Comparison of self-efficacy and self-esteem in athlete and non-athlete blind and visually impaired individuals

Several studies have investigated the role of physical activity (PA) in self-efficacy (S-EF) and self-esteem (S-ES) of people, especially visually-impaired individuals. Therefore,the goal of this research was to compare the S-EF and S-ES in athlete and non-athlete blind and visually impaired individuals.

In this study, the population comprised all blind and visually impaired people in Arak, among whom 92 participants withthe mean age of 32.42 ± 11.46 were selected as the sample of the study by purposive sampling method. Based on a demographic questionnaire, they were divided into two groups of athletes and non-athletes. The research instruments included a self-esteem index (SEI) and a general self-efficacy scale (GSES) which were completed by an interview. The results were analyzed using one-sample and independent samples t-tests. SPSS version 26 was used to analyze the data at a significance level of P = 0.05.

The results indicated that overall in athletes, the average S-EF and S-ES were higher than those in non-athletes. The results also showed that the S-ES of athletes was significantly higher than the theoretical average (P = 0.001) and there was a significant difference between the overall S-ES of the visually impaired and blind athletes and non-athletes (P = 0.001).

In general, the results showed that exercise and PA, especially group PA, may play an effective role in increasing S-EF and S-ES of the blind and visually impaired people.