Give or Take a Few? Comparing Measured and Self-Reported Height and Weight as Correlates of Social Physique Anxiety

• Published in: Research quarterly for exercise and sport Vol. 80; no. 3; pp. 656 - 662
• Main Authors: Gay, Jennifer, Monsma, Eva V., Torres-McGehee, Toni
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis Group 01-09-2009; American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Analysis of Variance; Anxiety; Anxiety - etiology; Anxiety - psychology; Athletes; athletics; Body Composition; Body Height - physiology; Body Image; Body Mass Index; Body Size; Body Weight - physiology; Children; Correlation; developmental levels; Eating Disorders; Etiology; Female; Females; Humans; Measurement Techniques; Perception; Psychometrics; Scientific Concepts; Self Concept; Self Disclosure; Sex Factors; Sports - psychology; Statistics as Topic; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0270-1367; 2168-3824
• DOI: 10.1080/02701367.2009.10599605

Statistically controlling for physical size is common practice, especially in self-perception studies uncovering the etiology of maladaptive behaviors, such as eating disorders. For example, social physique anxiety (SPA)--apprehension about social evaluations while presenting oneself in front of others (Leary, 1992)--is a prominent correlate of eating disorder indicators, body image, and self-esteem. Physical size may potentially mask relationships among the psychological variables between SPA relationships and such constructs. As controlling for body mass index (BMI) or other physical variables in behavioral studies continues to be common practice, especially those involving adolescents and cross-cultural samples, it is important to determine the most efficient way to collect these data. Generally, height and weight data are collected in two ways: objective measurement following stringent anthropometric protocols or via self-report. A fundamental limitation in asking participants to self-report their height and weight is that some participants may simply not know or are potentially subject to socioculturally driven bias. This study had three goals. First, the authors examined the accuracy of self-reported height and weight among female aesthetic sport athletes. The majority of participants were expected to underreport their weight and overreport their height. Second, they explored variation in physical variables and in SPA across the age periods Brooks-Gunn (1988) suggested. Participants in the older groups were expected to report higher SPA. Third, they compared the relationship with SPA for measured variables to that of self-reported variables. Results showed the errors associated with self-reported height and weight among adolescent and young adult aesthetic sports athletes. Although self-reported and measured correlations for height and weight were strong and significant, the majority of the participants overreported their heights (51%) as expected, but fewer underreported their weight (38%) than anticipated. (Contains 3 tables.)