Relationship between Sports Participation and University Students' Social Perfectionism

Abstract

The background of the study at hand described the Relationship between Sports Participation and the Development of Social Perfectionism among University Female Athletes of Punjab. Social perfectionism was analyzed from four perspectives like self-esteem, self-confidence, self-acceptance and self-discipline. The population for the study comprised of (462) university female athletes who had participated at intercollege and inter-varsity sports competitions randomly selected from Eight (08) public sector universities of Punjab. A structured questionnaire on a Likert scale ranging from strongly agree (SA) to strongly disagree (SDA) was developed and used after pilot testing checked through respondents of sampled university female athletes adopting a Cronbach's Alpha method of reliability. The researcher set a 0.05 value for testing the set hypotheses of the study. The data have shown that sports participation is highly correlated with different dimensions of social perfectionism like self-esteem, self-confidence, self-acceptance and self-discipline. At the same time, it was noticed that self-confidence was the most dominant factor developed through sports participation among female athletes of the university. Likewise, the data have revealed that those athletes who had participated in individual sports for four or more than four years had obtained higher mean score on Social Perfectionism Questionnaire (SPQ) than those who had participated in team sports for less than four years. Keeping in view the utility and importance of sports in the lives of students, particularly in empowering girls, it is obligatory to encourage a sports culture and involve the girls in peaceful sports.