Research Question
Is there a relationship between duration of Moderate to Vigorous Intensity Exercise and Self-Esteem in young adults aged 20-25?
Rationale
Self-esteem is defined as how we feel about “what we know about ourselves”, “what we know about ourselves” being the informational aspect of a reflective process know as self-concept while self-esteem is the feelings towards our self concept. Self-esteem is also the degree to which the individual feels positive about ourselves. Research conducted in the field of psychology has well-established that how we feel about ourselves will manifest and have tangible effects on our well-being. Key differences between individuals with low and high self-esteem have been highlighted, where the people with high self-esteem focus on growth and improvement while those with low self-esteem focus on not making mistakes in life. Correlations between low self-esteem and a number of negative outcomes such as depression have been drawn and have indeed been shown to have association. Thus, the importance of self-esteem is definitely not in dispute. On the other hand, as budding physiotherapists adopting ACSM’s position of “Exercise is Medicine”, we were curious about the common speculation that exercise even has a relationship with self-esteem. There have been many proposed physiological and psychological mechanisms as to how exercise influences self-esteem. However, our literature review has shown mixed results and most of the experimental studies conducted are dated and have been ambiguous as to explaining this mechanisms. The truth of the matter that all these studies have shown is that self-esteem is influenced by a plethora of variables and due to its foot in the realm of psychology, variables such as culture and other societal forces would have a role to play in influencing the generation of one’s’ self-concept and thus one’s self-esteem and these variables differ considerably between individuals being brought up in different environments. As such, we embark on an explorative study in an attempt to establish if there are any associations between exercise and self-esteem here in Singapore. The results we obtain could hopefully shed some light on whether exercise can improve self-esteem and if proven so, more research can be dwell into understanding this phenomenon and hopefully can be utilised to recommend exercise as an established means of improving self-esteem.
Null Hypothesis
There is no significant relationship between the duration of moderate to vigorous intensity exercise and a person’s self esteem
Hypothesis
There is a significant relationship between the duration of moderate to vigorous intensity exercise and a person’s self esteem
Variables
Independent
Duration of Moderate to Vigorous Intensity Exercise
Dependent
Self Esteem
Extraneous
Type of Exercises, Motivation to Exercise, Gender, Exercising with Peers
Controlled
Age Group (20-25 years old)
Intensity (Moderate-Vigorous, at least with RPE of 3)
Frequency (at least 1 session per week for the past 4 weeks)
Exercise and Self-Esteem 