Exercise as it relates to Disease/Exercise motivation in young adult females

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What is the background to this research?

Previous research has stated that up to 67 percent of children in general drop out of sports between the ages of 7 and 18 years old. F. Brady states that young girls participation in sports can be largely affected by the adults who run the competitions who are at times only interested in their own aim of winning, thus disregarding the cost this has on young athletes. Females in particular are subject to higher rates of discontinuing physical activity, once girls commence year 7 they are vulnerable to drastic drops in physical activity due to changes associated with body image and self esteem[1][2].

This paper includes a survey on weight stigma in females ages 18-23, past research in this age group has had data collected from obese individuals primarily, however this research consists of a variety of different BMI's from the participants. This research follows up on the effects of negative stigma on teenage girls competing in sports and attempts to discover why these trends continue in young adults[3].

Where is the research from?

Lenny R. Vartanian from Syracuse University (specialised in the psychology of eating and weight), and Jacqueline G. Shaprow from Yale university (psychology and law major, this paper is her thesis in the journal of health psychology), conducted a survey on undergraduate students at a university in North-East America[4][3].

What kind of research was this?

The study was a cross sectional study whereby 100 young women were asked at random about their motivation to exercise and their mental health regarding their weight[3].


What did the research involve?

The research involved 100 female participants ages 18-23 years old (M=20.1), who were randomly selected from 2 high-traffic areas on a university campus. The randomisation of the participants allowed for diverse results, however we must be aware that the type of people who agreed to the informed consent in the first place may have had an impact on the results[3]. After being stopped and offered a lottery scratch ticket as compensation the participants filled out a survey which included:

  • The Stigmatizing Situations Inventory- A commonly used 50 question survey to determine an individual's experiences with weight stigma. These questions are sorted into 11 subscales some of which include, comments from strangers, children, family or doctors, being avoided or excluded and bias in employment. Each item is rated from 0-9 with 0 being never and 9 being daily[3][5].
  • The Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale- Determines the global self-worth of a person by measuring the positive and negative feelings about oneself on a four-point scale whereby 1 is strongly agree and 4 is strongly disagree[6]
  • The Body Dissatisfaction subscale of the Eating Disorders Inventory - Is used as a measure of body dissatisfaction on a sale of 1 (never) to 6 (always) between 9 items.
  • The Exercise-Avoidance Motivation scale- Created for the purpose of this study, it has 8 questions relating to negative situations related to their weight, particularly exercise and weight-control behaviors. This scale was created from a mix of 2 others, the Coping Responses Inventory and the Restricted Activities Scale, along with some new questions. Each answer was rated on a scale of 1-7 from 'not at all true' to 'completely true' respectively.
  • lastly the participants reported the frequency and duration of mild, moderate and strenuous activity that they had completed in the last week. frequency was calculated on an eight-point scale (1 = None; 8 = seven times or more) and the average duration of exercise was recorded on a seven-point scale (1 = 0–15 mins; 7 = 91+ mins).


What were the basic results?

Unfortunately, 85% of the participants recorded experiencing weight stigma at some point in their lives, even though 75% of the group were considered healthy with a BMI under 25.

Psychological variables - There was a strong correlation between stigma instances and exercise avoidance motivation (P< .001). The largest correlations were that of, comments from family, and inappropriate comments from doctors, the smallest relationship was between job discrimination and being attacked. A linear regression analysis was completed with exercise avoidance motivation on stigma experiences, self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, age and BMI which elucidated 47% of deviation in exercise avoidance motivation.

Exercise behavior variables - Experiences with stigma were not found to be correlated with mild, moderate or strenuous exercise, this was not hypothesised. Conversely, moderate and strenuous activity were both negatively associated with exercise avoidance motivation, though mild activity was not (p = .57). Samples were then divided into BMI plus or minus 25, BMI's +25 (n=25) had the larger correlation between stigma experiences and avoidance motivation (p<.001), although the association between -25 BMI (n=75) participants was still statistically significant (p < .034). Finally links between avoidance motivation and exercise behavior did not change for participants of higher or lower BMI.

What conclusions can we take from this research?

  • People with more occurrences of weight stigma had increased dissatisfaction with their body and decreased motivation for exercise
  • Higher exercise-avoidance motivation predicted lower levels of moderate and strenuous exercise in participants.
  • It can be deduced that some efforts to be helpful to someone that would benefit from losing weight can actually be counterproductive, for example comments from doctors or family that may have the person's best interest at heart may be emotionally damaging, thus increasing weight stigma and therefore decreasing exercise motivation.
  • Other researches have also concluded that while encouraging comments from family or a spouse can be helpful, care must be taken when addressing this sensitive topic or else the effect may be reversed
  • The overarching feelings behind weight stigma are shame and embarrassment, these may alter behavior and cause individuals to avoid receiving negative attention when exercising in public or just withdraw from exercise altogether[3].

Practical advice

The sample size was quite small for future research a much larger sample size would be ideal, however this reduces the practicality of the assessment and is likely why a low number of participants took part in this study. A more refined analysis, for example a day to day recount to capture those 'in the moment' effects of stigma on obese individuals could be informative[3].

Creating exercise environments that aren't as threatening for heavier individuals, such as being size-accepting and more importantly prioritising fitness and health over aesthetics could be a positive move for the future. If individuals can be ingrained with the ideology that exercise is more about health than the aesthetics and opinions of others then more people will be inclined to exercise in this increasingly more obese society.

Further information/resources

The following link provides the information on this article and has a copy of the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale that can be used if you are concerned about your own health

https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1177/1359105307084318

These links include websites to help inform women on getting active:

https://www.womenshealth.gov/getting-active

https://exerciseright.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ESSA-Exercise-Womens-Health-eBook.pdf

References

  1. ↑ Frank Brady (2004) Children's Organized Sports: A Developmental Perspective, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 75:2, 35-41,
  2. ↑ Casey MM, Eime RM, Payne WR, Harvey JT. (2009). Using a socioecological approach to examine participation in sport and physical activity among rural adolescent girls. Qualitative health research. 2009 (7):881-93.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Lenny R. Vartanian, Jacqueline G. Shaprow, 2008. 8 SAGE Publications Los Angeles, Vol 13(1) 131–138
  4. ↑ Jacqueline G. Shaprow, 2020. Outschool
  5. ↑ Vartanian LR, 2015. Development and validation of a brief version of the Stigmatizing Situations Inventory.Obesity science & practice. 1(2):119-125.
  6. ↑ Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
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