Association of Social Physique Anxiety and the Risk of Developing Eating Disorders Among Collegiate Female Athletes

Abstract

Social Physique Anxiety (SPA) is described as an individual’s anxiety towards others evaluating their body. Studies have shown SPA being prevalent among collegiate female athletes, as well as being highly correlated to the onset of eating disorders. Due to the inconsistent findings in various research and with the existing gap of knowledge, this paper aims to examine the association of SPA and developing eating disorders among Filipino collegiate female athletes by particularly focusing on the type of uniforms worn by athletes. Four different questionnaires were distributed to collegiate female athletes from 15 women’s variety teams from the University of the Philippines Diliman (n = 277). A total of 167 collegiate female athletes were divided by their sports uniforms, with 74 respondents being athletes with revealing uniforms and 93 being athletes with non-revealing uniforms. Most athletes with reveling uniforms focused on dance, whereas those with non-revealing uniforms focused on ball games. Data collected were analyzed using simple linear regression and Chi-Square Test of Association. Results showed that SPA was prevalent among Filipino
collegiate female athletes, with 162 athletes having high SPA (n = 167). Self-Esteem and Body Image Dissatisfaction as predictors of SPA were recorded as significant. However, the involvement of sport uniforms showed no variance in SPA levels. On the other hand, the risk of developing eating disorders was recorded to be low, with only 31.74% of the participants being at-risk for developing eating disorders. Thus, high SPA does not indicate being at-risk for developing eating disorders.