, followed by “appearance”, “enjoyment”, “competence”, and the lowest ratings for “social”. Higher scores in terms of MPAM-R were obtained by students of health care-related fields (p<0.001). Students of fields related and unrelated to health care did not differ in the level of self-esteem (p>0.05). The BMI did not significantly affect the motivation of students for engaging in physical activity or the level of their self-esteem (p>0.05). The study showed a significant positive correlation between the MPAM-R and SES scores (p<0.05).Conclusion. Factors such as nutritional status and field of study do not affect the level of the student's self-esteem. Higher levels of self-esteem were associated with greater motivation for engaging in physical activity. Greater motivation for engaging in physical activity was demonstrated by the students of health care-related fields.