Influence of Physical Activity Body Mass Index on Perceived Physical Self-Concept among Undergraduate Students of Saudi Arabia

摘要

Background: Self-concept is one of the important aspect of our personality. Physical self-concept defined as person’s perception of themselves in relation to his/her physical skills and outwards appearance. Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare and explore the association of physical activity to physical self-concept of undergraduate students at different levels of Body Mass Index (BMI). Methods: A group of 140 undergraduate students M age 19 ±0.70 years randomly categorized into underweight 18.5 kg/m 2 [ n = 37: 26.4%]; normal-weight 18.5-24.9 kg/m 2 [ n = 31: 22.1%]; obese ≥30.00 kg/m 2 [ n = 37: 26.4%] and obese class III ≥40.00 kg/ m2 [ n = 35: 25%]. Physical self-concept measured using PSDQ-S. Physical activity on the basis of duration per week. Results: ANOVA revealed highly significant difference among BMI categories on all the factors of perceived physical self-concept except, health factor ( p =0.589). The post hoc comparison showed that obese participants had significantly lower scores on coordination ( p 0.001), physical activity ( p 0.05), sports competence ( p 0.01), appearance ( p 0.001), flexibility ( p 0.001), endurance ( p 0.001), global self-esteem ( p 0.001) and global physical self-concept ( p 0.001). Underweight participants reported significantly lower scores on physical activity ( p 0.001), sports competence ( p 0.05) and strength ( p 0.05). Conclusion: Obese category students were having poor self-concept. Normal-weight students perceived higher physical self-concept and global self-esteem than obese and underweight students. Physical activity has strong association with sports competence, strength, appearance and self-esteem. Students.