Whitney A. Sedgwick

Social Physique Anxiety in Adolescence: An Exploration of Influences, Coping Strategies, and Health Behaviors.

This study explored adolescent females’ experiences of social physique anxiety (SPA) and related coping strategies. A final sample of 31 adolescent females ages 13 to 18 years discussed dealing with SPA during individual semistructured interviews. Resultant themes pertaining to the transactional experiences of SPA were coded using content analysis. There were 107 unique coping strategies reported, which were coded into 10 subthemes. The main coping categories included behavioral and cognitive avoidance, appearance management, diet, social support, physical activity, reappraisal, cognitive deflection and comparison to others, seeking sexual attention, and substance use. Informed by a stress and coping framework, it is evident that body-related thoughts and emotions are linked to various adolescent health behaviors.

Muscle gains and emotional strains: conflicting experiences of change among overweight women participating in an exercise intervention program.

In this study we explored the experiences of women who were classified as overweight while they participated in a physical activity intervention. In line with interpretative phenomenological analysis, eight women were interviewed prior to and following a 12-week dragon boat physical activity intervention. Data were transcribed verbatim and subjected to individual-level content analysis to explore change that informed group-level idiographic analysis. From the idiographic analysis three distinct profiles were created: (a) women who consistently struggled with negative self-perceptions; (b) women who consistently experienced positive self-perceptions; and (c) women who began with negative self-perceptions and developed more positive self-images. These profiles appeared to be associated with age, since the youngest women placed significant emphasis on the body and physical appearance, whereas the oldest participants reported the most significant shift from importance of body to a greater emphasis on health and well-being. The findings, which are reported in the context of self-determination theory, suggest that women in each of these profiles had unique physical and social self-perceptions and distinct social interactions within the dragon boat intervention.

Narratives of young women athletes' experiences of emotional pain and self-compassion.

Self-compassion is a healthy way of relating to the self when experiencing emotional pain, personal failure and difficult life experiences. However, there is limited research to date in the area of self-compassion and sport even though recent investigation shows it might act as a potential buffer to painful emotions for athletes. The purpose of this study was to explore and present narratives of six young women athletes (15–24 years) from a variety of sports about their experiences of emotional pain and self-compassion. Each woman took part in two individual semi-structured interviews, one of which involved reflexive photography. They were asked to reflect on a difficult experience with a personal failure in sport, followed by discussions around the potential role of self-compassion in their experiences. The interviews, combined with reflexive photography, helped build rich narratives organised around the following themes: (1) Broken bodies, wilted spirits, (2) why couldn’t it have been someone else? (3) I should have, I could have, I would have and (4) fall down seven, stand up eight. Their narratives also suggested that while self-compassion can potentially be beneficial for athletes if developed and learned properly, concerns were expressed that being too self-compassionate may lead to mediocrity. Further research is needed on young women athletes’ difficult emotional experiences in sport, and more specifically on the role that self-compassion plays as both a potential facilitator and barrier to emotional health and performance success in sport.