A Study of Effects of Kids' Athletics Exercises on Academic Achievement and Self-esteem

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of kids' athletics training program on their academic achievement and self-esteem. The kids' athletics training program is implemented for 14 weeks. The study consists of one experiment group (n: 95, 52 M, 43 F, age 10,92 ± 0,61 years old) and one control group (n: 148, 73 M, 75 F, age 10,90 ± 0,63 years old). These two groups consist of totally 243 children. The "Cooper Smith Self-esteem Questionnaire-Children's Form" whose reliability and validity was proved by Piskin in 1996 is used to measure the self-esteem [1]. Academic achievement values are identified by students' school reports. Following the pre-test, Kids athletics program whose duration is 60 minutes is implemented 3 days in a week for 14 weeks. In the last test, self-esteem and academic achievement measures of the students is done again. In the statistical analysis of the self-esteem and academic achievement of the experiment and control groups, it is seen that there is a significant increase in the total self-esteem (p:0,0377) and general self-esteem (p:0,0421) of the experimental group. Moreover, a significant increase is detected in Physical Education and Sports (p:0,0015), Music (p:0,0224), Turkish (p:0,0047) and Foreign Language (p:0,000) grades.