Stand up! Be Proud! More Importantly...Be Confident!!

WHAT:
     Chris is a 10 year old girl who plays soccer for a rec league.  She has trouble with self-confidence and esteem while playing the game, whether it's in a game or during practice.  Her parents are also convinced that she will be unable to boost her self-esteem now since she's been playing for 2 years and they haven't seen much to any improvement.

SO WHAT:
     According to Harter, children aged from 8-12 make more reliable judgments in the domain areas and are able to form overall judgment of self-worth. (five domains: cognitive competence, physical competence, physical appearance, social acceptance, and behavioral conduct) With this said, the domains are linked, but independent from, global self-esteem domains which are more related to older kids and teens, which may include college students.
     Self-efficacy is believed to have a greater impact on the performance of an athlete.  It's a situation-specific form of self-confidence.  If they believe they are talented, there's a good chance that they will perform better.  However, specific situations may affect self-confidence on the field.  If they determine that their opponent is better than them, or they see that the opponent has more energy/fight left in them at the beginning of a half, period, or quarter, their self-confidence may change affecting their performance. This is all in relations to Bandura's self-efficacy Theory.

NOW WHAT:
     As a coach, I would attempt to help Chris realize that she is capable of performing well at soccer.  Help her realize that she is physically, mentally, and socially capable of performing well.  I would do this by choosing specific events or situations that provide strong evidence that she is well capable.  By giving her specific examples of each of the domains that Harter provided, should open her eyes to believing that she can perform well during games and practice.  The more examples of success that she see, hear, or be reminded of will boost her self-esteem while she's playing soccer.  Also, by giving her examples of success she's had off the field may carryover to her self-esteem off the field, vice versa for on the field performance for off the field self-esteem.  As long as she's given positive feedback, there should be a carry over of her self-esteem on and off the field.
     By giving Chris specific examples of her performance or events and the increase in self-esteem, there should be a carryover of her increased self-esteem to an increase of her self-efficacy.  If she's able to understand that when she does perform well and good things happen, the more she's able to realize this happening, she will go into games/situations with more confidence that she can take this event head on and still perform to her capabilities.  Even if she determines that her opponent isn't tired and still has life in them, she may be able to bypass that with her confidence and not let it affect her performance.  Bandura's Theory states that an athlete determines their choice of activity, level of effort, and degree of persistence.  Which means people with high-efficacious seek challenges, try harder, and persist; whereas, low-efficacious people tend to avoid challenges, easily give up, and become more anxious/depressed when facing adversity.  With Chris, by increasing her self-efficacy, she will be more willing to try harder when facing adversity and less willing to give up, especially if she knows she's been able to overcome similar adversity in the past.

CONCLUSION:
     In conclusion, in order to boost or increase this young lady's, Chris, self-esteem and confidence, being able to point out positive events and/or situations that she's participated in and reminding her of specific times of when she has overcome adversity will assist her in feeling more confident while playing soccer.  Self-esteem and self-efficacy can go hand at hand, assisting one another in helping Chris feel happier about her performance and outlook at soccer as well as off the field events.  With a boost in self-confidence/efficacy during games, ideally it should carry over to increase Chris' self-esteem.  If she's able to perform with more confidence, there's a good chance that her performance will increase by trying harder and not giving up as easily during competition.