Physical activity and self-concept in gifted students: A comparison with non-gifted students

ABSTRACT

Physical activity plays an important role in individuals’ physical and psychological health. However, there is scarce evidence on how physical activity is associated with socioemotional aspects in gifted students. This is of special importance since previous research showed that gifted students scored significantly lower on physical self-concept when compared with their non-gifted peers. This study aimed to measure the associations between physical activity and different dimensions of academic, physical, and global self-concept in a sample of 10- to 18-year-old Spanish gifted students. It also investigated differences with non-gifted students on physical activity, self-concept, and their associations. The study involved measuring the physical activity levels of 219 gifted and 242 non-gifted students through PAQ-A, following a cross-sectional design. It relied on SDQ-II and CAF to measure academic, physical, and global self-concepts and included the importance accorded to self-concepts. Results showed that gifted students scored higher on academic self-concept and lower on self-perceived athletic ability. Physical activity was associated with better physical and global self-concepts, with no differences between gifted and non-gifted participants. No interactions between giftedness and physical activity appeared. Both samples’ self-concept may benefit from physical activity equally. Strategies for promoting physical activity should be endorsed also in gifted students.

KEYWORDS:

• Giftedness
• health habits
• self-esteem
• psychological wellbeing
• adolescence
• cross-sectional

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the schools, associations and other organizations that made this study possible, especially persons in charge of them and all the families who participated and were interested in our work.

Disclosure statement

Authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest relevant to the content of this study.

Supplemental online material

Tables S1a to S4i are provided as supplemental material.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport [Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte; reference: FPU16/00082]. The researchers also acknowledge the support of the of the University of Castilla-La Mancha and the ERDF [Resolución de 19/02/2020, de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha; reference: 2020-GRIN-28731] for the edition of this work.