[[alternative]]The Influences of Aerobic Dance on Physical Self Concept, Self-Esteem of Female University Students and Testing Their Causal Model

Abstract

[[abstract]]The Influences of Aerobic Dance on Physical Self Concept, Self-Esteem of Female University Students and Testing Their Causal Model Abstract Three purposes of this study included to revise the PSDQ (Physical Self-Description Questionnaire), to investigate the influences of participation in a ten weeks aerobic dance session on physical self concept, self-esteem of female university students and to test causal model of physical self and self esteem. The enrolled PE course undergraduate students participated to examine the validity and reliability of PSDQ. The exploratory factor analysis demonstrated the nine components of PSDQ: sports competence, body fat, health, appearance, flexibility, coordination, physical activity, endurance and strength. Their Cronbach α index were from .85 to .95, retesting reliability were from .50 to .89. Confirmatory factor analysis provided the fitness indexes of PSDQ measurement model were acceptable. The female university students volunteered to participate in this study for investigating the influences of aerobic dance on physical self concept. The experimental group ( N=57, Mage= 20.53±1.98 ) participated twice aerobic dance sessions except for PE course per weeks. The control group (N=54, Mage= 19.65±.76) did not participate in any regular exercise program except for PE course. The PSDQ and health physical fitness were administered to participate before and after the ten week treatment for all participants and the experimental group completed PSDQ in middle of the treatment. The result explored participants in the experimental group improved much more in global physical self concept, physical activity, endurance and strength subscales of PSDQ and sit-and-reach of physical fitness than the control group. Used structural equation modeling to test the causal model between physical self concept and self esteem in before, middle and after treatment and to compare two competitive models. The result provided the top-down model was better in model-fit evaluation than other models and also had the horizontal effects cross before, middle, and after treatment on both self concept and self esteem. This research also suggests to future directions and applications in the issue about aerobic dance influence on physical self concept and self esteem. Key words: physical self concept, self esteem, causal model, aerobic dance