Tatum Smith, Utah Valley University
Current literature has made it well known that both men and women in this day and age struggle with their body image due to the ‘thin-ideal’ that our society holds. Some correlates of low body satisfaction include low self-esteem, depression, and the development of eating disorders. Elite athletes in this population are not immune to the effects of high standards for today’s bodies. In fact, recent studies have shown that athletes are actually at a heightened risk for lower body satisfaction scores than those of the non-athletic background (Beckner et al, 2015; Fransisco et al, 2013; Goltz et al, 2013). Although this research has discussed the heightened risk to athletes, it has not discussed the time in which an athlete’s body image starts to makes a change for the worse. The purpose of this study will be to find if an athlete’s body image worsens, betters, or stays the same while they are participating on their college’s athletic team. It is anticipated that if an athlete feels that their body image has gotten worse during their collegiate career, it will have started to change upon their first year entering college. To test this hypothesis, athletes from different sports and schools will be recruited via various social media platforms and given a survey through Qualtrics based off of the Body Uneasiness Test (BUT) (Cuzzolaro et al, 2006). The survey will also ask if they feel that their body image has gotten worse, better, or stayed the same throughout their career, and if it has changed, when that change happened. The anticipated results of this study could be of use to current and future college athletes, coaches and athletic trainers to understand the importance of discussing how to keep healthy body image with their athletes to help prevent the development of low self-esteem, depression, and the development of eating disorders.