1. Body Image Pressures in Female Athletes vs. Female Non-athletes
Kathleen A. Keoughan, Adam Parker, Allan Byers
Angelo State University
Introduction
Methods
Figure 1
A lot of focus, as of late, has been put on body images pressures and eating disorders among young females. Body image is defined by Kong & Harris (2015) as “the subjective personal interpretation of an individual’s body and has cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions”. Diseases like anorexia, bulimia, etc. are common at this time. Body dissatisfaction is also common among females for a multitude of reasons and usually the desire to be "thin" is higher when body dissatisfaction is higher (Heider, Spruyt, & De Houwer, 2015). Unfortunately, females tend to overestimate their body weight (Boo, 2015). Although this issue is beginning to be addressed for females in general, it is an issue that is very prominent in female athletes also. Female elite athletes experience body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms at a higher rate than females who are not elite athletes (Kong & Harris, 2015). There is a spectrum of reasons why this is so including peer pressures, coaching pressures, pressures from the other sex, etc. College aged people are already under a larger amount of stress due to a new setting, new social standards, and new health responsibilities that they did not previously have to deal with. Body image pressures are heightened in this new autonomous setting, and female are likely to compare themselves based on social rank, likeability, et. (Duarte et al., 2015). Compared to male athletes, female athletes “are more likely to engage in compulsive exercising and pathological weight loss methods, such as abuse of laxatives and diet pills, self-induced vomiting, and fasting, with the aim of attaining superior physical condition” (Kong & Harris, 2015). There are negative implications of these actions or thoughts on not only the physical health, but also the mental health due to body dissatisfaction. Feelings of inferiority can arise and lead to depressive behaviors and thoughts when someone feels dissatisfied with their body. Depressive thoughts not only lead to physical harm in the way of eating disorders, but also to mental health harm. In a study conducted by Wolfe & Hewitt (2016) they state that “those with higher depressive symptoms were almost three times more likely to develop eating disorders than those with high body dissatisfaction and low levels of depression”. It is clear that eating disorders, body image, and depression go hand-in-hand and it seems a combination of factors including college aged, female, and an athlete can largely affect the strength of body image pressures.
A survey was developed to be taken by female students. The questions asked about body image pressures, the sources of pressure, and the affects of these pressures. The participants included both female collegiate athletes (n=20) and females non-athletes (n=30). The survey was ed out to these randomly recruited participants. The results were collected and analyzed.
Results
Figure 2
There were no significant differences in responses to the survey questions except for one. Female non-athletes were more likely to respond that body image pressures affected their self-esteem versus female athletes. When asked if they believe there are body image pressures, 55% responded with “Agree” and 41% responded with “Strongly Agree” (Figure 1). 49% “Agreed” and 21% “Strongly Agreed” that they experienced body image pressures (Figure 2). 52% “Agreed” and 32% “Strongly Agreed” that media and pop culutre placed body image pressures on females (Figure 3). 48% responded “Agree” and 24% responded “Strongly Agree” when asked if males placed body image pressures on females (Figure 4).
Figure 3
Conclusions
Compilations of the accumulated data lead to the conclusions that female non-athletes’ self-esteem is more affected by body image pressures than female athletes’. Both groups showed consensus in that body image pressures exist, they experience body image pressures, and media, pop culutre, and males all place body image pressures on females.
Figure 4
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to identify whether or not females experience these body pressures, identify the the differences in sources of pressure for both groups, and how it affects females.