Psychological well-being, body image and self-esteem in elite and amateur female taekwondo athletes in Türkiye

BACKGROUND: Female athletes competing in weight-category sports may experience unique psychological pressures related to body image, performance expectations, and sociocultural gender norms. While elite sport participation is often assumed to enhance psychological functioning, evidence remains mixed. This study examined differences in psychological well-being, body image, self-esteem, and athletic identity between elite and amateur female taekwondo athletes in Türkiye, a cultural context characterised by distinct gender and body norms, and explored their associations with psychological well-being. Türkiye represents a theoretically relevant context in which institutional weight regulation intersects with sociocultural gender norms, creating a setting in which body-related psychological experiences may be uniquely shaped by both sport structures and cultural expectations. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was employed with 233 female taekwondo athletes (107 elite, 126 amateur; M_age = 22.0 ± 3.2 years). Participants completed validated Turkish versions of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS), the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS). Independent samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlations, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between elite and amateur athletes in psychological well-being or self-esteem. Elite athletes demonstrated significantly stronger athletic identity (p < .001), whereas amateur athletes reported significantly, though modestly, higher body image scores (p = .046). In regression analyses, self-esteem (β = 0.428, p < .001) and body image (β = 0.354, p < .001) were significant predictors of psychological well-being, jointly explaining 52.6% of the variance (R² = 0.526), with self-esteem showing the strongest independent association. Effect size estimates indicated that differences were large for athletic identity (d = 0.75), small for body image (d = 0.26), and negligible for psychological well-being and self-esteem (d = 0.09 and d = 0.13, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Psychological well-being in female taekwondo athletes was more strongly associated with self-esteem and body image than with competitive level. These findings support prioritising self-esteem and body appreciation in structured psychological support programs for female athletes in weight-category sport systems.