Investigation of self-confidence values and physical self-description in individuals who exercise

The aim of the research is to investigate the parameters such as gender, educational level, type of exercise, and reasons to exercise, as well as physical self-description and self-confidence values of individuals who exercise. The main focus of the present study is individuals who exercise regularly in Tekirdağ. The study sample consisted of 202 individuals, 112 women and 90 men. In data collection and analysis, the study sample comprised volunteer participants, between the ages of 20-50 years, exercising regularly at least 3 days a week or more, and no health problems. The personal information forms, "Self-Confidence Scale" and "Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ)", prepared by the researcher were applied to the participants, respectively. SPSS 21 software package was used for data analysis. The data was not normally distributed, so paired comparisons were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U, multiple comparisons were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis tests and descriptive statistics were made. In the study, the Cronbach-Alpha internal consistency coefficient of the Self-Confidence scale was 0.952, and the Marsh Physical Self-Description Scale was found 0.954. The results obtained in the study; a significant difference was found between physical self-description and gender, educational level, type of exercise, and reason to exercise (p<0.05). While there was a significant difference between self-confidence and gender and type of exercise (p<0.05), there was no difference between the variables of educational level and reason to exercise (p>0.05). In the correlation analysis between physical self-description and self-confidence, a positive correlation was found in all sub-dimensions. Keywords: Exercise, Physical Self-Description, Self-Confidence