Health & body · 2010
How did university students relate their feelings about their bodies to how much and where they exercised?
Students who exercised described feelings about their bodies as a motivation for how much they exercised and a constraint on where they exercised. Students who did not exercise did not identify those feelings as an important barrier to exercise. These were self-reports from a survey of 1,044 students at a university in the Midwestern United States, not evidence of cause and effect.
Details
The study examined body image—how people view and feel about their bodies—in relation to exercise motivations, barriers, amount and location. Researchers surveyed students aged 17–55 and analyzed the content of their responses; 76.8% reported exercising.
Overall, 58.3% reported that body image mattered to how much they exercised, and 22.4% reported that it mattered to where they exercised. The authors interpreted the responses from exercisers as showing that body image could motivate exercise while limiting the choice of location. In contrast, non-exercisers reported satisfaction with their overall appearance and did not identify body image as an important obstacle to exercising. Most respondents in each group reported exercising more in the past and wanting to exercise more currently.
The findings describe students’ own accounts at a single university. They do not establish that feelings about the body caused particular exercise habits or that the same pattern applies to other populations.
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