Personality traits in physical educational pre-service teachers and sports science students

Introduction: The aim of the study is to trace the personological profile of individuals involved in Sport Science and Sport Pedagogy fields (students and teachers) in order to identify their specific personality traits. Methods: A sample of 147 individuals (mean±SD age: 30±6.8 years, range23-53 years, 53.7% females and 46.3% males) following a Master's degree in Sport Science (36.7%) or enrolled in PE Teaching specialisation courses for Secondary School (TFA 42.9%; PAS 20.4%) at the Catholic University of Milan, were recruited for this study. The participants completed a socio-anagraphic questionnaire - evaluating education and experience both in school teaching and in sports context as fitness centers and sports teams - and the BFO (Big Five Observer), a questionnaire designed to investigate the main dimensions of personality (Energy/extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Mental Openness) through a list of 40 pairs of bipolar adjectives. Results: The sample – comparing to general population’s standardized values - shows high levels of emotional stability (T points mean 57; 58 in men) and mental openness (T higher points mean 56). Student’s t-Test (p<0,01) highlighted some gender differences: females presented values in conscientiousness and males in emotional stability. Instead, there were no significant differences between students and teachers about personological aspects. There was a positive correlation (Pearsons’ r 0,166 p<0,05) between age and energy/extraversion: this dimension growed with the years. Discussion: Personological aspects are often overlooked when studying the population of sport science and sport pedagogy, but it seems important to consider this information both to understand the reason of this career choice (also comparing in the future our study population with another sample, for example of human sciences) and to define appropriate training courses in sport education field. References: 1) Caprara, G.V., Barbaranelli, C., Borgogni, L., Big Five Observer, OS, Firenze, 1994