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Abstract

Abstract:University students, who are regular sport participants, showed a superior and more positively physical selfdescription in body fat, general physical self-concept and self-esteem perception (Silva, Vicente, Amaro, & Campos, 2016). In another study with university students, in order to investigate what they think about their own physical appearance (Silva, Saenger, & Pereira, 2011), it was concluded that 63% of male and 67% of female students presents dissatisfaction, although for contradictory reasons (female students were dissatisfied due to overweight; male students were dissatisfied due to the thinness index). Considering this, based on the presented studies, the aim of this research is to characterize and compare sport participants by gender -students of the Cuenca Campus of the Universidad Castilla La Mancha (Spain) -according 4 (four) dimensions of their physical self-description: (1) body fat; (2) general physical self-concept; (3) self-esteem; (4) physical appearance. It was applied a reduced version of the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ), translated to Spanish (Tomás, 1998). The data were collected from 175 university students (22,00±3,41 years old), regular sport participants (at least once per week): 86 females (21,15±1,99 years old) and 89 males (22,82±4,18 years old). After the application of the ANOVA one-way test is possible to confirm, comparing the male with the female sport participants, that there are no statistical significant differences in the dimensions: body fat (F=0,001; p=0,973); self-esteem (F=0,186; p=0,667); physical appearance (F=0,748; p=0,388). In contrast, there are statistical significant differences in general physical selfconcept dimension (F=4,269; p=0,040), having the male participants a higher mean of answer values (M=4,643).

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“…The performed research has also revealed that women-students are engaged in physical exercises and sports significantly less than men, perform regular morning exercises less frequently and are less willing to participate in sportive events. Similar significant gender differences in practicing sport activities have been identified in other studies (Campos, et al, 2017;Karaca, et al, 2016).…”

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“…You can do this through additional physical education or sports activities in your spare time (Fotynyuk, 2017). The students who are regular participants in various sporting events have higher rates of physical development, they are physically attractive and have a lower fat content in the total body weight than students who do not engage in active sports activities (Campos, Marques, Silva, et al, 2017). Unfortunately, the experts note that the proportion of students regularly participating in various sporting events has significantly decreased since the beginning of the Bologna reform of education and the abolition of compulsory physical education in a number of universities (Cerar, Kondric, & Sindik, 2017).…”