Longitudinal Relationships Between Physical Fitness With Physical Self-Concept and Self-Esteem in Adolescents

Purpose: Physical fitness has shown to be positively related with young people's general mental health, mainly due to the changes in body composition derived from a regular sportive practice. Thus, the aim of this study was three-fold: 1) to analyze the relationship between physical fitness with the mental health status assessed as physical self-concept and self-esteem, 2) to study whether self-esteem offers longitudinal relationships with physical fitness three months after the first assessment, and 3) to know the most implicated variables of physical fitness in mental health variables. Method: A total of 1441 adolescents aged 12 to 19 years (mean=14.52; standard deviation=1.96 years), being the 49.5 % of them girls, from 4 high schools in Andalusia, Spain, participated in the study. The EUROFIT battery test was administered to the participants, as well as some questionaries to assess the physical self-concept and the self-steem. Physical tests and self-concept were assessed in an only temporal point, while self-esteem was analyzed longitudinally. Results: The results obtained indicated that physical self-concept was related to physical fitness, while self-esteem was especially related to the Course Navette test. Conclusions: These results suggest that having great levels of physical fitness, especially related to aerobic endurance, may help to have higher levels of physical self-concept and self-esteem as components of mental health in Spanish adolescents.