Perfectionism, Self-Esteem, and the Will to Win Among Adolescent Athletes: The Effects of the Level of Achievements and Gender

The relationship between self-oriented perfectionism and exercise participation: based on the dualistic model of passion

Background

During the critical formative years of college, active participation in sports not only helps to alleviate stress, but also promotes the development of healthy habits. Although the multifaceted benefits of exercise have been widely recognized, there is a relative dearth of research on the relationship between personality traits, particularly college students' self-oriented perfectionism (SOP), and exercise participation.

Methods

A questionnaire survey of 374 college students was conducted using the snowball sampling method. SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.3 were employed in this study to analyze the correlations between the variables, and on this basis, the effect of SOP on exercise participation was examined. The study also used 5,000 bootstrap samples and a 95% bias-corrected confidence interval to test the significance of the mediating effects.

Results

Correlation analysis showed that SOP was positively correlated with exercise participation. Harmonious passion and obsessive passion were positively correlated with SOP, and exercise participation. Further, the results of structural equation analysis revealed that SOP increased exercise participation. Harmonious passion and obsessive passion positively mediated the effect between SOP and exercise participation, respectively.

Conclusion

This study provides new perspectives to better understand college students' exercise participation, emphasizing the importance of SOP and its influence on exercise participation through harmonious and obsessive passions. These findings have important implications for the development of effective exercise promotion strategies.

The indirect effects of perfectionism on athletes' self-views through maladaptive emotion regulation

Introduction

In general, increased levels of perfectionism have been associated with increased levels of burnout, heightened levels of depression and anxiety, lowered self-esteem, and poorer overall performance, yet perfectionistic strivings within athletes have also been associated with lower burnout and better performance in some contexts.

Methods

The current study investigated whether emotion regulation strategies would indirectly link perfectionism with self-esteem in young adults who had participated in competitive athletics. Two hundred and fifty-three primarily white (60.0 %), female (83.0 %) undergraduate students who had participated in competitive athletics completed a series of questionnaires including: the Self-liking and Self-Competence Scale - Revised, the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the short form of the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale.

Results

The PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to examine the indirect association between perfectionism and self-esteem through emotion regulation. Higher self-oriented perfectionism and socially prescribed perfectionism were both indirectly associated with lower self-liking and self-competence through greater catastrophizing and self-blame.

Discussion

For individuals like athletes, who experience internal and external pressures, increased perfectionism may lead to negative self-views through maladaptive emotion regulation. However, longitudinal and experimental work is needed to establish this proposed pattern of relationships.

Psychological Aspects of Return to Sport for the Female Athlete

Female athletes represent a unique population of competitors who face distinct stressors when compared with male athletes. These include sport inequities, violence, abuse, body image concerns, disordered eating, relative energy deficiency, family planning challenges, hormonal challenges, and mental distress. When combined with sports injuries, these stressors can negatively impact the mental health of female athletes as well as their injury recovery and return to sports. It is essential for orthopaedic surgeons to be familiar with the unique aspects inherent to being a female athlete, along with the psychological aspects of sports injuries. By integrating questions about female athletes' psychological well-being into their routine practice and collaborating with a multidisciplinary team, orthopaedic surgeons can better address these unique stressors, support female athletes in achieving optimal outcomes, and enhance return to sport rates.

Level of Evidence

V, expert opinion.

The relationship between perfectionism, self-perception of orofacial appearance, and mental health in college students

Background

In dental clinical practice, self-perception of orofacial appearance is highly correlated with treatment satisfaction. Therefore, it is important to explore factors correlated with self-perception of orofacial appearance. Perfectionism may be one such factor. This study investigated the role of perfectionism in self-perception of orofacial appearance.

Methods

Participants completed an online questionnaire that included demographic data, a measure of perfectionism, a measure of self-perception of orofacial appearance (including body image, smile appearance concern, and self-esteem), and a measure of anxiety and depression.

Results

High perfectionism scores significantly predicted greater age, body image, smile appearance concern, and mental health scores and lower self-esteem scores (p < 0.005). After adjusting for possible confounding variables, smile appearance concern largely disappeared. Mental health acted as a mediator in the relationships between perfectionism and three orofacial appearance characteristics.

Conclusion

High perfectionism predicted higher self-perception of body image, and lower mental health and self-esteem in college students. Mental health could mediate the relationships between perfectionism and self-perception of orofacial appearance.

The Athlete's Paradox: Adaptable Depression

We proposed that an athlete's depressive symptoms may be different from the general population in etiology if considered from the context of a depressive disorder. By shifting focus from a limited notion of symptoms onto a comprehensive model of depression, the full scope of the phenomenon becomes clearer. This paper investigated the relationship between neurotransmitters and allostatic load to explain the incidence of depression among elite athletes. This literature review extensively analyzed exercise-induced neurohormonal imbalance resulting in depressive states among athletes. The research revealed that 5-HTTLPR polymorphism, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), extensive psychological demands, social stigma, and overtraining syndrome (OTS) may all contribute to a unique version of depression. The research revealed that the biological standards of athletes differ from those of non-athletes, to the point that the new model may be useful, thereby introducing the new term "Adaptable Depression (AD)" to the literature. This framework suggests a new direction for future research to precisely measure the neurotransmitter-related brain changes that result in "Adaptable Depression" in athletes and to establish a better understanding of the depressive tipping point.

Self-Esteem at University: Proposal of an Artificial Neural Network Based on Resilience, Stress, and Sociodemographic Variables

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a useful predictive tool for a wide variety of fields of knowledge. Despite this, the educational field is still an environment that lacks a variety of studies that use this type of predictive tools. In parallel, it is postulated that the levels of self-esteem in the university environment may be related to the strategies implemented to solve problems. For these reasons, the aim of this study was to analyze the levels of self-esteem presented by teaching staff and students at university (N = 290, 73.1% female) and to design an algorithm capable of predicting these levels on the basis of their coping strategies, resilience, and sociodemographic variables. For this purpose, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Brief Resilience Scale were administered. The results showed a relevant role of resilience and stress perceived in predicting participants’ self-esteem levels. The findings highlight the usefulness of artificial neural networks for predicting psychological variables in education.