The Relationship between Sports Participation, Psychology and Self Esteem among Malaysian Para Athletes

Abstract

Introduction: Self-esteem is the comprehension a person makes of worth, in view of feelings and convictions about someone's fits into or performs in any given setting in life. Self-esteem is a term utilized as a part of brain research to reflect an individual's general passionate assessment of someone’s particular worth. Individuals with physical disabilities generally have a more negative physical self-concept than other people, but people with physical disability involved in regular sports practice can report higher levels of physical self than sedentary individuals without a disability

Objectives: The main purpose of the present study was to determine the self-esteem level among national para-athletes in sport participation and to identify if there is any relationship among them in sport participation. Methods: A total of 100 persons with disability (56 males and 44 females) aged between 11 and 60 years old was been selected for this study. They are para-athletes representing Malaysia who are been institutionalized at Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Paralimpik, Kampung Pandan, Kuala Lumpur.  They completed the Trait Sports Confidence Inventory (TSCI) questionnaire that has consistently been used to measure self-esteem among athletes. The study also uses BUCS Disability Sport Questionnaire. This questionnaire was used to measure participation in sport. Sports participation was related to all indices of self-esteem and this was equally true for male and female para-athletes.

Results The findings reveal that 29.5% of female para-athletes have high self-esteem compared to 23.2% of male para-athletes. Besides, the finding that high confidence among female para-athletes appears to have generally more all-around expounded learning of self-pertinent others fits well with various late examinations showing that females are more worried than males with building up a cozy relationship and furthermore better at doing as such.   A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relationship between gender and level of self-esteem among the para-athletes in sports participation. The relations were non-significant, X² (2, N=100) = 1.25, p=0.535).

Conclusions: This situation occurs because this study involved respondents with disability. Their ability of thinking is not the same as able-bodied athletes. It is shown that para-athletes are more relaxed compared with able-bodied athletes before a competition. It has been recommended, that it is essential to increase participation in sports because such participation can empower para-athletes to set and attain goals and reach a higher self-esteem and quality of life on their own terms.

Keywords: self-esteem, gender, person with disabilities, sport participation