The relationship between high school athletic participation and self-esteem of high school students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to document the self-reported participation of high school athletics and the level of self-esteem reported by traditional high school students at a small Mid-western school in Wisconsin. Data was collected during the fall of 2003 by a survey distributed in the high school 9-12 English courses, and the freshmen civics class. Research has shown that participating in athletics is a way students can obtain high self-esteem. Since the very first years of school, students are required or have the option to engage in some form of physical activity. Athletics provides a vehicle for enhancing the educational, social, emotional, and physical development of each student. Under certain circumstances the decrease in athletic participation is a problem, because along with this decrease comes lower self-esteem of students. One important role of educators is attending to students' self-esteem issues, which could entail providing options to improve self-concepts. Athletics give students a chance to raise their esteem through opportunities to succeed in a particular sport; however, there may be times when opposite is true. An important aspect of American culture is athletics, either as players or spectators. Therefore, one could conclude that athletics play a big role in shaping students' self-esteem. This study examined the self-reported self-esteem of high school students enrolled at a small school in the mid-west and their self-reported level of athletic involvement in high school. The data collected was to consider interventions to enhance the level of self-esteem of high school students. The subjects who participated in this study were from English classes and a high school civics class during the fall semester of 2003. The school district administration granted me permission to conduct my research with the high school students. Inquiry of high school teachers on using their students as subjects was the next step in selecting subjects. After getting their permission, the researcher attended the classes at the beginning of the hour ad introduced the study to the students. The research then handed out parental consent forms to be taken home and signed by a parent. Once the students had parental consent and signed the forms themselves, the researcher proceeded to administer the survey. Surveys were returned anonymously. Males and females were both represented in the study. The survey included a self-esteem inventory and questions relating to present high school athletic participation. The survey was a revised version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory with a reliability of .85. The results from this study did not find significant differences in self-reported self-esteem of students who did and did not participate in high school athletics. A summary of findings and recommendations for further research were included.