هوشنگ زارعی

The main purpose of this research was to examined the relationship between self-esteem and attitude to sport among women. Research method, is the correlation method based on analysis of covariance matrix. The population is women aged 15-29 in Yasouj that its size is 10024 people in which 240 cases were selected using multistage random sampling method. Research instruments for sport participation and attitude to sport are two researcher-made questionnaires and research tool for physical self-esteem is Cash’s physical self-esteem (CPSES) that the validity were measure through construct validity using factor analysis. To Calculate the reliability coefficient of the research instruments Kuder-Richardson is used which for the sport participation scale is .71, and Cronbach alpha for the attitude to sport scale which is .87 and the physical self-esteem scale is .75. Descriptive results of the study showed that women’s sports participation is low. The analytical findings using structural equation model according to RMSEA= %4 (showed that) physical self-esteem and attitude to sport are able to explain 54% of the variance of women’s sport participation. The research conclusion is that cultural barriers have a significant role in women's limited sports participation and in regard to the importance of sport participation for women, changing of some cultural patterns is necessary.