Influence of Same-Sex and Mixed-Sex Exercise Settings on the Social Physique Anxiety and Exercise Intentions of Males and Females

Abstract

Situational social physique anxiety (SPA) and immediate exercise intentions in male and female fitness club members were examined in response to all-female, all-male, and mixed-sex exercise setting scenarios. Overall, women showed higher levels of situational SPA than men. SPA increased significantly from an all-female, to a mixed-sex, to an all-male exercise setting for women but not for men. More women indicated they would shorten their workout in response to the all-male vs. all-female or mixed-sex exercise scenarios. For all-male and mixed-sex scenarios, participants who intended to shorten their workout also tended to report higher situational SPA scores. The results indicate that the presence of men in an exercise setting stimulates physique anxiety in women, and that exercising in an all-female environment may have the least negative impact on the exercise behavior of women.

Exercise Motivation and Social Physique Anxiety In Adolescents

“…Boys were coded as value 1, and girls were coded as value 2. Gender and BMI were introduced to control for their effects, as the literature has shown a relationship between these variables and social physique anxiety (Eklund et al, 1997;Hagger et al, 2010;Hausenblas & Fallon, 2002;Kruisselbrink et al, 2004;Thompson & Chad, 2000). Following the sequence proposed by SDT (basic psychological needs → types of motivation → consequences), we entered the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness in…”

“…Specifically, we studied how motivation mediates the relationship between the basic psychological needs and social physique anxiety. In the analysis, we controlled for the influence of gender and body mass index (BMI), as prior research has shown that girls tend to display higher levels of social physique anxiety (Eklund, Kelley, & Wilson, 1997;Hagger et al, 2010;Kruisselbrink, Dodge, Swanburg, & MacLeod, 2004;Mülazimoğlu-Balli, Koca, & Aşçi, 2010), and other studies have shown that BMI is positively related to social physique anxiety (Hausenblas & Fallon, 2002;Thompson & Chad, 2000).…”

Psychosocial Mediators of the Fitness–Depression Relationship Within Adolescents

“…For example, in a 4-year longitudinal study among Hispanic adolescents, body dissatisfaction was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms for both the girls and boys (Ferreiro et al, 2012). Furthermore, research has demonstrated that negative body evaluations can be detrimental to both boys and girls, particularly during adolescence (Cohane & Pope, 2001;Davison & McCabe, 2006;Erikson, 1968;Kruisselbrink et al 2004). Body satisfaction has been conceptualized as a structural component of the self (Guerin, Marsh, & Famose, 2004;Marsh, Martin, & Jackson, 2010), and is thought to contribute to overall feelings of general worth.…”

Social Physique Anxiety and Muscle Dysmorphia

“…With regard to gender, women have reported that they would experience higher levels of SPA when working out in all-male and mixed-sex settings than they would in all-female settings whereas males reported lower levels of SPA regardless of the gender of other exercisers in the settings (Kruisselbrink et al, 2004). Interestingly, the women in the Kruisselbrink et al study reported they would shorten their exercise session in all-male settings relative to their intentions in all-female or mixed-sex exercise scenarios.…”

“…Environmental attributes including exercise setting itself (Bain, Wilson, & Chaikind, 1989;Van Raalte, Cunningham, Cornelius, & Brewer, 2004), norms on attire, fitness leader characteristics and leadership style (Raedeke, Focht, & Scales, 2007), social composition of participants, and gender make-up of the exercise group (Kruisselbrink, Dodge, Swanburg, & MacLeod, 2004), can potentially influence psychological responses to acute bouts of exercise.…”