Relationship between Team Sports Participation, Self-Esteem and Academic Achievement in Male Secondary School Students
Authors
Carroll, Leanda
Issue Date
2015
Degree
BA (Hons) in Psychology
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
Adolescents face challenges, balancing sports participation with academic life. This study investigates relationships between team sports participation, self-esteem and academic achievement and whether academic streaming affects self-esteem. Irish male children (n = 87) aged 15 to 18 years completed the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A) measuring physical activity and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSES) measuring self-esteem. Combining students Maths and English streams identified a single score for academic achievement. No significant relationship was found between self-esteem, team sports participation and academic achievement. All hypotheses were rejected except the hypothesis examining self-esteem across the different Maths streams. This study found self-esteem differs significantly across the different Maths streams with students in stream eight having higher self-esteem indicating streaming students can impact self-esteem. This wasn’t the case for English. Future studies, which include broader measures of physical activity and assess the multidimensional nature of self-esteem, rather than global self-esteem are warranted. Author keywords: Team, Sports, Self-Esteem, Academic, Achievement Streaming