Psychological features of self-attitude of teenagers engaged in sports

Iakimanskaia Irina ORCID: 0000-0001-7503-9848 PhD in Psychology Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Orenburg State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation 460000, Russia, Orenburg region, Orenburg, ul. Sovetskaya, 6 Yakimanskay@narod.ru Other publications by this author

Modern man is included in a complex hierarchical system of social relations. The most important form of a person's relationship can be called her attitude to herself. It is also important that each manifestation of a person as a subject of society is accompanied by the inclusion of his self-attitude in this process. 

Self-attitude has been a traditional object of research for psychology over the last hundred years of its history. During this time, the richest theoretical and experimental data on the study of self-attitude as an object of psychological analysis have been accumulated, the mechanisms of its formation, features of functioning and structure have been revealed ^[1,2,3]. 

The importance of studying the influence of self-attitude on human behavior is revealed. At the same time, its socio-psychological and clinical component is noted and its direct connection with the well-being, mental and physical health of a person, as well as with satisfaction with their social relationships ^[4,5,6]. The attitude of a person to himself influences the manifestation of social activity, determines its adequacy and differentiation, acts as a motive for self-regulation of behavior and is actualized at all stages of implementation behavioral act^[7,8].   

Thus, the study of the processes of formation and development of self-attitude in the process of various types of human activity, and sports activity in particular, allows us to reveal the mechanisms of adequate formation of a healthy, both physically and psychologically, personality ^{[9, 10]}. 

In modern psychology, such terms as sympathy, self-esteem, self-love, self-acceptance, self-esteem, a sense of location, self-confidence, self-blame, self-humiliation are used to denote self-attitude in general and its aspects. Such a different terminology reflects both different views on the phenomenological content, and just a difference in word usage. The methodology of our research is based on the data of Russian psychology - the works of A.G. Spirkin, A.N. Leontiev, E.V. Shorokhova, S.L. Rubinstein, I.I. Chesnokova and I.S. Kon and many others.   

The structure of self-attitude and its components are determined by various researchers from the standpoint of various theoretical foundations and methodological views of the direction in which the attitude of the individual to himself is studied.

The self-attitude of a teenager is constantly changing in the process of living this age period. Its complication, acquisition of greater stability and integration into a single system is natural. The study of self-attitude is of great importance precisely in adolescence, since this age is a sensitive period for the development of self-attitude in the integral structure of personality ^[11,12,13]. 

Sport is a specific type of activity. In the process of sports activity, the specificity of which primarily lies in the fact that both the object and the subject of this activity is the person himself, there is a development of important personality traits, which in turn include self-attitude ^[14,15,16]. 

The novelty of our research is connected with an attempt to analyze the self-attitude of adolescents at the beginning of their sports career, according to a review of publications ^[14,16], it is the analysis of the features of self-esteem at the dawn of a sports career, its differences from the self-esteem of adolescents who do not engage in sports, that has been studied incompletely. Our results will expand the understanding in this topic.

The purpose of the study: to study the peculiarities of athletes' self-attitude in adolescence, when a person has not yet formed professional self-determination, and sport is not a leading activity, but still turns out to be significant in the formation of a teenager's personality; to identify differences in the self-attitude of adolescents engaged and not engaged in sports.

Subject of research: a set of features of the self-attitude of adolescents engaged in sports.

The hypothesis of the study consists in the assumption that the level of general self-attitude and its individual indicators in adolescents engaged in sports differs from the level of general self-attitude and its individual indicators in adolescents not engaged in sports.

For the experimental study, we selected the following methods:

1. The methodology of R.S. Pantileev's self-attitude research (MIS)

2. Methods of studying general self-esteem for adolescents Kazantseva G.N.

3. Dembo-Rubinstein self-esteem research methodology

4. Test of life-meaning orientations by D. Crambo and L. Maholik, adaptation by D.A. Leontiev (SOE)

5. The author's questionnaire (proposed by us), aimed at finding out the duration of sports.

The study was conducted on a group of teenagers - high school students in the number of 60 people, the age of the subjects is 15-16 years. The research base is an educational institution of Orenburg.

When analyzing the results, it was found that the overall level of self-esteem according to the questionnaire of G.N. Kazantseva in the group of adolescent athletes and in the group of adolescent non-athletes differs, the significance of the differences according to the Mann-Whitney U-criterion at the significance level p? 0.05. Thus, in the group of adolescent athletes, the average level of self-esteem was 4.7 points, and in the group of adolescents who do not engage in sports – 2.14 (average self-esteem according to the method from -3 to 3 points). 81% of the subjects have high self-esteem in the group of adolescent athletes, average 19%, low 0%. In the group of those who do not play sports, these figures differ significantly: high self-esteem 34%, average 60% and low 6%. That is, in the group of teenagers involved in sports, high self-esteem prevails, a smaller part is occupied by the average level, and there is no low self-esteem at all. In the group of schoolchildren who do not play sports, the predominance of the average level of self-esteem is found, a third of the values are high and a small part are low.

Concluding that the level of self-esteem of teenagers involved in sports significantly exceeds the level of self-esteem of teenagers not involved in sports, we can ask the question, what exactly do teenage athletes rate themselves "higher" than other teenagers? In order to obtain a more extensive picture describing the features of the self-attitude of adolescents involved in sports, we selected such methods as the Dembo-Rubinstein self-assessment method, R.S. Pantileeva MIS and D.Krambo, L. Maholika, the results of the study for which are presented below.

The teenagers assessed their state of health, character, intelligence, abilities, authority, appearance and self-confidence. Comparing the results of the groups, it was found that the self-esteem of adolescents involved in sports is higher than the self-esteem of adolescents not involved in sports. This can be traced both at the trend level (the "good character – bad character" scale) and is reliably confirmed using the Mann-Whitney U-test (significance level p?0.01).

Significant differences at the significance level of p?0.01 were found between the groups engaged in sports and not engaged in sports on the healthy –sick scale of the Dembo-Rubinstein technique. The athletes' self–esteem was higher (the average value was 80 points) than the self-esteem of non-athletes (65 points). We assume that athletes rate themselves healthier, compared to classmates who do not play sports. In relation to their own health, their self–esteem is mostly overestimated - 60% of adolescents have a self-esteem of health above the norm, while only 20% of adolescents who do not play sports have an overestimated self-esteem. Also, among teenage athletes, there are fewer owners of a low level of self-esteem – only 4% against 17% among teenagers who are not athletes.

According to the "good character – bad character" scale, no significant differences were found (Mann-Whitney U-test), however, at the level of tendency, adolescent athletes also have higher self-esteem of character than non-athletes: the average value is 65 points, when non–athletes have 53. Also, as in the self-assessment of health, it is found that overestimated scores are more pronounced in the group of adolescents involved in sports (36% - athletes, 6% - non-athletes), although the severity of low self-esteem of character in the group involved in sports (32%) is equal to the indicators of average self-esteem, and lower than the severity of very high self-assessment.

Significant differences were found in the sample on the "smart – stupid" scale (significance level p?0.01). The level of self-esteem of the mind, which, in fact, is nothing more than a generalized characteristic of a person's cognitive abilities, turned out to be higher in adolescent athletes (average value – 76 points) than in adolescent non-athletes (62 points), which is reflected in the studies of other psychologists ^{[17,18,19,20]}.   It is significant that the overwhelming part of the values in the group engaged in sports account for "high" and "very high" self–esteem (44% and 44%), while in the group not engaged in sports it is within the norm - "average" and "high" self-esteem (26% and 37%).

According to the "able – unable" scale, significant differences in indicators were also revealed between groups of adolescent athletes and adolescent non-athletes (significance level p?0.01). Teenagers who are engaged in sports evaluate their abilities higher than their peers who are not involved in sports: the average values are 87 for teenage athletes and 71 for teenagers who are not athletes.  In two groups, self–assessment on the "able - unable" scale has a pronounced frequency of average values among all seven scales of the methodology. Moreover, the vast majority of teenagers from the group of athletes (84%) rate their abilities very highly, in the group not involved in sports, this figure is much lower – 43%.

Statistically significant differences were found on the scale "authoritative among peers – despised by peers" (significance level p?0.01). Teenagers who play sports consider themselves more authoritative among their peers (the average value is 75 points) than their peers who do not play sports (60 points). In the group of adolescent athletes, as well as in the results of previous scales, the largest percentage of adolescents have a very high level of self-esteem – 44%, while in the group of adolescent non-athletes, this figure is only 11%.

The results on the "handsome – ugly" scale also showed differences in the level of self-esteem in the groups of adolescent athletes and adolescent non-athletes (significance level p?0.01). Teenagers who do sports rate themselves as "beautiful" to a greater extent (the average value is 81 points) than those who do not do sports (62 points). Also, 60% of teenagers from the group of athletes have a very high level of self-esteem of their appearance, whereas in the group of teenagers who are not athletes, the levels of self–esteem on the "beautiful – ugly" scale were distributed almost evenly: low self–esteem – 26%, average – 29%, high - 23%, very high - 23%.

Significant differences in the level of self-esteem between groups of adolescent athletes and adolescent non-athletes were also found on the "self–confident - insecure" scale (with a significance level of p?0.01). Teenagers from the group engaged in sports rate themselves as more confident in themselves (the average value is 82 points) than their peers from the group not engaged in sports (61 points). We would like to note that of the seven indicators, the average values on the "self–confident - insecure" scale have the greatest discrepancy between the two groups (21 points), which indicates the greatest severity of this trait in the group of adolescent athletes. Also, as in the results on the other six scales, the majority of adolescent athletes (68%) have a self-esteem level of "very high", whereas in the group of adolescent non-athletes such self–esteem on the scale of "self-confident - insecure"  they have only 20%.

The level of claims of adolescents from the group of athletes exceeds the level of claims of adolescents from the group of non–athletes, however, statistically significant differences were found only on the scale "beautiful - ugly" (with a significance level of p ?0.05). Teenagers who play sports, apparently, pay more attention to their appearance than teenagers who do not play sports, and feel more attractive more than their peers.

After analyzing the data we obtained, we found statistically significant differences (according to the Mann-Whitney U-criterion) in the degree of discrepancy between the level of claims and self–esteem in adolescents who play sports and adolescents who do not play sports on the following scales: "healthy – sick" (p?0.01), "smart - stupid" (p?0.05), "capable-incapable" (p?0.01), "self–confident - not self-confident" (p?0.01). The degree of discrepancy between the level of claims and self-esteem according to these parameters in adolescent athletes is significantly lower than in adolescent non-athletes. It can be assumed that, despite the predominantly inflated self-esteem, adolescents from the group of athletes as a whole are more satisfied with their level of health, intelligence, abilities and self-confidence than their peers who do not play sports.

After analyzing the results of the study using the method of R.S. Pantileev's MIS, we found that adolescents from the group of athletes and adolescents from the group of non-athletes have differences in the structure of self-attitude, reliably confirmed using the Mann-Whitney U-test (significance level p?0.05). The level of self-attitude of adolescent athletes turns out to be higher than the level of self-attitude of adolescent non-athletes on the scales of "Self-worth" and "Self-attachment".

It can be assumed that teenagers who play sports feel the value of their own personality and the supposed value of their own "I" for other people, to a greater extent than teenagers who do not play sports. Most of the athletes have a high level of self-worth, which helps them feel more confident and adequately perceive criticism in their address.

Also, teenagers who play sports have a higher self-attachment. In general, the level of self-attachment of teenagers from the group of athletes may indicate satisfaction with themselves, their personal qualities at the moment. However, this also indicates some rigidity, less desire to change compared to a group of teenagers who are not athletes. These results are confirmed by data on the Dembo-Rubinstein methodology, in which the degree of discrepancy between the level of claims and self-esteem of adolescent athletes on most scales is significantly lower than the degree of discrepancy of adolescent non-athletes.

The overall level of meaningfulness of life (OJ) of adolescents engaged and not engaged in sports also found significantly significant differences at p?0.01 (according to the Mann-Whitney U-criterion). The average level of meaningfulness of the life of teenagers from the group of athletes was 116 points, while the average level of meaningfulness of the life of non–athletes was 100.

In the SOE test, life is considered meaningful if there are goals, satisfaction obtained when they are achieved and confidence in one's own ability to set goals, choose tasks from available ones, and achieve results. High meaningfulness of life turned out to be characteristic of 44% of adolescents involved in sports, and 20% of adolescents not involved in sports (Table 1).

Table 1 The overall level of meaningfulness of the life of adolescents who are engaged and not engaged in sports, the SOE test (as a percentage)

The average level of meaningfulness of life was found in 56% of adolescent athletes and 60% of adolescent non-athletes. The low level in adolescent athletes did not manifest itself at all, in adolescent non-athletes, it manifested itself in 20% of the guys.

We noted that for all five subscales of the test, as well as on the scale of the overall meaningfulness of life in adolescents involved in sports, low indicators were either not detected at all, or amounted to 4%, whereas in adolescents not involved in sports, this figure ranged from 11 to 26%. A similar trend can be traced in other tests, and characterizes teenagers involved in sports as more confident in themselves, their abilities to set goals and achieve them, as well as to get satisfaction from the very process of achieving goals than teenagers who do not play sports.

This trend is confirmed by the significant differences found using the Mann-Whitney U-test in the level of such life–meaning orientations as "Goals in life", "The Process of life", "Locus of control - I", as well as the general meaningfulness of life.

In the course of the study, we discovered some features of the self-attitude of teenagers involved in sports. The obtained data and theoretical assumptions allowed us to conclude that the hypothesis was confirmed. Based on empirical data, the results were found that allowed us to identify a set of features of the self-attitude of adolescents involved in sports, and draw the following conclusions.

1. Teenagers who play sports have generally higher self-esteem than their peers who do not play sports. There are twice as many owners of high self-esteem among teenage athletes as among teenage non-athletes. Teenagers who play sports evaluate themselves more healthy, intelligent, capable, authoritative among their peers, beautiful and self-confident than teenagers who are not athletes. The level of claims of adolescent athletes is higher than that of adolescent non-athletes in relation to their appearance. According to all characteristics, they have a very high self-esteem predominates, and low self-esteem is least of all manifested. At the same time, adolescent athletes are more satisfied with their level of health, intelligence, abilities and self-confidence than non-adolescent athletes.

2. Teenagers-athletes, feel the value of their own personality and the supposed value of their own "I" for other people, to a greater extent than teenagers-not athletes. Most of the teenage athletes have a high level of self-worth, which helps them feel more confident and adequately perceive criticism in their address. Also, teenagers who play sports have a higher self-attachment, which may indicate satisfaction with themselves, their personal qualities at the moment. However, this also indicates some rigidity, less desire to change compared to a group of teenagers who are not athletes.

3. Teenagers involved in sports are more purposeful, more focused on the future than teenagers from the group of non-athletes. They perceive the process of their life as interesting, intense, emotionally meaningful to a greater extent than their non-athletes peers. Teenagers from the group of athletes have an idea of themselves as a strong personality with sufficient freedom of choice in order to realize their life in accordance with their ideas about its meaning, goals and objectives. In general, teenage athletes have a higher meaningfulness of life than teenagers who are not athletes.

The conclusions suggest that teenagers involved in sports have a high level of mental health, but, undoubtedly, it is premature to make such a conclusion, additional research is needed. They can be directed to the topic of determinants of the identified characteristics of adolescent athletes, for example, an analysis of the influence of the family factor, the level of personal maturity of adolescent athletes. I would not like to formulate a conclusion that only sports lead to a healthy psyche.

The continuation of the study can also be an analysis of academic performance, motivation, general well-being of adolescent athletes, gender differences and differences in sports. All these data will help to build an individual route in the training and development of future famous athletes.