Motor ability and self-esteem: The mediating role of physical self-concept and perceived social acceptance

Objectives: One important issue in sport and exercise psychology is to determine to what extent sports and exercise can help to increase self-esteem, and what the underlying mechanism might be. Based on the exercise and self-esteem model (EXSEM) and on findings from the sociometer theory, the mediating effect of physical self-concept and perceived social acceptance on the longitudinal relationship between motor ability and self-esteem was investigated. Design: Longitudinal study with three waves of data collection at intervals of ten weeks each. Method: 428 adolescents (46.3% girls, Mage 1⁄4 11.9, SD 1⁄4 .55) participated in the study, in which they performed three motor ability tests and completed paper-and-pencil questionnaires for physical selfconcept and perceived social acceptance, as well as for self-esteem, at all three measuring points. Results: Using structural equation modelling procedures, the multiple mediation model revealed both physical self-concept and perceived social acceptance to be mediators between motor ability and selfesteem in the case of boys. In girls, on the other hand, the mediation between motor ability and selfesteem only takes place via physical self-concept. Conclusions: Gender differences in the relationship between motor ability and self-esteem suggest gender-specific interventions aimed at promoting self-concept. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Global self-esteem is traditionally seen as a central indicator for mental health and an explanatory variable for human behavior (Rosenberg, 1965). People with high self-esteem are more emotionally stable, less prone to experiencing depression and display higher academic achievements (Marsh & O'Mara, 2008). From a multidimensional perspective on the self, which is now widely accepted in many psychological disciplines, global selfesteem marks the apex of the hierarchically organized and multidimensionally structured self-concept (Shavelson, Hubner, & Stanton, 1976). Moving from the top to the bottom, the term ‘selfconcept’ is reserved for evaluations in discrete domains such as academic, social, emotional and physical domains, and thus refers to domain-specific self-perceptions or self-conceptions (Harter, 2012). In recent years, various scientific disciplines (e.g. educational, sport or developmental psychology) have adopted a multidimensional perspective by the fact that domain-specific self-perceptions are more suitable for predicting specific behavior (Marsh & O'Mara, 2008), that it is easier to influence specific facets through interventions (Schmidt, Valkanover, Roebers, & Conzelmann, 2013), and that they are more strongly related to corresponding external criteria (M€ oller, Pohlmann, K€ oller, & Marsh, 2009). In addition, a multidimensional perspective of the self allows the relationship between domain-specific self-perceptions and global self-esteem to be examined, as well as their interdependence. Physical self-concept as a mediator between motor ability and self-esteem Especially in the physical domain, there is interest in understanding the positive effect that sports and physical activities can have on global or specific domains of self-concept (Spence, McGannon, & Poon, 2005). In this context, the question arises, what mechanism is operating behind this relationship? One model that addresses this mechanism, adopting a multidimensional perspective, is the exercise and self-esteem model (EXSEM; Sonstroem & Morgan, 1989). The original EXSEM describes the mechanism as a bottom-up process in which mastery of a physical * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ41 31 631 83 52. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M. Schmidt), markus.blum@ ispw.unibe.ch (M. Blum), [email protected] (S. Valkanover), achim. [email protected] (A. Conzelmann).