Poster #209 - Examination of Desire for Muscle Gain Among Non-Athletic Adolescents and College-Aged Women

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Recently, the thin ideal has been described as including the appearance of fitness or athleticism, and women have shown a preference for this newer, toned yet slim figure (George, 2005; Homan et al., 2012; Schaefer et al., 2015). With this shift, research on female muscularity, both with adolescent and college-aged women, has focused on muscle enhancing behaviors (e.g., protein powders, steroid use) in athletes (Eisenberg et al., 2012; Krane, 2012; Grogan et al., 2013). However, females’ participation in physical activity declines across the adolescent years (Hedstrom & Gould, 2004), leaving a larger, non-athletic population. Little research has focused on the non-athletic female population and the perceived desire for muscle gain. Also, little research has focused on comparing the differences in muscle gain desire and reasons for muscle gain between female adolescents and college-aged women. Therefore, our research aims to explore the desire for muscle gain among non-athletes and to tease apart the differences in muscle gain desire between adolescents and college-aged women.

Four focus groups (N=22) were conducted with female students from a Midwestern U.S. university. Participants’ average age was 23.32 (SD= 4.17), and most were White (86.4%) and middle-class (68.2%). Questions asked in the focus groups included: Are many women today concerned about being muscular? Are there differences between adolescents and adult woman in terms of their muscularity concerns? What about their strategies for gaining muscle? Focus group recordings were transcribed and checked, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Themes that emerged were: 1) Making educated and informed decisions as a college-aged woman, 2) Non-importance of muscularity in adolescence, 3) Body comparison and social media in adolescence, 4) Differences in desired body ideal in adolescents vs college-aged women. See Table 1 for sample quotes corresponding to each theme.

Participants believed that those of an older age make more informed decisions when it comes to nutrition, what their bodies can achieve physically, and filtering out manipulated media images and information. Additionally, participants perceived that non-athletic adolescents are not as concerned with gaining muscle as college-aged women because older women have different life priorities and live in various types of environments. Social media use has increased among adolescents compared to previous generations, and use of popular social sites provides more exposure to pressures to look a certain way through images of thin models and photoshopped peers. Participants also believed that adolescents are more concerned with attaining and maintaining a thin body, while those of college-age show a shift towards desiring the newer, thin and toned body.

Overall, our results suggest that a shift towards the desire for a more toned body occurs after adolescence. Understanding the nature of the ideal body size is important given that internalization of these ideals is a risk factor for eating disorders (Stice & Shaw, 1994). Knowing what different age groups perceive as “ideal” is important when creating intervention and prevention programs, as younger groups may still focus on having a thin figure while older groups may now focus on the newer, toned figure.

Authors

• Emma L Johnson, North Dakota State University
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth H Blodgett Salafia, North Dakota State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kerrie Leonard, North Dakota State University
  Non-Presenting Author