Influence of Physical Activity Body Mass Index on Perceived Physical Self-Concept among Undergraduate Students of Saudi Arabia

Background: Self-concept is one of the important aspect of our personality. Physical self-concept defined as person’s perception of themselves in relation to his/her physical skills and outwards appearance. Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare and explore the association of physical activity to physical self-concept of undergraduate students at different levels of Body Mass Index (BMI). Methods: A group of 140 undergraduate students Mage 19 ±0.70 years randomly categorized into underweight u003c18.5 kg/m2 [n= 37: 26.4%]; normal-weight 18.5-24.9 kg/m2 [n= 31: 22.1%]; obese ≥30.00 kg/m2 [n= 37: 26.4%] and obese class III ≥40.00 kg/ m2 [n= 35: 25%]. Physical self-concept measured using PSDQ-S. Physical activity on the basis of duration per week. Results: ANOVA revealed highly significant difference among BMI categories on all the factors of perceived physical self-concept except, health factor (p =0.589). The post hoc comparison showed that obese participants had significantly lower scores on coordination (p u003c 0.001), physical activity (p u003c 0.05), sports competence (p u003c 0.01), appearance (p u003c 0.001), flexibility (p u003c 0.001), endurance (p u003c 0.001), global self-esteem (p u003c 0.001) and global physical self-concept (p u003c 0.001). Underweight participants reported significantly lower scores on physical activity (p u003c 0.001), sports competence (p u003c 0.05) and strength (p u003c 0.05). Conclusion: Obese category students were having poor self-concept. Normal-weight students perceived higher physical self-concept and global self-esteem than obese and underweight students. Physical activity has strong association with sports competence, strength, appearance and self-esteem. Students