The self-esteem, goal orientation, and health-related physical fitness of active and inactive adolescent students

Abstract

A purposive sample of 200 (100 active and 100 inactive) adolescent students between 11 and 17 years (mean age of active students 13.40 ± 1.64 and inactive students 13.18 ± 1.40) were invited to participate in this study. The self-esteem and goal orientation of the students were determined with Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale (1965) and the Task- and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ), respectively. The health-related behavior and physical fitness of the students were determined by five tests measuring upper body strength, muscular endurance, aerobic endurance, flexibility, and body composition. Group comparisons of active and inactive students were done using descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests, while Chi square tests were used to determine the adolescents’ time spent on sedentary activities, specifically on “Sunday” and the “Other Weekdays.” The results showed a significant difference between both groups on all of the parameters of health-related physical fitness components, self-esteem, and goal orientation. Active students had higher self-esteem and task orientation, whereas inactive students showed lower self-esteem and higher ego orientation levels.

Keywords:

• active and inactive adolescence
• self-esteem
• goal orientation
• health behavior
• physical fitness

Public Interest Statement

Active lifestyle development turns to be common health goal in nations. Sports participation provide ample opportunities to make role models toward positive development among young people. Physical activity thus a key component in the development of physical and psychological health benefits during adolescence. Many of these works, for example, focus on games, physical activities, and sports as the media. Nevertheless, how these elements link with the successful works for active living is still the question for answer. The present investigation intended to identify elements that have a relationship to the development of active and inactive lifestyle development. The finding supports the observation that active students have higher self-esteem (SE) and task orientation (EO) behavior, whereas inactive students indicate the development of lower SE and higher EO levels. This information serves as an important message for personnel who works in the field of physical education that self-esteem and task orientation are the two important directions and concerns for the development of behavior in active living.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interest.

Acknowledgment

The authors extend their cordial thanks to all of the participants in this study, who were immensely cooperative during the tests. The authors are also grateful to Dr. Babar Ali Khan and Dr. Tommy Jose for their support and cooperation throughout the entire project. The authors are also thankful to Miss Mehbiz Begum (Erudite Academy, Diphu) and Shaheen Begum (Abeda Inamdar College, Pune University) for their great help with the data capturing.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Md. Dilsad Ahmed

Md. Dilsad Ahmed obtained his PhD at the SGB Amravati University, India. Currently, he is working as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Macau. He was also a visiting scholar at the Korea Institute of Sports Sciences, South Korea and a research assistant at the UM, Macau from 2014 to 2016. He is the recipient of several national and international awards which includes CPI fellowship; South Korea, and Best Scholar Award; South Korea, Rajguru academic Award and DG Commendation Award from India. He is now actively involved in the works of International Society for Comparative Physical Education and Sport. Dilsad’s research is centered on measuring quality physical education, sexual abuse in sports, physical activity and health-related parameters, scale construction (psychometrics) and measuring other positive psychology constructs among youth and university level athletes. The works on these research interests need collaborative efforts with other international partners and this initiation attracts the attention of researchers coming from more than 40 universities.