Sports participation and subjective well-being of adolescents: mediation of self-esteem and leisure satisfaction

1
Sports participation and subjective well-being of
adolescents mediation of self-esteem and
leisure satisfaction

• Sergiu Baltatescu
• University of Oradea

2
Abstract

• It has been suggested that (1) participation in
  sport and exercise is associated with higher
  adolescent subjective well-being, and (2) leisure
  satisfaction and self-esteem mediates the
  relationship. These hypotheses were tested using
  data from a survey on the behavior and attitudes
  of high school students from Oradea, a Romanian
  town. Findings from a representative sample of
  1000 subjects indicate that, controlling for age,
  physical activity is moderately associated with
  life satisfaction and happiness. A test of
  mediation of self-esteem and leisure satisfaction
  was done with structural equation software AMOS,
  showing no direct causal between sports
  participation and subjective well-being. The
  relationship is mediated by self-esteem for boys
  and leisure satisfaction for both sexes. Finally,
  implications for promoting physical activity
  among adolescents were discussed.

3
Psycho-social benefits of sport participation in
adolescence

• Improve academic achievement
• Increase self-esteem
• Reduce depression and anxiety, and suicide
  attempts
• Increase life satisfaction

4
Aspects of the relationship between sport
participation and life satisfaction

• A moderate association was proved in several all
  age groups (Donovan, 2002)
• Sports involvement was proved to be correlated
  with
• actual life satisfaction (Thrane, 1999)
  (Vilhjalmsson, 1992)
• life satisfaction in adult life Ajdacic-Gross,
  2002 (Varca, 1984) (Serbu, 1997)
• The pattern was different for boys and girls
• (Varca, 1984)

5
Mediators of the relationship between sport
participation and life satisfaction

• Self-esteem
• Leisure satisfaction
• Health
• Social Integration

6
Self-esteem as a mediator of the relationship
between sport participation and life satisfaction

• Sport participation and self-esteem
• A well-established empirical relationship in
  sports psychology (Erkut, 2002)(Delaney, 1995)
• Causal mechanisms sports participation foster
  positive body images, enhanced perceptions of
  physical competence and predict higher
  self-esteem (Richman, 2000)
• Reverse causation possible those with higher
  self-esteem are as a group the more frequent
  participants in sports (Lindner, 1999 12)
• Self-esteem and life satisfaction highly
  correlated

7
Leisure satisfaction as a mediator of the
relationship between sport participation and life
satisfaction

• Sport participation and leisure satisfaction
• Causal mechanism sports reduce leisure boredom
  (Gordon, 1996)
• Leisure satisfaction is one of the predictors of
  life satisfaction.

8
A test of mediation

• Hypothesis no. 1
• Sports participation is associated with higher
  adolescent life satisfaction
• Hypothesis no. 2
• Self-esteem and Leisure satisfaction are
  mediators of the relationship between sport
  participation and life satisfaction

9
Method and sample

• Rezultats are from a survey in Oradea
• A stratified random sample was designed with
  high-school students.
• Size of the sample 1000 subjects

10
Measures

• Life satisfaction scales
• Single question 10-points Considering the
  whole situation, how satisfied are you about your
  daily life?
• 0. Very unsatisfied.10 Very satisfied
• Leisure satisfaction
• Single question, 5 points scale

11
Measures

• Self-esteem
• Rosenberg self-esteem scale (10 items)
• Sports participation
• Single question

12
Causal model
13
Structural model
14
Structural model fit

• Discrepancy 73,865 0,000 10006,548 CMIN
• Degrees of freedom 2 0 20 DF
• P 0,000 0,000 P
• Number of parameters 26 28 8 NPAR
• Discrepancy / df 36,933 500,327 CMINDF
• RMR RMR
• GFI GFI
• Adjusted GFI AGFI
• Parsimony-adjusted GFI PGFI
• Normed fit index 0,993 1,000 0,000 NFI
• Relative fit index 0,926 0,000 RFI
• Incremental fit index 0,993 1,000 0,000 IFI
• Tucker-Lewis index 0,928 0,000 TLI
• Comparative fit index 0,993 1,000 0,000 CFI

15
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