Sport Involvement and Self-esteem of Athletes and Non-athletes Students in Unity Secondary Schools in Ondo State

Abstract

The study examined the influence of participation in physical activity cum sports on the self esteem of secondary school students in ‘exclusive’ schools. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Four hundred (400) respondents selected from the four Unity Secondary Schools in Ondo State were used for the study. The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (1965) was used to collect data for the study. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result revealed that there was a significant difference in the mean score of students who participated in physical activity/sport (athlete) on I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others (M= 3.16, SD = 0.98) compared to those who do not participate in physical activity/sport (non-athletes) (M= 2.89, SD = 1.11; t (398) = 2.53, p = 0.01).