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Living in a Larger Body: Do Exercise Motives Influence Associations between Body Image and Exercise Avoidance
Christy Greenleaf1, Alexandra M Rodriguez1
1Department of Kinesiology, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
|December 30, 2020
Summary
Appearance-focused exercise motivations can increase avoidance in women with higher BMIs. Promoting empowering exercise environments may benefit women regardless of their motivations, fostering greater engagement.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral psychology
- Exercise science
- Body image research
Background:
- Understanding motivations for exercise is crucial for promoting adherence.
- Body image concerns, including body surveillance and appreciation, can influence exercise behaviors.
- Exercise avoidance motivation presents a barrier to regular physical activity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether reasons for exercise mediate the relationship between body surveillance and exercise avoidance motivation.
- To examine if reasons for exercise mediate the relationship between body appreciation and exercise avoidance motivation.
- To provide guidance for health and fitness professionals on promoting positive exercise experiences.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study design.
- Inclusion of 131 women with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher.
- Utilized validated measures for body surveillance, body appreciation, reasons for exercise, and exercise avoidance motivation.
- Employed mediation analyses to test the proposed relationships.
Main Results:
- Appearance-oriented reasons for exercise partially mediated the link between body surveillance and exercise avoidance motivation.
- Body appreciation and exercise avoidance motivation relationship was not significantly mediated by reasons for exercise in this study.
- Findings suggest a specific pathway where focusing on appearance in exercise can lead to avoidance.
Conclusions:
- Health and fitness interventions should de-emphasize appearance-based motivations for exercise.
- Creating empowering exercise environments and experiences is recommended to support women's physical activity engagement.
- These empowering approaches may benefit women irrespective of their primary exercise motivations.
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