Relationship Between Self-Esteem and Athletic Participation

The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between one’s participation in athletics and levels of self-esteem. Researchers wanted to examine if a person’s participation in competitive sports led to higher levels of self-esteem as opposed to those who do not participate in organized or competitive sports. Participants were found using convenience sampling exclusively on the campus of a religiously affiliated university. A survey was created electronically using the program Qualtrics. The survey measured athletic participation by asking participants how many competitive sports they were participants of. Self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. A sample of 98 total surveys were used from the surveys completed (no sports = 28; one sport = 55; two sports = 10; three sports = 1; four or more sports = 4) and the data were analyzed using SPSS. The mean score on the self-esteem scale was 36.82 (SD=5.93). For the sports participation scale it was 1.96 (SD=0.90). Results indicate a moderate positive correlation was found between the two variables, r (98) = .330, p \u3c .001 supporting the hypothesis that there is a positive correlation between athletic participation and self-esteem. One of the limitations of this study is that its sample was taken exclusively from one religiously affiliated university which is not representative of the entire population of college students or athletes. However, future studies done using participants of religiously affiliated institutions may explore the impact religious beliefs have on self-esteem