Physical Activity and Self-esteem of Young People on the Example of Secondary School Students from Lublin

The number of young people in Poland with various functional disorders, often resulting from low self-esteem, is increasing every year. This article assumes that physical activity could be one of the factors influencing the improvement of young people’s self-esteem. The aim of the research was an attempt to determine the relationship between physical activity and self-esteem of school students. The research sample consisted of 243 students attending the first grade of secondary schools in Lublin. The research used the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) created by Rosenberg and a proprietary survey on physical activity of young people. Data analysis showed that every second surveyed student showed physical activity only in the context of physical education classes; also the results of research in the field of self-esteem of the studied youth are not satisfactory because nearly half of the respondents had low and very low levels of it. An analysis of the responses of the surveyed boys and girls indicates that there are some differences in this matter. The statistical analyses carried out did not show any correlation between physical activity and self-esteem level of young people.


INTRODUCTION
Physical activity is an important element of harmonious mental and physical development of a human being. It prepares a person for active lifestyle and shapes proper hygiene as well as health habits. Unfortunately, it is not always appreciated, especially during adolescence. Secondary school is the last moment where, according to the regulation of the Polish Minister of Education and Science, young people have the opportunity to systematically participate in physical education lessons. "Physical education is a planned, purposeful and conscious action directed at shaping postures, i.e. attitude towards the body and physical functioning, and pro-social postures, i.e. attitude towards life and other people, beliefs, and moral values" (Osiński, 1996, pp. 28-48). It plays an important role in shaping social behaviour of children and youth (Nowak, 2012). Drabik (1996, p. 215) notices the relationship between physical activity and health and states that "physical activity is a key and integral component of a healthy lifestyle. Without it, any health strategy, its maintenance and multiplication as well as proper development in children is impossible". Physical activity can be manifested in various ways, Barankiewicz describes it as undertaking, as part of active leisure, different types of games, activities and sport disciplines for pleasure, recreation and health, exercise capacity improvement, acquisition of special physical abilities and skills, prevention of civilisation diseases formation (improving the efficiency of the cardiovascular, locomotor, and respiratory systems, counteracting mental stress), increasing beneficial effects on physical and mental work ability. (Barankiewicz, 1998, p. 11) On the other hand, Woynarowska (2007, p. 314) defines physical activity as "all actions and activities related to physical effort and movement (muscle work), during which heart rate and breathing accelerate, a feeling of warmth and often sweating appear". Similarly, physical activity is defined by Caspersen, Powell and Christenson (1985) -according to the authors, physical activity is as any bodily movement produced by the contraction of skeletal muscles that results in a substantial increase in energy expenditure over resting levels. Physical activity undertaken as part of physical education is associated with formation of appropriate attitudes in children and youth that determine behaviour focused on preparation for lifelong physical activity as well as on social behaviour and attitude towards oneself (cf. Osiński, 1996).
Supporting students in proper development is a very difficult and responsible process. School is a place where students gather information based on which they assess themselves. Unfortunately, in the opinion of many people, the current educational system seems to shape people rather uncertain and unaware of themselves (Wosik-Kawala, 2007). Perhaps physical education lessons and physical activity are the opportunity to change this situation; however, this assumption requires empirical verification. What is more, it is worth conducting scientific research verifying the impact of various forms of physical activity on improving the functioning of young people, including correcting their self-esteem level. Unfortunately, despite the noticeable increase of awareness level of the need to participate in physical culture, many people do not see relationship between physical activity and self-esteem.
Self-esteem as one of the most important psychological structures helps people to separate themselves from the environment and to determine their own being. Not everyone is aware of the existence of this form of consciousness, but only a few recognise its impact on their own behaviour and mental life. (Malec, 2002, p. 14) Thanks to self-esteem, one is able to define own being. Self-assessment enables to assess own value in terms of ability, success, significance in the environment. (Baumann, 2005, pp. 27-28) People derive knowledge about themselves from two main sources: from other people and from observing and reflecting themselves. Poleszak states that in the first stage of life, the key persons providing such information are close and important people, primarily parents, family, teachers and educators as well as peers. At a later stage of development, the key role is played by becoming aware and experiencing one's own separateness, the independence of the courts about ourselves and the ability to critically judge ourselves. (Poleszak, 2018, pp. 226-227) Defining self-esteem, Rosenberg assumes that people have different attitudes towards different objects, and their own self is one of those objects. Self-esteem is therefore a positive or negative assessment of oneself, a kind of global self-assessment." Rosenberg emphasises that high self-esteem in his view means the belief that one is "a good enough, valuable person, who does not necessarily mean that a person with high self-esteem considers himself or herself better than others. (Rosenberg, 1965, pp. 30-31) Rosenberg's low rating means dissatisfaction and rejecting himself or herself. Many people say that they have low self-esteem or low self-worth. This problem is quite common and has many factors. guszkowska (2018) believes that physical activity consists of "sports competences", "physical attractiveness", "physical strength", and "physical conditions". There is a kind of feedback effect between self-esteem and physical activity -self-esteem affects physical activity while physical activity affects self-esteem. Szczupakowska (2016) conducted a pilot study among 268 adults on the relationship between physical activity and their self-esteem. Based on the research, the author stated that among people who regularly exercise the largest group consisted of people with the highest self-esteem level, while those with low self-esteem level predominated among those who did not take any physical activity.

METhODOLOgICAL ASSUMPTIONS
The aim of the study was to determine whether it exists, and if so, what is the relationship between physical activity and self-esteem of secondary school students. In relation to the formulated goal, the following research problems were posed: 1. What does the physical activity of the surveyed students look like? 2. What level of self-esteem is demonstrated by the surveyed students? 3. Are there any differences in the physical activity of girls and boys, and if so, what are they? 4. Is there any difference in the level of self-esteem in girls and boys, and if so, what is it? 5. Is there relationship between physical activity and self-esteem of the surveyed students, and if so, what is it?
The conducted research adopted the hypothesis that there is a directly proportional relationship between physical activity and self-esteem. however, in the case of diagnostic questions, no working hypotheses were formulated.
In order to learn about the physical activity demonstrated by the surveyed youth, a proprietary survey consisting of 11 questions, including 7 closed-ended and 4 open-ended ones, regarding the attitude of young people towards their own physical activity was used. The self-assessment of the studied youth was determined on the basis of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) by Rosenberg in the Polish adaptation version by Dzwonkowska, Lachowicz-Tabaczek and Laguna. Self-assessment measured using this tool is understood as self-esteem, disclosed in the self-description and treated as a relatively constant feature of a person. This tool consists of 10 statements, to which the respondent answers on a five-point scale. The highest possible score is 40 and the lowest -10. A higher result of a diagnosed person means a higher level of self-esteem (Dzwonkowska, Lachowicz-Tabaczek, Łaguna, 2008). The analysed content was embedded in the positivist trend, in the quantitative strategy. During the research, the following descriptive statistics were used: mean, standard deviation as well as the test of significance of differences for the analysed variables ANOvA.
The study was conducted in 2019, and it covered 243 first grade pupils of Lublin secondary schools. The average age of the studied group was 16 years and 9 months. In total, 158 girls (65%) and 85 boys (35%) were surveyed. Taking into account the respondents' residence, it can be stated that the majority came from countryside -112 people (46.1%), 99 people (40.7%) from city, and 32 people (13.2%) from small towns. Based on the information obtained from surveyed students regarding their parents' education, it can be stated that the majority of them have a university degree -154 mothers (63.4%) and 134 fathers (55.1%). The least numerous group was with the parents with primary education only -4 mothers (1.6%) and 7 fathers (2.9%). Also parents with vocational education made quite a small group -16 mothers (6.6%) and 27 fathers (11.1%) In contrast, 69 mothers (28.4%) and 75 fathers (30.9%) of the surveyed students had secondary education.

ANALYSIS Of OWN RESEARCh RESULTS
The study began with determining the type of physical activity undertaken by the surveyed students. The research results obtained in this respect are presented in table 1. The data in table 1 shows that for 46.9% of all surveyed students physical education lessons are the only physical activity they undertake. Every third respondent indicated that in addition to physical education classes, he or she also participates in other sports activities organized outside the school (33.7%), and 13.2% of the surveyed students use both physical education lessons and school extracurricular sports activities. Unfortunately, among the respondents there were also students (6.2%) who had a medical exemption from participating in physical education lessons.
Then, students were asked about their forms of physical activity outside school. The obtained results of research in this area are presented in table 2.

15.
Other 20 12.7 11 12.9 31 12.8 In this case, the respondents could provide more than one answer to this question; therefore, the results do not sum up to 100%. Source: Author's own elaboration.
Analysing the information obtained from the surveyed secondary school youth, it can be seen that the most frequently undertaken physical activity they do outside of school is walking -68.3%. This type of activity was most often indicated by 75.9% of the surveyed girls. The second activity in terms of the frequency of indications of all surveyed students was cycling (61.7%), which was most often pointed out among the surveyed boys -63.5%. Relatively often, the surveyed students chose running (45.7%); both in the case of girls and boys, it was the third choice in terms of frequency (42.4% and 51.8% respectively). Almost every third respondent (32.1%) uses weight-lifting activities; referring to the gender of respondents in this matter, it can be seen that this type of physical activity is more often chosen by boys (49.4%) than girls (22.8%). Swimming is also quite popular among the surveyed teenagers -29.2% of all respondents undertake such activity, but boys (41.2%) more often than girls (22.8%). In the case of other physical activities, remarkably fewer indications were obtained; however, it is worth noting the significant disproportion between girls and boys due to the type of particular activity. In the case of boys, more indications were received by team sports such as: volleyball -23.5% of boys and 10.8% of girls, football -30.6% of boys and only 6.3% of girls, basketball -18.8% of boys and 3.2% of girls, and martial arts -14.1% of boys and 4.4% of girls. In contrast, girls preferred fitness classes -23.4% of girls and only 3.5% of boys, dancing -18.4% of girls and 4.7% of boys, and roller skating -13.3% of girls and only 1.2% of boys take such activity. Other forms of activity were rather single indications.
Another question asked to the surveyed students concerned people who inspired them to undertake physical activity. The results obtained in this matter are presented in table 3. In this case, the respondents could provide more than one answer to this question; therefore, the results do not sum up to 100%. Source: Author's own alaboration.
Analysing information obtained from the surveyed youth, it can be seen that among both sexes (38% girls and 36.5% boys) peers are most often the people who inspire them to take physical activity. In second place, both girls (25.5%) and boys (24.7%) mention parents. Relatively often, surveyed students indicate a PE teacher as a person who motivates them to physical activity, among girls it is 19%, and among boys 17.6%. A fairly large group of respondents (18.5%) said that they undertake physical activity as a result of their own mobilisation; this was the answer given by 17.1% of girls and 21.2% of boys. Among the surveyed youth, a fairly large percentage (15.2%) indicates outstanding athletes as people who inspired them to undertake physical activity. Outstanding athletes with their attitude much more often encourage boys (18.8%) than girls (13.3%) to physical activity. for relatively few respondents, 8.6% siblings and 4.9% successes of the country representatives encouraged them to physical activity. Other pointed-out answers proposed by the respondents (12.3%) were such as: nobody, dog, etc.
Then, the surveyed students were asked about the number of hours spent on physical activity per week. The results obtained in this regard are given in table 4. Based on the data in table 4, it can be concluded that the most numerous group of surveyed students dedicate 3 to 5 hours per week to physical activity. This answer was given by 35% of all respondents. 38.6% of girls provided such an answer, and it was the most frequently indicated answer by them. however, only 28.2% of boys marked this amount of time. Comparing the results, one can notice significant differences in the amount of time spent on physical activity by the surveyed boys and girls. Almost half of the surveyed boys (48.3%) spend over 5 hours a week on physical activity, while in the case of the surveyed girls it is much lower -only 23.4%. The disproportion between the results of girls and boys can also be observed in the case of not taking physical activity at all. As much as 3.2% of all surveyed girls do not engage in any physical activity during the week, while for boys it is 1.2%.
Then, the respondents were asked about the factors that motivate them to undertake physical activity. The results obtained in this matter are given in table 5. In this case, the respondents could provide more than one answer to this question; therefore, the results do not sum up to 100%. Source: Author's own elaboration.
The data in table 5 shows that the most common reason for taking up physical activity by the surveyed youth is to improve their appearance -this response was indicated by 79.4% of all respondents. This factor much more often motivates girls (86.1%) than boys (67.1)%. Quite often (71.6% of the total number of respondents), surveyed students indicated an improvement of well-being as the reason for taking physical activity. This is an important factor for 73.4% of girls and 68.2% of boys. A positive impact on health was marked by 63.8% of the surveyed youth; referring these results to the gender of respondents, it can be seen that this factor was more often chosen by boys (68.2%) than girls (61.4%). Among the most frequently chosen reasons are also: improvement in physical fitness for 63% -indicated at a similar level by girls (62.6%) and boys (63.5%), stress relief for 56.8% -motivating to physical activity 60.1% of girls and 50.6% of boys. for the remaining factors, significantly fewer indications were obtained. At this point, it is worth noting the significant disproportions between girls and boys. Taking up new challenges (32.1%) definitely motivates boys (43.5%) much more than it does for girls (25.9%), just like meeting new people (23%) indicated by 35.3% of boys and 16.4% of girls, or the possibility for competition -as much as 37.6% of boys think that this factor is motivating while only 12% of girls do.
Another question asked to the surveyed students concerned how they rate their physical activity level. The results obtained in this regard are presented in table 6. Analysing the data on the assessment of own physical activity by the surveyed students, it can be noticed that just over one fourth of the total of secondary school students surveyed (28%) assess their physical activity at a very good level. While looking at the obtained answers, one can notice quite significant differences between girls and boys: as much as 35.3% of boys rated their physical activity as very good, and for girls it was only 24% of indications. 36.6% of all respondents rated their level of physical activity as good -38% of girls and 34.1% of boys. As much as 29.6% of all respondents rated their physical activity as average. Such a response was provided by 31.1% of girls and 27.1% of boys. Only 5.8% of students described the level of their own physical activity as bad (5.4%) or very bad (0.4%).
Therefore, it seemed interesting to find what limits the physical activity of the studied youth. Data obtained on this subject is presented in table 7. In this case, the respondents could provide more than one answer to this question; therefore, the results do not sum up to 100%. Source: Author's own elaboration.
Analysing information obtained from the surveyed youth, it can be noticed that most often the factors limiting their physical activity are: learning, lack of time, and laziness. These factors are much more often mentioned by girls than by boys. 73.4% of girls and 56.5% of boys indicate that learning limits their physical activity. Lack of time was indicated by 69% of girls and 62.3% of boys. In contrast, 46.8% of the surveyed girls and 38.8% of the sampled boys mentioned laziness as the reason for their lack of physical activity. Relatively fewer indications were obtained by such factors as: lack of motivation -19.3%, poor fitness -11.5%, and health condition -11.1%. few respondents indicated fear of ridicule (10.7%); however in this case, we notice a significant difference between the answers given by girls (13.9% of indications) and boys (only 4.7% of indications).
The conducted research also attempted to determine the level of self-esteem of the studied youth. Data on this issue is presented in table 8. Analysing the research results regarding the level of self-esteem, it can be stated that they are not the best because as many as 42.8% of the respondents have low and very low self-esteem levels. In this group of surveyed young people, girls rated themselves far less favourably -16.5% had very low level of self-esteem and low level of self-esteem had as much as 31.6% (the highest percentage point in surveyed girls), which gives a total result of 48.1%. for boys, self-esteem at a very low level was obtained by 14.1% of respondents, and at a low level -18.8%, which gives in total 32.9%. The analysis of the data shows that over one thirds of boys -37.6% (the highest percentage point of surveyed boys) obtained an average level of self-esteem, while in the case of girls this indicator was 19%. Self-esteem at high and very high levels was achieved by just under one thirds of respondents (31.7%). 22.8% of girls and only 15.3% of boys achieved high self-esteem level. In the case of very high self-esteem level, it could be seen that it was slightly more common for boys (14.1%) than it was for girls (10.1%). The differences between the average results in the self-esteem level of students with different types of physical activity turned out to be statistically insignificant. The analysis of variance between the compared groups of students with different physical activity indicates no significant differences in their self-esteem level as evidenced by f-test (f = 1.38) and a critical level of significance -p-value (p = 0.249). Therefore, it can be assumed that the students surveyed, regardless of the type of physical activity undertaken, show similar self-esteem levels. In conclusion, the ANOvA test performed did not detect significant differences between the average self-esteem results in all compared groups.

CONCLUSIONS
The conducted research presents that almost every second surveyed student showed physical activity only during physical education lessons. given the importance of this type of activity for the health-promoting functioning of young people, this data is quite disturbing. Too low physical activity at this age favours the emergence of a sedentary lifestyle (being overweight, obesity, etc.) and does not develop in young people proper health habits. Such a situation leads to the development of many civilisation diseases, such as: diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and may also lead to depression. The results obtained in the self-worth area of the surveyed youth show that only every third respondent has a high level of self-esteem, and every fourth has an average one. It was surprising that almost half of the respondents have problems with proper self-assessment and manifest low and very low self-esteem levels. Low self-esteem level, as research has shown, can effectively disrupt the proper development process of a young person. Therefore, actions are needed to increase the self-esteem levels of young people.
The research results also showed that physical activity of girls and boys in physical education and extracurricular sports activities outside school is at a similar level, while more than twice as many boys than girls declare participation in extracurricular sports activities at school. Therefore, it would be necessary to modify and design school extracurricular sports activities to make them more attractive for girls and encourage their participation. In the forms of physical activity preferred by the surveyed youth, it can be seen that some of them like walking, cycling, and running are common, despite the gender. for others, however, the basic differences in preferences between girls and boys can be seen. girls much more often indicate aerobics, fitness, dancing, roller skating, and Nordic Walking, while boys choose team games, weights, swimming, and martial arts. Almost every second boy devotes over 5 hours a week to physical activity, and just less than one fourth of girls show that. Data confirms the validity of promoting physical activity among girls. Systematic physical activity not only positively affects the well-being and appearance, but also strengthens the psyche by teaching self-discipline, fighting own weaknesses, and the ability to manage failures.
The research shows that almost every second girl and every third boy have low and very low levels of self-esteem. given the importance of self-esteem in the daily functioning of the surveyed students, these results are worrying. Low self-esteem level can disrupt the development of a young person. Only less than one thirds of the surveyed girls and boys have a high and very high levels of self-esteem. Therefore, actions should be taken to increase the level of self-esteem of young people, especially since they are facing many decisions, including those related to the further education and professional path. The conducted research also indicates that the surveyed students, regardless of the demonstrated type of physical activity, show a similar level of self-esteem. Similar conclusions can be drawn from the research conducted in 2015 by gruszczyńska and Skorupa (2018). The research shows no relationship between physical activity and self-esteem of the surveyed students. Interesting observations can also be drawn from the research conducted by Nowak (2012) on the relationship between physical activity and fitness and self-esteem in youth. It turned out that among the surveyed girls, there were no statistically significant relationships between their physical activity and self-esteem. however, in the group of boys there were such relationships.
Therefore, it can be assumed that the self-esteem of the surveyed youth is conditioned by many factors and is not determined by their physical activity. however, the adopted hypothesis requires further research to verify this assumption.