Abstract

Nowadays sports are becoming more competitive than ever, but body image and an healthy body bring along other issues that most of us are not familiar with. Young female athletes are more prone with body issues according to a study of Brown University. Sports are considered great aspects of one´s life, emphasizing confidence, self-esteem, and a healthy body. However, this is not always the case. Why are females athletes enrolled in athletics? Is it a way to look for the “perfect body”?

The Brown University study called “Muscle vs. Aesthetics” estimates that between 16 and 72 percent of female athletes have experienced or suffer from eating disorders, comparing to 5 to 10 percent of the general population. This is an alarmingly large percentage of female athletes going under external and internal pressures in order to achieve a desired body. According to the study mentioned, “"Female athletes are probably more at risk for eating disorders because they may have certain predisposing personal attributes that both make them athletes. They are driven to succeed and often ignore pain while trying to reach a goal."

Introduction

Body image can be described as an individual´s body appearance, and what behaviors are adopted to improve body image. In this case, we will discuss body image of collegiate female athletes. It is to our knowledge that in the United States, colleges created many chances of physical health development by creating numerous sports allowing male and female students to be active participants. Nowadays, the competitive level exploded, and year after year it seems that athletic capacities, techniques, and all other aspects revolving physical strength are on the rise.

Due to competition, many young athletes are adopting all sorts of dieting behaviors in order to be on top of their game. Female athletes are the primary target of researchers´ studies about the impact of athletic participation and their sense of body image and appearance.  Most of these athletes are driven to reach success leaving pain and health behind, and using their bodies as a tool to reach their athletic goals. Body dissatisfaction and perfectionism often hide risky behaviors that more and more athletes are adopting in order to improve performance, such as eating disorders and excessive exercise patterns.

 Research

Zucker et al. (1999) conducted an experiment between judged sports (such as gymnastics, cheerleading, diving) and refereed sports (basketball, volleyball) in order to study the effect of different sport participation in female athletes. According to the study, judged sports are more likely to have individuals suffering from eating disorders due to these sports being evaluated from a body weight and appearance perspective while refereed sports are evaluated based on technique and teamwork not giving much emphasis to physical appearance and weight.

Johnson, Powers, and Dick (1999) concluded that more than one third of NCAA Division I female athletes showed symptoms that could put them on risk of suffering from eating disorders. The study of Zucker et al. and Johnson, Powers, and Dick came to a conclusion: “Some athletes seem to associate being thin with success in their sport or activity. This performance-related drive for thinness makes some college athletes believe that with lower body fat, they will enhance performance in their sport”(Powers & Johnson, 1996). These studies concluded that 14% of women in judged sports, 3% in refereed sports and 3% in non-athletic group, suffered from eating disorders. Kirk et al. (2001), Powers (2000), Hausenblaus & Carron (1999), Gootwals, Dunn, & Wayment (2003) came to similar conclusions all together about female athletes´ participation in sports. Some of the conclusions were that judged sports require a thin and childlike body type guiding these athletes to struggle to keep their body fit developing eating disorders due to peer pressure, self-conscience, and competition. Also, when comparing athletes with non-athletes the main factor that could distinguish both groups in the results was the fact that athletes have a higher percentage of perfectionism, leading to the conclusion that individuals with higher percentage of perfectionism would eventually have a higher desire to reach thinness than those athletes that revealed low percentage on perfectionism.

 All of these studies compared eating habits; perfectionism and body dissatisfaction in female athletes involved in judged sports and refereed sports. Schawrz, Gairrett, Aruguete, & Gold developed 4 specific hypotheses: “1) athletes will be more dissatisfied with their bodies and be more likely to display pathological eating that non-athletes, 2) athletes in judged sports will have higher incidence of body dissatisfaction and be more likely to have behaviors associated with eating disorders than athletes in refereed sports, 3) athletes will be more likely to have increased tendencies for perfectionism over non-athletes, and 4) perfectionism will be positively correlated with pathological eating attitudes.” To test these hypotheses, they did use the following method: recruited 103 females ranging from 18-22 years, where 53% reported to be involved in sports with an average of 8.24 years of involvement. It was given questionnaires to all participants: The Eating Attitudes Test (Garner, Olmsted, Bohr, and Garfinkel, 1982), Perfectionism Subscale of the Eating Disorders Inventory (Garner, Olmstead, and Polivy, 1983), and demographic questionnaire that asked about gender, ethnicity, weight, height, sports participant or not, primary sports, etc.

Results of all 4 hypotheses: In the sample studied, the group of female athletes’ didn´t show high levels of eating disorders compared to non-athletes. However, they concluded that the risk of eating disorders is directly related with the type of sport. The control group of non-athletes has unexpectedly shown a higher percentage of body dissatisfaction compared with the group of athletes. Researchers concluded that body dissatisfaction is most likely unrelated to an individual´s will to be thin and fit. Also, women participating in judged sports had a higher tendency to diet comparing to women participating in refereed sports. As expected, perfectionism was proven to be related to extreme dieting leading to eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia nervosa. “Athletes may be so concerned about their performance that they become quite disappointed in themselves for performing poorly.”(Gowals, Dunn & Wayment 2003)

Looking at a study by Johnson, Powers, and Dick (1999), they used a sample of 1,445 student athletes, 57% being men and 43% women, and applied a couple tests to measure body dissatisfaction, eating habits and self image to find out the percentages and discrepancies between female athletes and male athletes. They came to the conclusion that 9, 2% of women indicated having problems with Bulimia against .01% of the men in the study. Also, 5,5% of females in the study reported to have purging behaviors against 2% of the men.

Hutchinson (2004) mentions the importance of a coach, especially when dealing with female athletes. Coaches should strive to provide the safest and well rounded environment for the athletes’ ability to explore success and performance no matter their size, weight and shape. Coaches also play an important role by being able or having enough knowledge to recognize when an athlete is having body image problems, and then forward that individual to a health professional to receive counseling and overcome such issue. Hutchinson also reveals a pretty simple advice: athletes should look within their sport for role models of different shapes and sizes, and perhaps learn something out of it, for example, that women can play different major roles either by being a swimmer, a track runner or a ball player. It don´t matter the sport, but the greatness of the individual in overcoming these social norms installed in our society that shape athletes nowadays. The same study mentioned Mount Holyoke, which is an institution, developed to give support to athletes that may suffer from body image. Throughout the entire camp, one can find women of all sizes, shapes and weights rocking their bodies to whatever sport they like and feel comfortable playing it. This is a great way to show female athletes how all these body image issues are only caused by social norms created within our society, and that one should not take it into consideration, or else we might be taking the wrong road to success in sports.

Conclusions

According to the studies analyzed, researchers came to the conclusion that the same aspects and behaviors that can lead an athlete to success, they also can lead to a significant amount of behaviors that are not healthy. Perfectionism and strict discipline can definitely lead an athlete to achieve success, but taking it too serious can harm an individual physically and mentally. Hopkinson and Lock (2004) developed a study at Stanford University and came to the conclusion that perfectionism was the greatest risk factor for female athletes. Results may vary depending on the study and method applied, but most researchers came together to a single agreement: the higher level of discipline and perfectionism, higher is the susceptibility of eating disorders between female athletes.

Recommendation:

All these studies discussed are a great way to possibly improve athletic programs by informing those responsible of keeping an athlete healthy to be aware of risk behaviors and attitudes towards competition. Developing strategies to fight these risk behaviors should be considered, since competition never was like it is today.

Some of the studies might not be considered too reliable due to the sample sizes, the participants reporting their behaviors, and non varsity students defining their participation in sports in numerous ways. According to these aspects, one should not be totally reliable of the studies analyzed, but like I mentioned before, they are a great way to develop and improve athletic programs.  

 Biblography

Hopkinson, R.A. & Lock, J. (2004). Athletics, perfectionism, and disordered eating, Eating and Weight Disorders, 9(2), 99-106.

Muller, S.M., Gorrow, T.R., & Schneider, S.R. (2009). Enhancing Appearance and Sports Performance: Are Female Collegiate Athletes Behaving More Like Males?. Journal of American College Health, 57(5)

Schawrz, H.C., Gairret, R.L., Aruguete, M.S., & Gold, E.S. (2005). Eating Attitudes, Body Dissatisfaction, and Perfectionism in Female College Athletes. North American Journal of Psychology, 7(3), 345-352

Robinson, K., & Ferraro, F.R. (2004). The Relationship between types of female athletic participation and female body type. The Journal of Psychology, 138(2), 115-128.

Buchholz, A., Mack, H., McVey, G., Feder, S., & Barrowman, N. (2008). Bodysense: an evaluation of a positive image intervention on sport climate for female athletes. Eating Disorders, 16 308-321. doi: 10.1080/106402608021159