Body shaming as a form of psychological abuse in sport

https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2021.1979079

Explanation

This study investigated the experiences and effects of body shaming as a form of psychological abuse.

It represented a secondary analysis of data collected from a study examining the long-term effects of psychological abuse on eight female national team athletes in aesthetic sports.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the athletes and analyzed through a constructivist lens.

Results indicated that athletes experienced negative verbal comments about their bodies, body monitoring, forced restriction of food and water, public criticism of their bodies, and punishment when body-related standards were not met.

Athletes had less fun discussing the effects of these experiences, including normalization, social comparison, extreme weight loss methods, negative health effects, and decreased performance.

These findings suggest that coaches' behaviors of monitoring and controlling athletes' weight constitute body shaming practices and that body-related shaming should be considered psychological abuse.