Self-Esteem in Sports: A Study of Tribal and Non-tribal Players of Tripura, India

Tripura is the third-smallest state in India, verifying its presence through diversified culture, natural talent and geomorphological conditions. Nurturing the youngsters in such an atmosphere and mixed socio-cultural fabric helps with dealing resilience. It helps to boost their psychological and health behaviour. These behavioural habits reflect in sports, academics and other areas. Specifically in sports, psychology plays a pivotal role and brings out better athletes’ performance and self-esteem, which is one of the ways to distinguish between the Tribal and Non-tribal groups in this region. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965) was used to measure self-esteem. A total of 200 (Tribal-100 and Non-tribal -100) male players were selected. The independent t-test was used to see the difference in self-esteem between two groups. The result showed that the tribal players scored 28.84±3.07, while the non-tribal players scored 28.9±3.54. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference (p-value of 0.449) between groups. The study also revealed that 41% of tribal and 37% of non-tribal players fall under high self-esteem, while 59% of tribal and 63% of non-tribal players fall under moderate self-esteem. None of the players fall under the low self-esteem category. Further, a game-wise comparison revealed that the tribal Volleyball players had significantly higher self-esteem as compared to non-tribal players. However, there were no significant differences found in Cricket, Football, Badminton, Judo and Athletics.