This study has the following purposes: (1) To identify most frequently reported weight-related stressors in swimming; (2) To examine the prevalence of weight concerns among female swimmers; and (3) To determine whether body concerns/stressors in swimming are related to social physique anxiety. Participants Sixty-two female swimmers from 7 college swim teams participated. Swimmers weighed 99 to 190 pounds (M =134.21). Most swimmers reported wanting to lose weight (M=7.56 pounds), with one swimmer wanting to drop 37 pounds. Measures The Weight Pressures in Swimming (WPS) inventory was patterned after Reel & Gill's (1996) CHEER instrument that measured weight pressures in cheerleading. Internal consistency for all 10 items was low, which resulted in dropping detracting items to obtain a stronger and more reliable measure (alpha=.71 ) The Social Physique Anxiety Scale (SPAS), a 12-item self-report measure developed by Hart, Leary and Rejeski (1989), measures one's degree of social physique anxiety which has been defined as the degree of anxiety one experiences when presenting one's body to others. Internal consistency for SPAS has been reported (alpha=.90) and validity has been supported by the moderate correlation of SPAS to other measures. Results Over half (51.6%) of swimmers agreed with the statement, "There are weight pressures in swimming." Most frequently reported weight stressors were as follows: the revealing team uniform (swim suit) - 45.2%; the perception that lower weight helps swim performance (42%); teammates noticing weight (16.1%); crowd scrutinizing body (12.9%); and the feeling that the lightest swimmers have a performance advantage (9.7%). Positive responses to WPS are provided in Table 1. Scores on SPAS ranged from very low (16) to very high (58 out of a possible 60). The mean score (M = 33.8, SD = 9.87) for the swimmers fell in the healthy (low SPAS) range. However, 16 female swimmers scored in the high SPAS range. Pearson correlational analyses revealed a moderate correlation (r=.51) between total WPS and SPAS scores, suggesting that weight concerns specific to swimming were related to body image. SPAS was also logically related to some individual items of WPS, including crowd stressor (r=.46), performance stressor (r=.42), teammate stressor (r=.27), and swim suit stressor (r=.26).
© Copyright 2001 The Sport Journal. U.S. Sports Academy. All rights reserved.