Sports participation and body concern in an adult population: Does type of sport matter?

Abstract

Body image is a human universal which affects the health and well-being of an individual and their ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Results in the field of body image research and its relationship with sports participation have been mixed, meaning that the effect of athletic involvement on body image in unclear. This study uses a sample of 142 adult females to address the question of whether participation in sports, and aesthetic sports in particular, has an effect on body concern. The results of this study indicate no link between participation in sports and body concern in a sample of non-elite-level athletes from a wide spectrum of sports, including aesthetic sports. The results do indicate that a large proportion of the variance in body concern can be explained by psychological and sociocultural variables, age and Body Mass Index. The relationship between these variables and scores on the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) are modelled using structural equation modelling.