Physical self perceptions and global self-esteem in elite and non elite judo athletes

Introduction

The Physical Self-Perception Profile (PSPP) (Fox & Corbin, 1989) is a widely used instruments designed to assess self-perceptions in the physical domain. Recently it has been used in a diversity of sport and physical activity settings with different groups such as children (Crocker, Eklund & Kowalski, 2000; Raudsepp, Liblik, & Hannus, 2002) and adults (Smith, Hale & Collins, 1998). However not many studies have been conducted involving elite sport athletes. The aim of this study is to test the hypothesized three-level hierarchically organised model of self-perceptions in judo athletes, as well as to test differences in physical self-perceptions and global self-esteem (GSE) between elite and non-elite groups.

Methods

Participants were elite and non-elite Portuguese Judo athletes, 68 males (18.69±2.93 yrs) and 30 females (18.07±2.65 yrs) involved in the national trails for the national team. The PSPP and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) were administrated at the end of each training session using standardized instructions. Data analysis was conducted separately by gender and compared with other samples of the Portuguese population (Ferreira & Fox, 2003).

Results

Zero-order and partial correlation coefficients were used to analyse the inter-relationship among sub-scales and determine the degree of support for the hierarchical structure among PSPP constructs as well as with GSE. PSW demonstrated the strongest correlation with GSE. Each of the sub-domains showed stronger correlations with PSW than with each other. However GSE was negatively correlated with all PSPP domains.