Abstract
For girl and women athletes, body talk, discussions around the body’s function and physical appearance, verbal pressures to change the body, and unsolicited negative commentary are pervasive. Women athletes also face stressors related to coaches, teammates, uniforms, judges, and sociocultural pressures to achieve the ideal athletic physique. However, little is known about women’s coping and adaptation processes in relation to these body image stressors. The purpose of this research was to understand how late adolescent girls and young women athletes developed positive body image. Nine athletes aged 16 to 24 (Mage=19) who self-identified as experiencing positive body image participated in a semi-structured interview followed by a collage session where they depicted their experiences of positive body image by gluing images and other art-supplies on paper. Three themes were generated from a reflexive thematic analysis of the data. Theme one, titled 'My Body is Just Right,' pertained to factors (e.g., body acceptance and appreciation, self-defining body image) that facilitated the development and maintenance of positive body image. Theme two, It’s Harder for Girls, referred to challenges faced in experiencing positive body image. Positive body image was not something to be achieved and then forgotten, but rather needing to be continually chosen and worked on once developed. Theme three, I Choose to Love My Body Today, encompassed body-related stressors and coping strategies used to develop and maintain positive body image. These findings suggest that positive body image may involve a continuous maintenance process through adaptive coping due to the pervasive body-related stressors.
