Personality Traits and Self-Esteem in Combat and Team Sports

Željka Bojanić; Jasmina Nedeljković; Dušana Šakan; Petar M Mitić; Ivana Milovanović; Patrik Drid

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02280

Personality Traits and Self-Esteem in Combat and Team Sports

Front Psychol. 2019 Oct 9:10:2280. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02280. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Željka Bojanić¹, Jasmina Nedeljković¹, Dušana Šakan¹, Petar M Mitić², Ivana Milovanović³, Patrik Drid³

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Law and Business Studies Dr Lazar Vrkatić, University Union Belgrade, Novi Sad, Serbia.
² Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Niš, Niš, Serbia.
³ Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia.

Abstract

The aim of this research was to examine whether psychological variables which make up basic dimensions of personality and self-esteem distinguish competitors in combat sports from competitors in team sports. The research included 149 respondents, aged 19 to 27 years. The Self-Esteem Scale questionnaire was used to measure self-esteem. The BFI inventory was used to measure personality traits according to the Big Five model: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience. The basic research question is - does the set of psychological variables which make up basic dimensions of personality and self-esteem statistically significantly distinguish competitors in combat sports from the competitors in team sports? Both mean differences and simple discriminant function analyses for competitors in combat/team sports revealed that self-esteem, neuroticism, and conscientiousness were the most important factors distinguishing the two groups. Practical implications, limitations, and future research directions were discussed.

Keywords: agreeableness; combat sports; conscientiousness; extraversion; neuroticism; openness; team sports.