Associations between trait personality and outcomes by gender in secondary physical education

Authors

  • Ken Lodewyk Brock University

Abstract

Trait personality research across many settings has led to several validated dimensions such as honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. While these personality dimensions have been associated with a host of adaptive outcomes in domains with relevance to physical education, little research has investigated relations between them and important research-based outcomes in school-age physical education students. This study investigates predictive relations by gender between these personality dimensions and six favorable outcomes in high school physical education; namely, autonomous motivation, body size dissatisfaction, victimization, grade, and levels of physical activity and fitness. A survey consisting of established measures was administered to 316 students (155 females; 161 males) in grade 9 and 10 physical education from four high schools in a school district of south- central Canada. Results revealed that, except for with physical activity in girls and body size dissatisfaction in boys, the personality dimensions collectively predicted each outcome in both boys and girls. In both boys and girls, extraversion (and its social self-esteem facet) and conscientiousness (and its diligence facet) were particularly predictive of the outcomes whereas honesty-humility predicted lower victimization. Physical educators may need to acknowledge the potential role of personality with other factors they consider when differentiating their instruction in physical education.

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Author Biography

Ken Lodewyk, Brock University

Associate Professor

Department of Kinesiology

Faculty of Applied Health Sciences

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Published

2019-07-01

Issue

Section

Original Research