Female Athletes' Body Narrative: Exploring Former Female Collegiate Athletes' Body Experience
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Authors
Haydu, Amber L.
Issue Date
2018
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
"Body Image","Female athletes","Women Athletes","Qualitative Research","Sport","Femininity","Body Acceptance"
Alternative Title
Abstract
This study examines former female athletes' experience of their body and body image. Eight women, who were former collegiate athletes, participated in a semi-structured interview and answered a demographic questionnaire. A conventional qualitative content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) was utilized to analyze the data. The participants discussed the interconnection between sport, body experience, and identity. The current study yielded five major themes or categories. These themes encompassed topics such as the portrayal of female athletes, pressures based on the female body ideal, the experience of body surveillance, the female athletic identity, and learning body acceptance and appreciation; media portrayals of female athletes included pressures to maintain a certain level of femininity, societal and cultural pressures influenced " ideal body" beliefs and behaviors, personal experiences of body evaluation and surveillance by self and others, centrality of the female athletic identity, learned body acceptance and appreciation. Clinical implications for increasing positive body image and body experience for female athletes and the general collegiate population are discussed.