Article
Social Physique Anxiety and Body Image of Middle School Youth: A Longitudinal Study (FFfa2016-web.pdf)
Future Focus
(2016)
Abstract
Adolescents confronted with bodily changes and weight control problems may develop
a special type of anxiety (called social physique anxiety or SPA) related to their body
build. The present investigation attempted to determine if SPA, as assessed by the
Social Physique Anxiety Scale for Children (SPAS-C: Fender-Scarr, et al., 2003a, 2003b,
Stadulis, et al., 2005), persists or changes over age. The current study tries to discern if
changes in body composition (Body Mass Index or BMI) from year to year are associated
with changes in anxiety. Children’s perceptions of their physique (actual) as well
as ideal body physique were assessed to determine if changes in ideal body (especially
for girls as they advance into adolescence) are also reflected by changes in anxiety.
Results indicated that BMI increased consistently for both boys and girls over ages 10
to 14 years. Boys and girls displayed few differences in BMI over the ages studied.
Girls evidenced greater social physique anxiety than boys at all ages studied. The
youngsters in the obese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) BMI category
evidenced greater social physique anxiety than youngsters in either the healthy
weight or overweight categories. With respect to self-perception of the body, those
seeing their ideal body as less large than their current body evidenced higher anxiety
than both those whose self-perception and ideal matched as well as those seeing their
own body as thinner than the ideal. Partial evidence was found that self-perception of
one’s body changes similarly with changes in both BMI and social physique anxiety.
Keywords
- Body image,
- physique,
- social physique anxiety,
- SPAS
Disciplines
Publication Date
Fall 2016
Publisher Statement
Future Focus is the official biannual publication of the Ohio Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Future Focus is a refereed journal, and manuscripts are blindly reviewed by the writer's peers unless otherwise noted (e.g., columns from OAHPERD officers, continuing special sections). Manuscript guidelines and submission dates are detailed on the inside back cover. Future Focus is published in both print and electronic forms; e-eversion@www.OAHPERD.org
Citation Information
MacCracken, Mary Jo & Stadulis, Robert E. (2016). Social physique anxiety and body image of middle school youth: A longitudinal study. Future Focus, Vol. XXXVII (2)14-22.