Investigating the effect of body image and body management on women's sports participation in Ilam province

Abstract

Introduction: Gender, as a research area in sociology of sport, is of particular importance. Since women constitute half of the human resources playing an effective role the development of any society. Therefore, in cultural, social and economic development programs, attempts should be made to pave the way for the better utilization of their capabilities and talents to provide the ground for their presence in different social domains and their effective participation in cultural development. One of main areas associated with cultural development in every society is women’s sport participation. On the other hand, through changes in cultural models and lifestyles and their effects on women’s body management, and considering body as a partial reflection of today`s world and its close relationship with life, woman`s identity, the degree of their participation, the study women’s body management as an index of lifestyle has gained momentum. Against this background, the present study aims to test a model in which women’s sport participation is the dependent variable, and the body image (body surveillance, body shame) and body management (tendency toward physical fitness, use of cosmetics and attitude toward cosmetic surgery) have been considered as dependent variables. Material & Methods: The current is study is a survey in which uses questionnaire as a data collection method. Women at 19 years of age and above in Ilam province constitute the statistical population of this research (N=193952). To determine the sample size, using Cockran’s sample size formula, 500 women were selected through cluster random sampling and the required data were collected. This research is of adequate theoretical validity and the reliability of the questionnaire was checked using Cronbach’s Alpha. Reliability indices for the components of the questionnaire include variable body management (Tendency towards Physical Fitness: .75, Use of Cosmetics: .80 , and Cosmetic Surgeries: .91), and body image (Body Surveillance: .83 and Body Shame: .90) all of which fall above the acceptable level of .70. Of course, sport participation has been examined as an observed variable, and since in studies conducted by Berger and Relley (2008), Sliter and Tigman (2011) Ris and Saib (2010) Pififer et al. (2006), Pastor et a.l (2003), Mor and Chadley (2005), Linstorm (2001) and Jones and More (2012), the questionnaire has been used with slight modifications as a standard and internationally recognized and reliable questionnaire. The collected data were coded and analyzed using SPSS 23 and Amos 21 and Pearsonproduct-moment correlation and univariate regression were run to test the hypotheses. Additionally, to test the joint effect of independent variables on the dependent variables and testing the fitness of the model, structural equation modeling (SEM) was run through Amos. Discussion of Results & Conclusions: From the 500 respondents, based on the place of the sport activity, 175 did sport at home, 95 in parks, 160 in the nature and just 96 in sport clubs. The women in Ilam province participate in sport activities as follows: hiking: 310; stretching execises: 123;, climbing: 95; physical fitness (aerobics, fitness and …): 62 volleyball: 32; badminton:19; , treadmill execises: 17, Futsal: 12 and yoga: 10. The findings show that women participate more in collective and low-cost exercises. Additionally, the findings show three-quarters (74%) of women in Ilam exercise between 10 to 699 minutes on average. At the same time, only 8.33 percent of them exercise professionally and regularly and most of them (2.4 percent) have irregular exercises between 10 to 120 min for pleasure or for health. The average participation of Ilam women in urban areas (138 minutes) is significantly more than rural areas (97 minutes). In addition to more sport participation, women in urban areas, in comparison to rural areas, exercise more professionally and regularly and the number of organized athletes in cities is more than that in rural areas. Of course collective exercise is more popular among rural women. The findings of the analysis and research model showed that body image has a greater effect on women`s participation directly (β = .34) and indirectly (β =.33) and in total with .a 67 effect size had the greatest effect on sport participation. The tendency toward physical fitness,, out of body management dimensions, has a moderate positive effect (.45) on women`s participation, whereas tendency toward cosmetic surgeries has a reverse weak effect (-.12) on women`s participation. Tendency towards using cosmetics did not have an effect of women’s participation. In addition, R2, the squared multiple correlation coefficient was reported to be .56 which indicate that the two variables of body image and body management and their components explain up to 56% percent of variance in women`s sport participation. The finding of this research provide a partially different model, meanwhile confirming the theoretical perspectives and research background regarding the effect of body image and body management on sport participation, because in the analytical model of the research, in addition to direct influence on sport participation, body image influences sport participation via body management. But in Ilam province, because of difference in cultural values towards Western societies, women, from among different alternatives stemming from their self-image (body image), focus on special dimensions of body management (including physical fitness and use of cosmetics), based on accepted and expected norms while cosmetic surgery is advanced as the third dimension of body management comes in contrast to sport participation. That is, as the result of body shame, women choose between cosmetic surgery and sport participation and here the accepted alternative of the majority of people in the society is sport participation.