Body Image Pressures in Female Athletes vs. Female Non-athletes

Abstract

Both female athletes and female non-athletes experience body image pressures and require a lot of their bodies. The main questions to be answered are: How many female athletes and female non-athletes are affected by body image pressures? What is the differences in the sources of pressure? How does this affect the females? Female athletes in the Angelo State Athletic Department and female students from the student body were emailed electronic surveys. The survey contained questions of whether or not participants believe there are those pressure, the sources of body image pressures females receive, and how it affects their life. All participants were provided with an informed consent form approved by the Angelo State University Institutional Review Board before completing any components of the proposed research. Female participants were randomly selected and surveys were completed by 20 collegiate athletes and 30 non-athletes. The data from the surveys was collected and analyzed using the Intellectus Statistics™ Software to conduct a Mann-Whitney test. The results showed that the only difference among the responses of female athletes and non-athletes was that non-athletes’ body image affected their self-esteem more than the athletes. Four questions showed the highest consensus of responses and both group groups agreed that females are put under body image pressures, they experience these body image pressures, media and pop culture are a source of these pressures, as well as males.