Effects of swimming on self-esteem among female college students

Abstract

This study aims to determine changes in the self-esteem levels of female college students in relation to their swimming skills. The results of the study were obtained from of 141 female college students enrolled at the University of Kebangsaan Malaysia. Breaststroke was used in order to evaluate their swimming skills, whereas the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) questionnaire was used to evaluate their self-esteem levels for experimental and control groups. The analysis and observations confirmed the correlation between the level of self-esteem experienced in the water and swimming skills. The results showed that learning how to swim increases the self-esteem among female college students. We suggest that taking up this activity might have benefits for students with low levels of self-esteem.