Body image in female professional and amateur dancers

Abstract

Body image is considered to be an obscure, mental representation of body shape, size and form which is influenced by a variety of factors that operate over varying time spans. Research has shown that professional female dancers may face preoccupations with their body image and weight. The present study aimed to investigate how body image was affected as a result of women dancers exercising in a professional and amateur level. The subjects were 115 female professional dance students and 85 females enrolled at amateur dance schools aged between 15and 30 years old. The participants completed the 69 items of the Multidimentional Body Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ). According to the results, dance status was found to be significantly associated with three out of the ten MBSRQ subscales with professional dancers having higher mean scores on fitness orientation (F=10.095, p<0.05) and body areas dissatisfaction (F=16.455, p<0,05) and lower mean scores on overweight preoccupation (F=9.83, p<0,05). Future research on dancers could: (1) examine both the body image concerns and their relevant eating attitudes; (2) focus on body image concerns that occur as the females get older; (3) compare professional dancers with non‐dancers, since this might provide for data at each end of the spectrum.