The Interactive Role of Physical Activity and Personality Traits on the Psychosocial Development of Female Students

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

Background and Purpose: In the past twenty years great attention has been paid to the psychoanalytic and 
psychotherapeutic issues associated with physical activity. With respect to the increasing prevalence of mental 
disorders throughout society and the influence of physical activity on these disorders, particularly among adolescent girls who are the future mothers and builders of the country, this study has been carried out with the 
purpose of investigating the interactive role of physical activity and personal traits on the psychosocial development of female students. 
Materials and Method: The present study is causative-comparative. A number of 75 young athlete female 
students with regular engagement in physical activities and 80 adolescent females with no engagement were 
selected. Instruments employed in this research were personal information questionnaire, Hawley’s Measures 
of Psychosocial Development (MPD), and Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI). Data were analyzed using independent t tests and causative variance analysis using SPSS software. 
Findings: Results showed that athlete female students fare better in personality traits such as extroversion, 
stability and psychosocial development than non-athlete students and extrovert and/or stable athlete students 
enjoy a higher psychosocial development than non-athlete students (P<0.05). 
Conclusion: Findings show that personality traits and psychosocial development have close relationship 
with physical activity of the adolescents. With respect to the particular needs of adolescence, any kind of carelessness whatsoever towards the adolescents might endanger their personality traits and psychosocial development. Hence, it is recommended that authorities and healthcare systems adopt a more precise planning in order 
to maintain and improve independence among adolescents throughout society.

Keywords

• psychosocial development
• introversion
• extroversion
• stability
• instability
• psychology of sport

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