THE INFLUENCES OF PHYSICAL FITNESS ON MOOD AND SELF-ESTEEM IN A YOUNG ADULT POPULATION: A LEARNED EFFICACY MODEL (SELF-EFFICACY, ATTRIBUTION, LEARNED HELPLESSNESS, DEPRESSION)

For many young adults, mild depression and low self-esteem interfere with both a basic enjoyment of life and with progress through important developmental tasks. Developmental theory, theory related to self-esteem and mood, and a wealth of empirical findings all suggest that positive experiences involving physical functioning may be an important source of self-esteem and positive mood for the young adult.;A battery of objective and subjective measures of physical functioning, self-esteem, and mood were administered during two assessment periods, eight weeks apart, to 144 young adults enrolled in college-level physical fitness courses. In addition, the self-report measures were administered to a comparison group.;Results demonstrated that level of regular physical activity, a self-report measure of physical self-efficacy, and actual physical fitness were all significantly negatively correlated with depressive symptomology and positively correlated with self-esteem.;In addition, subjects involved in physical fitness programs experienced greater gains in self-esteem and mood, as well as physical self-efficacy, relative to comparison subjects. Gain in self-esteem and mood were significantly related to perceptions of physical improvement but not objective measures of physical improvement. These data support a view that cognitive processes play an important mediating role in determining the quality and quantity of psychological benefit derived from physical fitness training. The subjective experience of physical mastery is said to provide a source of "learned efficacy" through which the enhancement of mood and self-esteem emerge.;The present research project was designed to address three objectives: (1) to investigate the relationship of several physical fitness-related variables to mood and self-esteem; (2) to assess the effects of physical fitness training on mood and self-esteem; and (3) to investigate the role of causal attribution as a mediating factor of the psychological benefit derived from physical fitness training.;A hypothesis that causal attributions regarding physical improvement would mediate psychological benefit was not supported by the data. However, persons who attributed successful physical functioning to factors that transcended the current situation reported less depressive symptomology and higher self-esteem at both points of assessment. The question of a possible "ceiling effect" was discussed.;Implications for the prevention and treatment of mild depression were discussed, as well as implications for physical fitness programming.