Effect of gender and type of sport practiced on aggression and self-esteem in Tunisian athletes.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between self-esteem and aggressive dispositions of athletes by gender and types of sports. Thus, two questionnaires of aggression and the inventory of the physical self-esteem were completed by 440 subjects (mean age 21.49 ± 1.96) practicing team and individual sports. Our results showed a negative correlation between self-esteem and aggression (r = -0.46 ; p <0.001). Practitioners of team sports are characterized by low self-esteem and high aggression and conversely for individual sports. Males show more physical (p <0.001) and verbal aggression than females (p <0.01). In contrast, females express more acts of anger (p <0.001) and hostility (p <0.001) than males. However, it seems worthwhile to give more importance to the self-esteem of players and try to improve to minimize aggression in sport.