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DON’T SWEAT IT: EXERCISE DOES NOT IMPROVE SELF-ESTEEM BEFORE A COGNITIVE TASK

Abstract

K. Gunning, J. Simpson, T. Dickison

Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA

Self-esteem, encompassing a person’s overall sense of their worth or importance, has consistently shown a positive association with academic performance. Despite the documented positive effects of chronic exercise on self-esteem, limited research has examined the impact of acute exercise on perceived self-esteem before a cognitive task in college students. PURPOSE: To investigate the influence of exercise condition (aerobic training (AT), resistance training (RT), no exercise (NE)) on perceived self-esteem before a cognitive task. It was hypothesized that participants who engaged in exercise before the task would exhibit higher perceived self-esteem levels compared to those who did not exercise. METHODS: University students (n=18, 12 males) were randomly assigned to one of the exercise conditions (AT, RT, NE). Participants in the exercise groups underwent a prescribed 30-minute bout of AT or RT. Subsequently, participants across all conditions completed the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale and a cognitive task designed to simulate a typical university exam. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in perceived self-esteem across the three conditions (AT: 69.3 ± 6.22, RT: 68.3 ± 16.27, NE: 75 ± 10.94) (p=0.588). CONCLUSION: The results of this study did not support the hypothesized relationship between acute exercise and perceived self-esteem. Future research could explore whether participation in chronic exercise influences both perceived self-esteem and academic performance in this population. Additionally, investigating how acute exercise impacts perceived self-esteem in real-life academic situations would further contribute to our understanding of this relationship.

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