Factors associated with body size perception among adolescent goal-oriented sports participants and non-participants: a cross-sectional Finnish study

Regardless of competitive athletes' body image pressures, only few studies have focused on adolescent sport participants' body image and the findings are inconclusive. Furthermore, the role of competitive goals in sports on adolescents' body size perception has not been studied. We ex...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	BMC public health Vol. 22; no. 1; p. 2188
Main Authors:	Mäkituomas, Leevi, Heikkilä, Laura, Nurkkala, Marjukka, Korpelainen, Raija, Alanko, Lauri, Heinonen, Olli J, Kokko, Sami, Kujala, Urho, Parkkari, Jari, Savonen, Kai, Valtonen, Maarit, Vasankari, Tommi, Villberg, Jari, Vanhala, Marja
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England BioMed Central Ltd 25-11-2022 BioMed Central BMC
Subjects:	Adolescent Adolescents Aims and objectives Athlete Athletes Body image Body satisfaction Body Size Body weight Child development Competitive sports Consent Cross-sectional Cross-Sectional Studies Demographic aspects Eating behavior Eating disorders Exercise Female Finland Goals Health aspects Humans Male Motivation Organized youth sports Overweight Participation Perception Physical fitness Physiological aspects Public health Questionnaires Regression analysis Schools Self esteem Self image Size Perception Sports Sports & recreation clubs Teenage athletes Teenagers Thinness Youth Sports Finland Competitive sports Organized youth sports Athlete Cross-sectional Body satisfaction
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Summary:	Regardless of competitive athletes' body image pressures, only few studies have focused on adolescent sport participants' body image and the findings are inconclusive. Furthermore, the role of competitive goals in sports on adolescents' body size perception has not been studied. We examined the factors associated with adolescents' competitive goals in sports and body size perception, and the associations between adolescents' competitive goals in sports and body size perception. The cross-sectional study consisted of 475 goal-oriented sports club participants and 936 reference youths (aged 14-16 years). The study questionnaire included multiple choice items on health behaviours, motives to exercise, competitive goals in sports and body size perception. The multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the associations. Adolescents with competitive goals in sports perceived their body size as about the right size more frequently than reference youths (68% vs 47%, p < 0.001 in girls; 74% vs 61%, p < 0.001 in boys). More than one-fourth of girls with competitive goals in sports perceived themselves as overweight, although only 7% of them were overweight. Adolescents with appearance/weight motives to exercise and poor perceived physical fitness had higher odds of perceived fatness. Additionally, BMI was positively associated with perceived fatness and negatively with perceived thinness. Having competitive goals in sports was not independently associated with perceived fatness or perceived thinness. Adolescents' BMI, appearance/weight motives to exercise, and perceived physical fitness were more strongly associated with body size perception than their competitive goals in sports. However, perceived fatness among girls with competitive goals in sports should be considered in organized sports.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1471-2458 1471-2458
DOI:	10.1186/s12889-022-14511-z