| Complexity level: | 7 |
| Project cost ($): | 20 |
| Time required: | 1 hour to prepare, 1 hour for experiment |
| Material availability: | Self-esteem survey forms are commercially available |
| Safety concerns: | None |
Hypothesis
Participants who are active in sports have higher self-esteem.
Overview
Effect of sports on self-esteem
Self-esteem is all about how a person feels about themselves and their self-worth. Our own self-esteem is essentially an opinion made by us about ourselves. When we have very high self-esteem, we will handle ourselves confidently, and have positive attitudes towards life.
The important period for the development of self-esteem in a person is between childhood and adolescence. Parents, teachers and coaches and specifically, their relationships and interactions with a child, play a very important role in developing self-confidence and positive thinking in the child during this period.
Being good at sports can help to improve a child's self-esteem. The success a child experiences in sports helps to build their confidence and self-worth. Positive self-esteem also helps children to cope better with wins and losses .
Materials
The materials required for the experiment:
- 5 boys and 5 girls 16 years of age who are active in sports
- 5 boys and 5 girls 16 years of age who are not active in sports
- A self-esteem survey form
- An examination room
Procedure
1. For this experiment, the independent variable is whether or not the participant is active in sports. The dependent variable is the result of the self-esteem survey. This is determined by reviewing the answers provided by each participant. The constants (control variables) are the age of the participants and the time given to complete the survey.
2. Five boys and five girls 16 years of age who are actively involved in sports and another five boys and five girls who are not active in sports are randomly selected to take part in the survey.
3. A self esteem survey-test is acquired for the purposes of this project. These tests are commercially available (eg. Sorensen/Coopersmith)
4. Twenty copies are made of the self-esteem survey form. The participants are brought to the examination room. They are seated and given 30 minutes to complete the survey form. At the end of the 30 minutes the survey forms are collected from the participants.
5. The score for each survey form is calculated. The results are recorded in the table given below. The level of self-esteem is determined from the totaled points as follows :
• Between 120 to 140 - High self esteem
• Between 90 to 120 – Average self esteem
• Below 90 – Low self esteem
Results
The results of our test indicated that participants who are active in sports have a higher than average self-esteem than participants who were not involved in sports (who had an average self-esteem)
Conclusion
The hypothesis that participants who are active in sports have a higher self esteem is proven to be true.
Getting involved in sports is a very good way of building character and confidence in young children. This will help them to improve their self- esteem and become more confident.
Also consider
The experiment can also be performed to examine whether students who achieve high results for their academic subjects, have a greater self esteem than average students.
You might also wish to investigate whether age matters - ie: do your results differ for older children/teenagers? How about adults?
Perhaps the number of participants should be increased for better results.
References
Building self-esteem through sports - http://healthpromotiontips.com/building-self-esteem-through-sports/
How sports effect self esteem and family life? - http://sitemaker.umich.edu/dolan.356/sports_and_self-esteem
