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The exercise motivation of American and Chinese college women was examined. American women were found to exercise more for fitness, physical attractiveness, and weight control, and the Chinese women more for enjoyment. Women in different stages of exercise behavior expressed different reasons for exercise in terms of enjoyment, fitness, health, mood, and physical attractiveness. Focusing one’s attention on reasons such as enjoyment for Chinese women and fitness, physical attractiveness, and weight control for American women may be important in terms of exercise participation. The long-term exercisers expressed higher levels of motivation in terms of enjoyment, fitness, health, mood, and physical attractiveness.

Hart, Leary, and Rejeski (1989) hypothesized that social physique anxiety (SPA), self-presentational anxiety associated with the physique, may deter some people from participating in fitness programs. This contention was explored in the present investigation. Data were collected from 104 undergraduate females regarding SPA, weight satisfaction, body satisfaction, and reasons for exercise. Following each of two video presentations of aerobics classes as stimulus materials, attitudes toward the favorability of the exercise settings were assessed. One class wore attire emphasizing the physique; the other appeared in shorts and T-shirts, deemphasizing the physique. Multiple regression analyses revealed SPA was associated with favorability of attitudes toward both exercise settings. SPA was negatively associated with favorability of the setting emphasizing the physique and was positively related to favorability of the setting de-emphasizing the physique. The results indicate that self-presentational, theoretical perspectives may be useful in understanding exercise behavior patterns.

This study examines eating attitudes, body satisfaction, reasons for exercise, and general psychological well-being in female nonathletes and Division III college athletes. A total of 115 nonathletes and 94 athletes completed measures of eating attitudes, body satisfaction, trait affect, reasons for exercise, and perceived self-competence. On the majority of measures, the scores of athletes revealed less eating disorder symptomatology and more healthy psychological functioning than the scores of nonathletes. These results indicate that female athletic involvement can be associated with healthy eating and psychological functioning. Future research should give consideration to which environments may foster healthy sports participation.

This study reports the psychometric development of a measure to assess individual differences in exercise motivations using a functionalist strategy (Snyder & Cantor, 1997). Factor analyses revealed two subscales for the newly developed Function of Exercise Scale (FES): Weight and Appearance (WA), and Health and Enjoyment (HE). FES-HE scores correlated with better psychological well-being and predicted prospectively monitored as well as concurrently and longitudinally assessed exercise behavior. FES-HE scores also correlated with lower pulse, systolic blood pressure, and salivary cortisol readings, indicating its association with better physical health. In contrast, FES-WA scores correlated with greater depressive and eating disorder symptoms, as well as lower self-esteem, and predicted the later emergence of eating disorder, but not depressive, symptoms. FES-WA scores failed to show a relationship with measures of physical well-being, including exercise engagement and vital sign data. Overall, the FES appears to hold promise as a succinct and psychometrically sound heuristic for meaningfully relating exercise motivations to important indices of both physical and psychological well-being.

Histories of competitive sports involvement, health beliefs, reasons for exercising, and personality were compared across three groups of older adults who varied according to involvement in physical activity. Based on questionnaire responses, 246 participants were classified as competitors, noncompetitors. or nonexercisers. Competitors exhibited a lifelong history of sports participation. Although nonexercisers and noncompetitors participated in sports during their childhood and teenage years, their involvement in competition decreased noticeably in their 20s and remained low throughout adulthood. Competitors rated exercise significantly more important than did nonexercisers and non-competitors and had more varied reasons for exercising. Nonexercisers considered reducing stress and improving mood to be less important reasons for exercising than competitors and noncompetitors. All three groups were found to possess high levels of positive and low levels of negative personality traits.

The purpose of this investigation was to replicate and extend Crawford and Eklund's (1994) investigation of social physique anxiety (SPA) and exercise. Women (N = 94) enrolled in physical education activity or major classes participated in the investigation. Data were collected on SPA, weight satisfaction, percent body fat, reasons for exercise, exercise behaviors and preferences, and attitudes toward two aerobic class video presentations featuring a manipulation of physique salience. Consistent with the previous investigation, self-presentational reasons for exercise (body tone, weight control, and physical attractiveness) were positively associated with SPA in both simple correlations and hierarchical analyses controlling for body composition. In contrast to previous findings, SPA was not associated with favorability of attitudes toward either of the video presentations. The inability to fully replicate Crawford and Eklund's (1993) findings raised interesting questions with regard to variables that may moderate or mediate self-presentational anxiety in exercise settings.

This study aimed to identify predictors of self-objectification among exercising women. A brief questionnaire incorporating demographic questions and measures of self-objectification was completed by 133 new female fitness center members (aged 16 to 68 years) upon joining a fitness center and 12 months later. Results demonstrated that young women who remained fitness center members had greater self-objectification at 12 months than women who ceased their memberships. Furthermore, both initial age and reasons for exercise predicted subsequent increases in self-objectification. Specifically, being younger, as well as being more motivated by appearance-related reasons to exercise, predicted self-objectification at 12 months. These findings suggest that young women exercising within the fitness center environment may be at an increased risk of developing self-objectification, one of the predictors of negative body image and disordered eating.

In this study, we extended past research (Brannan & Petrie, 2008; Tylka, 2004) by examining perfectionism, optimism, self-esteem, and reasons for exercising as moderators of the body dissatisfaction-bulimic symptoms relationship among female collegiate athletes (N= 204). Hierarchical moderated regression was used to control for social desirability and physical size and then tested the main and interactive effects of the models. Body dissatisfaction was related to the measure of bulimic symptoms, accounting for 24% of the variance. Four variables were statistically significant as moderators. More concern over mistakes and being motivated to exercise to improve appearance and attractiveness or to socialize and improve mood increased the strength of the relationship between body dissatisfaction and bulimic symptoms. Self-esteem had a buffering effect that resulted in a weakened relationship.

The concept that exercise therapy is an important and integral part of rehabilitation following injury seems to be universally accepted. However, there is little information on athletes' perceptions of understanding their instructions as they relate to the rehabilitation program. A questionnaire study, involving athletes attending a number of multidisciplinary sports injury clinics over a 6-month period, was performed to examine their understanding of the rehabilitation program relating to site, frequency, and repetitions of exercises as well as reason for exercise. Although exercise prescription for injury was assumed to be commonplace, over 150 consultations were observed and only 22 athletes were prescribed rehabilitation exercises (a total of 56 exercises). Seventy-eight percent of these athletes misunderstood some aspect of their programs, although they did not perceive a problem with their instructions. Written instructions were used infrequently (14%), but when used they significantly improved the athletes' understanding. Since rehabilitation adherence is a problem, athletes should receive adequate explanation and written instructions to ensure that the program is followed correctly. Factors affecting treatment adherence are also discussed.