Tens of thousands of young girls participate in gymnastics every year in
the United States, enjoying the known benefits of enhanced flexibility and
increased strength of muscles and bones, but some fear there may be a dark
side as well.Some medical experts have voiced concern that gymnastics participation contributes to negative body images and disordered eating among female gymnasts but researchers at the University of Georgia say that their latest findings do not suggest that.
New research shows that while a high percentage of very young girl gymnasts want to be thinner, so did other girls who were not involved in gymnastics. The findings were published in the September issue of The International Journal of Eating Disorders by Mélanie Poudevigne, a doctoral student in exercise science, and her colleagues at UGA. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
The study compared a group of 54 four-to-eight year old girls who were beginning
their first gymnastics class to 54 girls who were not enrolled in gymnastics.
The girls not involved in gymnastics were closely matched to the gymnasts
on age, height and body weight. On average the girls were 6 years old, stood
3¾ feet tall and weighed 47 pounds. Study participants looked at figures of young girls of different body sizes. The girls were asked to tell the researchers which figure looked the most like them and which figure they most wanted to look like. A body image problem was suggested if the participants wanted to look like a smaller-sized girl.
“It can be difficult to get accurate responses from young children,” said Patrick O’Connor, professor of exercise science and a co-author of the study. “But our results indicate that we were getting accurate responses because the younger and lighter girls said that the figures of smaller girls were closest to what they looked like and the older and heavier girls reported that the figures of larger girls looked the most like them.”
Among the girls who were starting gymnastics, 44 percent indicated they wanted to look like a thinner girl, 28 percent wanted to be bigger in size and 28 percent were happy with their current size. These results did not differ from the control group of girls who were not enrolled in gymnastics.
“We surmise that while a significant portion of young girls who elect to participate in gymnastics generally want to be thinner this is not a problem specific to gymnastics because a similar percentage of other girls of this age who do not participate in gymnastics also want to be thinner,” said O’Connor. “Our results cast doubt on the idea that young girls who are dissatisfied with the size of their body and want to be smaller are more likely to enroll in gymnastics classes or be enrolled in gymnastics classes by their parents.”
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
WRITER: Michael Childs, 706/542-5889, mchilds@coe.uga.edu
CONTACT: Patrick O’Connor, 706/542-4382, poconnor@coe.uga.edu