Gender Differences in Body Image

Gender Differences in Body ImageBodyImage and Gender Difference A Study of Epic Proportions inletBody externalise is defined as The subjective picture or work forcetal visualize of onenesss own em consistence, with a line of reasoning as broad as this it is easy to see how there are discrepancies when it comes to how one chooses to view themselves. The constant input of precedent body types from the media and outside sources bombards ones mind and contribute lead to feelings of dis felicity and a longing for change. This report aimed to closely examine body visualise, gender differences, and trustfulness to dress somatic occupation in relation to students attending their first-year program at university. This correlation is important to get because it addresses topics such(prenominal) as body image and the role physiologic activity plays in the lives of individuals which can be applied to everyday life. Predicting that fe anthropoids will m other a stronger birth with negative body image than males is a sensible expectation when it is formed on the basis that women have a biological predisposition to higher body fat percentages, along with societies idealized standard of witness which increasingly insists on women being thin (Cash, Morrow, Hrabosky & Perry, 2004). The study Body Image, Self-Esteem, and Health-Related Behaviors Among Male and egg-producing(prenominal) First-Year College Students (Lowery et al., 2005) supports this prediction. Men displayed to a greater extent positive body image than women, which whitethorn be influenced by societal expectations for women being much extreme than those for men. These findings are consistent with other studies (Silberstein, Striegel-Moore, Timko, & Rodin, 1988) where despite the majority of both male and female participants selecting an ideal body that differed from their perceived figures, twice as many females had chosen an ideal figure that was two or more figures apart from their percei ved figure. Compared to men, women reported more body surveillance, greater body shame, a greater discrepancy between their ideal and real body figures, and more disgratification with their weight and physical appearance (Lowery et al., 2005). bear witness in studies alsosuggests that there is a positive relationship between physical activity andbody image (Alfermann & Stoll, 2000) (Campbell & Hausenblas, 2009). Asix-month exercise program collected of 24 males and 24 females, compared to acontrol group, produced results that showed that the exercise group improved inphysical self-concept significantly in comparison to the control group. Further synopsis determined that the only variable that differed considerably betweenmales and females was perceived physical fitness (Alfermann & Stoll, 2000).All other unfree variables were similar between participants of both sexesat the beginning of the study. Therefore, while both males and femalesincreased in positive body image consistently with each other end-to-end thestudy, the difference in body image between men and women also remainedconsistent throughout the study. Another similar study (Snchez-Miguel, Leo,Amado, Pulido, & Snchez-Oliva, 2017) showed that not only did females havea more negative body image than males, regardless of the effects of physicalactivity, but that intrinsic motivation towards exercise was greater in maleswhile amotivation was more enceinte in females. Research suggests that thismay be explained due to womens tendency to associate body dissatisfaction withthe concept of self-esteem (Furnham, Badmin & Sneade, 2002), which couldpotentially discourage women from exercising, while male self-esteem seemed tohave no correlation with body dissatisfaction, thus had no effect on motivationto exercise.Additional research canbe utilize to associate poor self-esteem adversely influencing womens lowerlevels of motivation to exercise with the consensus that females have a morenegative body image. A relevant study showedpatterns that indicated that those with a higher positive body image were morelikely to engage in physical activity in comparison to those with apredominantly negative body image (Kruger, Lee, Ainsworth & Marcera, 2008).Dr. Krugers study, Body SizeSatisfaction, and physiological Activity Levels Among Men and Women, tested thecorrelation between body image and physical exercise. The results of this studyfound that 55.8% of men and 53.3% of women with positive body image exercisedregularly. Regardless of participants actual weight, those who were slakedwith their body had a higher probability of engage in physical activity thanthose less satisfied.The main questions this study is looking to answer are how satisfied are students with their bodies, are confidence to manage and perform physical activity, body mass index (BMI) or actual physical activity levels related to body-image satisfaction in this population and lastly, do men have more positive body-image sa tisfaction than women. It is also predicted that females will have lower body satisfaction and general body image take a leaks than males base come to prior results from other similar studies. MethodsParticipantsThe sample for this study consisted of 112 first year students, with 73 females and 39 males. Ranging in ages from 18-24, the fair(a) age for females was 18.5 and the fairish age for males was 18.7, with an overall average age of 18.6 years. MeasuresThe approach used for this study was a one-time qualitative online questionnaire filled out by the first year students enrolled in the course. The questionnaire assessed the psychological variables by using a modified version of the self-efficacy measures (Shields & Brawley, 2007) to look at confidence to manage and perform physical activity. It also uses The Adult Body Satisfaction Questionnaire based on the body-cathexis scale (Secord & Jourard, 1953) to measure body image, and The Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnair e (Godin, 2011) to measure physical activity. Finally, it calculates BMI (measured by weight in kg/height in meters squared) and individual demographics such as age and sex. The results were then combined into a spreadsheet that compiled all of the ordern information (sex, age, height, weight, level of physical activity, years in sport, confidence levels and individual physical appearance satisfaction). This method of data collection is seen as an accessible way of composing a large set of data quickly and easily. ProceduresThe study conducted was cross-sectional involving first-year students completing a one-time, anonymous, online questionnaire specific to body image, confidence, physical activity, body mass index and demographics such as age and gender. The participants were asked to rank their satisfaction on a scale of 1-7 relating to specific questions. Some of the questions included In the past 4 weeks how satisfied have you been with your overall level of physical fitness? In the past 4 weeks, how satisfied have you been with your physical ability to do what you want or need to do? In the past 4 weeks, how satisfied have you been with your overall physical appearance? The dependent variable was the students completing the online questionnaire. The independent variable was the questionnaire that was created for the study, this is because the questions did not change at any point, therefore, staying consistent throughout the study no matter whether the students completed the questionnaire or not. ResultsTable 1 shows the total number of students enrolled in first-yearthat completed the survey. The table has been separated by gender as well as combined to give an overall view. Demographics such as age, height, weight, and body mass index have also been included to give background information as to who is representing the population. In general, there is an observable difference in the number of females versus males that participated in the study as can be seen in Table 1.Table 1 General Population Information Table 2 represents the male, female and overall average involvement in sport and physical activity, as well as reported confidence levels and body satisfaction. On average with regard to the population, females had a slightly lower body satisfaction score when compared to males, as well as a significantly lower reported confidence than the males. Overall females scored lower than males in each category. This data shows that students had an overall body satisfaction of 64.29%, with males averaging 73.29% and females averaging 59.57%. This shows that in the population males have a 13.72% higher body satisfaction than females and an overall more positive body image. Table 2 Physical Activity and Body Image Scores Bothmale and female students were represented as different populations in thisstudy, using a two-sample equal mutation T-test with a two-tail distribution theaverage body satisfaction of male and female students at Aca dia University wascalculated. The test had an alpha value of 0.05 (probability of rejecting thenull speculation when the hypothesis is avowedly) and a p-value of 0.0002 (theresult of the T-test). The null hypothesis (Ho) should be rejectedbecause the p-value is less than the alpha value, also represented as 0.0002 0.05. The null hypothesis is that neither male or female students will have anydifference in body satisfaction when compared to each other. ThePearsons correlation (represented by r) was used to calculate the strength ofa relationship between two variables. Average body satisfaction and totalphysical activity for the entire population presented a moderate, positive,analogue relationship (r= 0.22). For males, the relationship is ill-defined, negative, bilinear (r= -0.1) and with females, the relationship is moderate, positive,linear (r= 0.38). Average bodysatisfaction and BMI overall shows a moderate, negative, linear correlation (r=-0.19), males presented a moderate, po sitive, linear correlation (r= 0.24) andfemales presented a strong, negative, linear correlation (r= -0.39). Averagebody image satisfaction and confidence to manage PA (physical activity)presented an overall strong, positive, linear correlation (r=0.48), malespresented a weak, positive, linear correlation (r= 0.13) and females presenteda strong, positive, linear correlation (r= 0.48). The correlation between bodyimage satisfaction and confidence to perform PA (physical activity) presentedan overall moderate, positive, linear correlation (r=0.3) men presented a weak,negative, linear correlation (r= -0.11) and females presented a strong,positive, linear correlation (r= 0.32). Inaddition, average body satisfaction and total MVPA (moderate to vigorousphysical activity) presented a moderate, positive linear relationship (r=0.38). When the population was split into male and female it showed that maleshave a weak, negative, linear relationship (r= 0.09) and females have a strong,positive, linear relationship (r= 0.54). Overall average body satisfaction andconfidence presented a strong, positive, linear relationship (r= 0.44) when thepopulation was split into male and female, however, the results changeslightly. Males presented a weak, positive, linear relationship (r= 0.045) andfemales present a strong, positive, linear relationship (r= 0.46). Theseresults indicate that the relationship between average body satisfaction andreported confidence is a much stronger correlation for females than males. Averageconfidence to manage PA (physical activity) and years in sport is a moderate,positive, linear relationship (r=0.37). The correlation between confidence toperform PA (physical activity) and years in sport have a moderate, positive,linear relationship (r= 0.22), with very little difference when the populationwas split into male and female. The correlation scale is based on r 0.2 representing a weak correlation,0.2 r 0.4 representing a moderate correlation and r 0.4 bei ng astrong correlation. As shown in Graph 1 females tend to decrease inbody satisfaction as BMI increases. Graph 1 As shown in Graph 2 males tend to increase in bodysatisfaction as BMI increases. Graph 2 DiscussionThe overall findings showed that first-year students have an overall body satisfaction of 64.29%, where males tend to score 73.29% in contrast to females who average 59.57%. This shows that in the population males have a 13.72% higher body satisfaction than females and an overall more positive body image. This supports the original hypothesis that females will have a lower body satisfaction and overall body image scores than males. Whenlooking at the relationship between average body satisfaction and totalphysical activity there was a moderate positive relationship for the overallpopulation. Looking at the men, the relationship was weak and negative and forthe females, it was similar to the overall population with a moderate positiverelationship. This means that for women there is a connection between how theyfeel about their bodies and the do of physical activity they do in a week, theopposite can be said for men. Looking at the correlation between bodysatisfaction and body mass index shows that on average there is a moderatenegative relationship. Meaning that the lower the BMI the higher the bodysatisfaction, this is especially true for females. Body image satisfaction andconfidence to manage physical activity had an overall strong relationship butwhen the population was split up into men and women it showed that thecorrelation was much stronger for females than it was for males. Meaning thatfor women the more comfortable they are in their bodies the more comfortablethey are managing physical activity. Similar to the last findings when lookingat body image and confidence to perform instead of managing physical activityfemales had a much stronger correlation between the two variables than men did.As predicted, this studyfound that women tend to hav e more negative body image than men. These findingsare consistent with several studies that also concluded that males displayedhigher body satisfaction than females (Lowery et al., 2005 Alfermann &Stoll, 2000 Kruger et al., 2008). The results of this study also suggest that societalexpectations for women to be thin could be a factor in why females exhibitnegative body image more than men. The findings of this study show that whenBMI increases, average body satisfaction decreases in females, but increases inmales or is unaffected by BMI. This directly corresponds with the findings of (Loweryet al., 2005) who found the comparable correlations. Additionally, our results whichfound a lower average confidence to perform in females (72.60) than in males(86.15) coincide with those of (Alfermann & Stoll, 2000) which stated thatwhen there were no sex differences in dependent variables, they found asignificant difference in perceived physical fitness where in females were muchlower than male s. Another similarity between our study and the one of(Alfermann & Stoll, 2000) is that of increased body satisfaction in thosewho are more physically active regardless of gender. Alfermann explains, exerciseintervention conditions had improved body image compared to control conditions(Alfermann & Stoll, 2000) which can be translated in to our study, whichtakes place in day-to-day life, by concluding that those who exercise moreregularly would similarly resemble that of those partaking in the exercise andthose who exercise less would closer resemble the control group. Dueto the fact that these findings are similar to the results from other studies, itis not hard to believe these results. With that, these findings can be appliedto real-world scenarios focusing on body image in general for both men andwomen or looking more closely at the effects (positive and negative) physicalactivity has on women. Due to the fact that this study was conducted onfirst-year students ranging from ages 18-24, it would be easy to apply theseprinciples to others of the same age diverge or close to it. It would also bepossible to use these findings to try and proactively educate girls about thesefindings at a young age. This could potentially help them contract to be more satisfiedwith their bodies throughout their lives, which would hopefully pass on tofuture generations. Itis important to note that even though this study follows the trend of othersimilar studies there are always discrepancies, and due to the fact that thisdata is based solely on a one-time survey there is definitely fashion for error.Meaning that there is no way to draw a final conclusion, simply use thisinformation as an additional source. A next feel to build off of this studycould be to add 2nd, 3rd and 4th-yearstudents, which would expand the population giving a broader understanding ofthe results. ReferencesAlfermann, D.,& Stoll, O. (2000). Effects ofphysical exercise on self-concept and well-being. Inter national Journal of Sport Psychology, 31(1), 47-65Campbell, A., & Hausenblas, H. A. (2009). 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