International Journal Advances in Social Science and Humanities
Available online at: www.ijassh.com
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Swimming Ability and Self-Esteem among Female University Students
Tajul Arifin Bin Muhamad
*, Hasti Sattari
Faculty of Education, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi Selangor, Malaysia.
*Corresponding Author: Email: [email protected]
Abstract
The review of the existing literature on the subject showed that there is a paucity of data regarding the influence of specific sporting activities such as swimming on esteem. Therefore, present study was designed to explore self-esteem levels with swimming ability among female university students. 148 volunteers were included in the study and randomly assigned divided into two groups; one experimental and one control group. Self -esteem levels were assessed prior to the training and then after 10 weeks of training. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) was used to evaluate the respondent’s self-esteem levels for experimental and control groups. The result confirmed a significant difference between the level of self-esteem [t (139) =2.90, p<0.05] between the experimental and control group. According to the results of this study, swimming ability increases self-esteem level among female university students. As a conclusion, a systematic and proper intervention program helps to increase self -esteem level among students.
Keywords: Swimming ability, Self-esteem, Female university students.
Introduction
The impact of exercise on different psychological variables and athletic performance has been
inquired and tested by many exercise
psychologists. The proposed study looks at the
way in how we can develop self-esteem in female’s life through sports namely swimming. Swimming could help healthy and active females with their life styles to have strong self-esteem and be an
independent person. Females have been generally
shown to get lower scores on measures of self-esteem and self-concept [1, 2]. Low self-self-esteem is possibly associated to risk behaviors, such as suicidal ideation, dieting, and other extreme weight control methods [3-5]. Therefore, teaching and facilitating students to swim can conceivably enhance their self-esteem(Folkins & Sime 1981)and improve their psychological health [6].
Furthermore, swimming can be beneficial to people across a broad range of ages and abilities [7]. Although it is generally a popular activity [8, 9], there is no considerable attention in the educational system of South Asian countries [10]. It has identified that inadequate services from sport psychologists in several sport associations in Malaysia confirm that mental and psychological aspects are not given serious attention by the related parties. This evidences show that research
or documentation in sport psychology need to develop in Malaysia [11]. Moreover, many types of sports (soccer, badminton, field hockey, bowling, tennis, squash, martial arts, horse riding, sailing, and etc.) in Malaysia are taught and learned, while there is inadequate attention to learn swimming even though it is the most popular people recreational activity [8] in the national education system. Therefore, the authors have chosen swimming in favour of other recreational sports in order to find the influence of this sport on self-esteem especially among female students in Malaysia.
Mehr [12] conducted a research on the effect of swimming skill education on self-esteem and compatibility of boy’s primary school students in Ahvaz city of Iran. The results obtained from this research show that swimming skill education has effect on self-esteem and adjustment of the first grade high school students.Muhamad et al. [13] also studied the effects of swimming on self-esteem among female college students in Malaysia.
The results showed that learning how to swim increases the self-esteem among female college students. Hence, does swimming ability affect self-esteem of female university students? Also, it seems necessary that because youth form a large portion of society, studying the impact of exercise on their mental health, particularly on self-esteem seems to be a must.
Method
Participants
Participants of this study consisted of 148 undergraduate female students from 20 to 30 years old and currently studying at the University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). They were randomly divided in two groups, namely, experimental (74 subjects) and control (74 subjects) groups, but at the end, only 141 subjects’ data were analysed (experimental group, 69 subjects and control group, 72 subjects). In this research, the sample size suggested 128 subjects (with each group having 64 subjects), obtaining a rate of 80% in the power test and an alpha value of 0.05, which was calculated using estimation G-power Software version 3.0.10.
Measurements
The instrument of study was concluded by questionnaire which measure self-esteem. Self-esteem of participants was measured by Rosenberg (RSES). It is the most widely utilized instrument for the measurement of global self-esteem with 10 items [14]. In this study 20 subjects were randomly assigned filled the RSES for pilot of the study, before, collected the actual data. In the present study, the Cronbach alpha factor was 0.89.
Procedure and Exercise Protocol
The swimming course was held for two hours per session, covering 20 sessions in 10 weeks. During the swimming course, the experimental group learned how to swim in the water and do the breaststroke. Most of the students from experimental group abled to swim without have difficulties at the end of lesson at the deep part of swimming pool. Since the novice must learn a variety of skills and strokes to swim continuously for 20 or more minutes, a swimmer's ability level may influence the degree of mood change [15]. Additionally, Berger and Owen [15] believed that with twice a week swimming training, both beginner and intermediate swimmers feel better mood and less anxiety after training swimming. As reported by Leith [16]; Rostad and Long [17] and Aşçı [18], exercise should be longer than eight weeks in order to enhance psychological benefits. Atousa [19] found 10 weeks individual
and group training had effects on female students’ mental health (reduction in depression).
The first step of data collection would be taking part of student to participate in the research study through the advertising. The data were collected on 148 healthy students’ from all faculties of UKM but only 141 subjects’ data were analysed (experimental group, 69 subjects and control group, 72 subjects). Meanwhile, these 69 subjects swam 25 meters or more at the end of 20 session of swimming course. Then they filled the questionnaire for post-test and earned the
certificate. The subjects from the control group, 74
students, were asked to be in the swimming pool within different hours than the experimental group. They were allowed to use the pool, though with no coaches’ supervision. They have not being taught how to swim during their entire presence. Therefore, they did not catch any swimming ability. Considering the respect and moral commitment, the control group has taught how to swim after accomplishment of this research. Statistical Analysis
After collecting data procedure, the data was analysed using SPSS. Independent-Sample t-test and Paired-Sample t-test were used for comparing self-esteem and anxiety between the experimental and control group before and after learning swimming from data given in the pre and post-test [20].
Results
Before discussing the research questions, the summary of information of students such as the mean and standard deviations of age and semester of both groups (experimental and control), is shown in Table 1.The mean age ± standard deviation (SD) was 23.35±1.75 years (range, 20–27 years) for the experimental group and that for the control group was 23.07±2.03 years (range, 20–28 years). The mean semester of the experimental group was 2.75 (SD .83, range 2-6) and for control group the mean was 2.96 (SD 1.05, rang 2-6). The participants were studying in various fields, including education, engineering, business, and human sciences.
Table1: Age and Semester mean and standard deviations of the groups
Group N Age
Mean ± SD
Semester Mean ± SD
Experimental 74 23.35±1.75 2.75±.83
Control 74 23.07±2.03 2.96±1.05
Value above 0.7 is considered acceptable; however, values above 0.8 are preferable. Table 3
shows, the summary of the reliability statistics of the pilot study and actual samples.
Table 2: Skewness & kurtosis of self-esteem for the pre and post-test in experimental and control group
Experimental Control
Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test
N Valid 74 69 74 72
Mean 28.05 30.11 26.82 27.44
SD 4.02 5.90 5.73 5.05
Minimum 19 12 9 .9
Maximum 38 37 38 38
Skewness .11 -.92 -.67 -.68
Kurtosis -.09 .46 .51 1.63
Table 3: Summary of the reliability statistics
Cronbach alpha Pilot Study Cronbach alpha Actual Sample
N 20 141
Self-esteem .89 .88
An independent-samples t-test is used when you want to compare the mean score, on some continuous variable, for two different groups of participants [20]. The independent samples t-test of self-esteem in the pre-test for experimental & control groups is shown in Table 4.The Sig. (2 tailed) value here is 0.14. This value is above the required cut-off of 0.05. This means that in pre-test is not a statistically significant difference in
the mean self-esteem scores for experimental and control groups.
Finally, an independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the self-esteem scores for experimental and control groups in pre-test. There was no significant difference in scores for experimental group (n= 74, Mean= 28.04) and control group (n= 74, Mean =26.82, t (146) =1.50, p= 0.14, two tailed).
Table 4: Independent samples t-test of self-esteem in the pre-test for experimental & control groups Self-esteem in
Pre-test N Mean
Independent
samples t-test df p
Experimental 74 28.04
1.50 146 .14 (p>.05)
Control 74 26.82
As shown in Table 5 an independent samples t-test of self-esteem in the post-t-test for experimental & control groups. There was a significant difference in scores for experimental group (n= 69, Mean= 30.12) and control group (n= 72, Mean= 27.45; t (139) = 2.90, p= 0.00, two tailed).
difference in the mean self-esteem scores for experimental and control groups in post-test.
Table 5: Independent samples t-test of self-esteem in the Post-test for experimental & control groups
Self-esteem in
Post-test N Mean
Independent
samples t-test df p
Experimental 69 30.12 2.90 139 0.00
(p<.05)
Control 72 27.45
In Table 6 the Paired-samples t-test of Self-esteem in Experimental &Control Group are shown. A Paired-sample t-test was conducted to evaluate the impact of swimming ability on self-esteem of the experimental group of female university students. There was a statistically significant increase in self-esteem of pre-test (Mean = 28.19) to self-esteem of post-test (Mean= 30.12), t (68) = −2.75, p= 0.00.
On the other hand, Paired-sample t-test was conducted to evaluate the impact of swimming ability on self-esteem of the control group of
female university students. There was
statistically no significant change in self-esteem of pre-test (Mean=26.82) to self-esteem of post-test (Mean= 27.45), t (71) = −1.12, p= 0.27, in control group.
Table 6: Paired-samples t-test of self-esteem in experimental &control group
Self-esteem Mean Pre-test Mean Post-test Paired-samples t-test df p
Experimental 28.19 30.12 −2.75 68 .00 (p<.05)
Control 26.82 27.45 −1.12 71 .27 (p>.05)
According to the results of Figure 1 the following conclusions can be drawn from it: that, the mean of experimental group in pre-test was around 28.00 which might not seem disastrous until compared with control group, where around 27.00, self-esteem mean. However the self-esteem in experimental group began rising clearly from pre-test to post-pre-test and reached 30.00. Control group means also increase slowly to 27.00, from pre-test to post-test. The major conclusion is that, self-esteem in experimental group significantly decreased from pre-test to post-test, while in control group it actually reduced, but in a non-significant difference. On the other hand, there is a significant differences between the two groups of female students (experimental and control) in terms of self-esteem.
Discussion
The present study aims to show the positive effect of a swimming ability on self-esteem among female university students. The self-based activity of challenging nature seemingly affects the psychological aspects of a swimmer [21]. Psychologists suggest that different psychological factors influence the mood benefits. This claim
indicates that feelings of enhanced self-esteem
resulting from valuing one's self can be a sufficient reason for a person to continue
Fig. 1: General linear model of self-esteem in pre and post-test for experimental and control group
exercising. It seems that progress in learning how
improvement in swimming ability, the average self-esteem of female students increased.
Tavakolizadeh et al. [21], also got the same results in their research where self-based activity of challenging nature affects the psychological parts of a swimmer. Similarly, this evidence has been detected in mountain climbers as well [22]. Whereas running is composed of more complex motor patterns, swimming involves the individual to familiarize to the water environment. Given that the novices must learn various skills and strokes to swim continuously, a swimmer's skill level may affect her/his degree of mood change. Psychologists suggest that different psychological aspects stimulate the mood benefits. This claim indicates that feelings of enhanced self-esteem resulting from valuing one's self can be a sufficient reason for a person to continue exercising or doing physical activities [15]. Researches have recommended that one of the most common opinions regarding the benefits of doing exercise and sports is psychologically enhancement of self-esteem [23,24].
There are a number of evaluations that have been analysed to reveal the short-term positive effects of exercise on adolescents [25]. Consequently, follow-up investigations are required to recognize the short-term or long term effects of swimming on self-esteem [21]. Moreover, such a plan could be achieved through manipulation of physical education programs to assessment of the psychological effects of different sports on university students. Then, the positive influence of swimming on self-esteem could contribute to the well-being and educational performance of physical education students.
Furthermore, according to Tavakolizadeh et al. [21], observations while training confirm a significant impact of learning swimming on the
self-esteem of female university students. Students, who showed a lower self-esteem, during the swimming classes, achieved the average level of self-esteem after 8 weeks training. The results showed that there was a significant increase in performance and self-esteem in the experimental group after the intervention for ten weeks. This proofs that the intervention program which was conducted by the researcher was effective and can be used by others to develop swimmers self-esteem [26-27].
Conclusions
The study reflects a positive effect of swimming ability on female university students’ self-esteem. Consequently, ranking swimming high in the students’ activity schedule is suggested. Also, the study about swimming training effect on swimming ability among female university students reveals significant positive results. The study indicates that learning progress in swimming ability among female university students also increases self-esteem.
In addition to the physiologic mechanisms, a variety of psychological factors may affect the self-esteem. These include feelings of competency arising from the ability to "discipline" oneself to complete an exercise program and the accompanying increase in physical capabilities, the psychological concomitants of increased physical attractiveness of weight loss or toned muscles, to enhanced self-esteem.
The results highlight the need to provide swimming lessons targeting all university students. Education and information should be provided to parents who don’t swim to understand the importance of learning to swim. Swimming programs that are tailored to and run by the universities are vital vnot only for physiological benefits but most importantly physiological well-being of students.
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