Dana K. Voelker

Weight status and body image perceptions in adolescents: current perspectives

Adolescence represents a pivotal stage in the development of positive or negative body image. Many influences exist during the teen years including transitions (eg, puberty) that affect one’s body shape, weight status, and appearance. Weight status exists along a spectrum between being obese (ie, where one’s body weight is in the 95th percentile for age and gender) to being underweight. Salient influences on body image include the media, which can target adolescents, and peers who help shape beliefs about the perceived body ideal. Internalization of and pressures to conform to these socially prescribed body ideals help to explain associations between weight status and body image. The concepts of fat talk and weight-related bullying during adolescence greatly contribute to an overemphasis on body weight and appearance as well as the development of negative body perceptions and dissatisfaction surrounding specific body parts. This article provides an overview of the significance of adolescent development in shaping body image, the relationship between body image and adolescent weight status, and the consequences of having a negative body image during adolescence (ie, disordered eating, eating disorders, and dysfunctional exercise). Practical implications for promoting a healthy weight status and positive body image among adolescents will be discussed.

Youth Sport Leadership Development: Leveraging the Sports Captaincy Experience

Leadership has been identified as an important but underdeveloped life skill among youth athletes. This article discusses a recent effort to develop leadership by taking a formal educational approach to the sport captaincy experience. More specifically, the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports has partnered with the Michigan High School Athletic Association to create the MHSAA Captains Leadership Training Program. The programs design, structure, and content are discussed as well as our biggest successes, challenges, and future directions. Implications for sport consultants, coaches, and other practitioners are provided.

Promoting the Leadership Development of Girls through Physical Education and Sport

Leadership is a powerful life skill that influences the future of our local, national and global communities. Despite the many positive and productive changes observed in the leadership opportunities for women and girls, they remain highly under-represented in positional leadership roles. The leadership development and empowerment of women and girls has become an increasingly popular topic in books, websites and “strong girl” advertisement campaigns. At a grassroots level, physical educators and coaches must attend to these efforts in novel ways, as physical education and sport provide unique opportunities to develop leadership skills. This article discusses recommendations grounded in both the academic literature and professional practice, including: (1) embracing leadership diversity and deconstructing gender stereotyping, (2) building networking and mentorship, and (3) encouraging girls to use their voice and exercise leadership skills. Specific practical suggestions and a vignette are also provided to help physical educators and coaches maximize the leadership development of girls.

Development and validation of the intuitive exercise scale

Up to 80% of individuals with eating disorders engage in dysfunctional exercise, which is characterized by exercising in excessive quantities often past the point of pain as well as compulsive feelings and negative affect when exercise is disrupted (Cook, Hausenblas, Crosby, Cao, & Wonderlich, 2015). Intuitive exercise involves an awareness of the senses while moving and attending to ones bodily cues for when to start and stop exercise, rather than feeling compelled to adhere to a rigid program (Reel, 2015). The purpose of this study was to design a measurement tool to evaluate the construct of intuitive exercise in research, treatment, and prevention settings. The 14-item Intuitive Exercise Scale (IEXS) was developed and validated in the current study with completed surveys from 518 female and male adult participants. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify four latent constructs, including emotional exercise, exercise rigidity, body trust, and mindful exercise, which were supported via confirmatory factor analysis (CFI=0.96; SRMR=0.06). The IEXS demonstrated configural, metric, and scalar invariance across women and men. Correlations with measures of intuitive eating, exercise dependence, and exercise motivation supported convergent and discriminant validity.

Navigating the leadership labyrinth: barriers and supports of a woman collegiate coach in a 20-year leadership role

Abstract A multi-level ecological-intersectional model has been proposed as a way of understanding the intersecting social identities that shape women’s experience of power and social injustices in sports coaching. Using a case study of one of the most longstanding Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association woman soccer coaches, Coach Nikki Izzo-Brown, we investigated the constructs and processes that shaped her coaching career trajectory and how the intersectional nature of these constructs and processes enabled her to navigate the leadership labyrinth. Data were generated from three semi-structured interviews and analysed abductively to form categories aligned to the four layers of the ecological-intersectional model. Barriers identified by Coach Izzo-Brown were consistent with previous literature (e.g. soft-essentialism). However, greater focus on the supportive factors perceived by Coach-Izzo-Brown (e.g. woman coaching network) can create a more inclusive culture for woman coaches. Longstanding and successful woman coaches’ involvement in professional development and advocacy activities is recommended.

High School Coaches' Experiences with Openly Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Athletes

ABSTRACT Despite reports that there has been a positive trend in perception and treatment of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals in recent years (Griffin, 2012; Loftus, 2001), sport, in general, is still an uncertain, and sometimes even hostile, environment for LGB athletes (Anderson, 2005; Waldron & Krane, 2005). To gain more information on coach understanding and perceptions of the team environment, 10 high school head coaches in the United States were interviewed to explore their experiences coaching openly LGB athletes. Qualitative analyses revealed four primary themes associated with coach experiences: team environment dogmas and observations, fundamental beliefs contributing to perceptions of LGB athletes, types and timing of sexual orientation disclosure, and differential LGB athlete characteristics. Future research should examine these primary themes in more detail through interviews with LGB athletes, as well as high school coaches in more traditionally masculine sports, such as football, men’s basketball, and wrestling.

Frequency and Psychosocial Correlates of Eating Disorder Symptomatology in Male Figure Skaters

Using a cross-sectional, mixed-method design, this study examined the frequency and psychosocial correlates of eating disorder (ED) symptomatology among male figure skaters (n = 29; Mage = 18.45 years) and explored their perspectives on skating-related weight pressures. One participant (3.7%) scored within range of a clinical ED. Body mass index, sport-related weight pressures, and sport-related body dissatisfaction explained 30% of variance in ED symptomatology; only weight pressures were significant. Although most endorsed the positive influences of skating, a perceived body–performance link was their most frequent weight pressure. Coping with sport-related weight pressures should be addressed in applied sport psychology and ED prevention.

The Student-Athlete Leadership Academy: Ten years of interscholastic sport leadership training

ABSTRACT The 7.8 million adolescents participating in interscholastic sport have the potential to learn leadership skills through their sport experience. However, for sport to serve this educational purpose, athletes must be actively engaged in leadership training experiences. The Student-Athlete Leadership Academy (SALA) is a community-based leadership development program for high school student-athletes established through a partnership between AASP-certified consultants and athletic administrators in Western Pennsylvania. This article offers a program overview of this large-scale annual leadership summit, designed to connect interscholastic student-athletes across a region and formally facilitate the development of transferable life skills.