Self-Esteem & Young Athletes NATURE OF THE STUDY Background Ty

In terms of the pressures on female gymnasts in particular, a study conducted by Petrie (1993) supports the notion that they may be particularly vulnerable to the pressure and that this pressure may manifest itself in eating disorders. Specifically, Petrie assessed for the incidence of eating disorders in 215 female collegiate gymnasts. The study also determined whether these athletes differed on various attitudinal and personality characteristics that have been associated with eating disorders. Findings of the study revealed that over 60 percent of the gymnasts studied met the criteria for one of the intermediate disordered eating categories. Only 22 percent reported eating behaviors that could be classified as normal or non-disordered. It was also found that higher levels of disordered eating disturbance were associated with a desire to weigh less, lower self-esteem, and greater endorsement of sociocultural values regarding women's attractiveness.

The question that can be asked here is: What actions can be taken to improve the self-esteem levels and often con

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d the relative effectiveness of self-instruction with coping self-statements as a means of inhibiting speech anxiety. Subjects in the study were 14 normal male and female late adolescents (mean age 19.8 years) all of whom were undergraduate college students. Subjects were assigned to the self-instruction group (training sessions on rehearsal of 4 self-statements) or the nonself-instruction group (no training). Cognitive, behavioral, and physiologic indices were used to assess the effectiveness of self-instruction. These measures were: The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension; the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; the Fear of Negative Evaluation Questionnaire; the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale; the Self-Esteem Scale; and the Behavioral Assessment of Speech Anxiety. Findings of the study showed that not only did rehearsal of self-statements decrease students' level of speech anxiety, it also evidenced a small but significant increase in their self-esteem. In a study conducted by Register (1993), students enrolled in introductory psychology classes at Florida State University were screened for test anxiety. Those meeting inclusion criteria were asked to volunteer for the study, resulting in 110 subjects who w
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 9142
Approximate Pages = 37 (250 words per page)