A comparison study of body image, psychopathological symptoms, and emotion regulation in athlete and non-athlete

  Body image disorder can decrease the quality of life. The aim of this study was to compare the body image flexibility, psychopathological symptoms, psychological damage, and emotion regulation difficulties in athlete and non-athlete females. For this purpose, 100 people in two groups of 50 athletes and normal females were selected through available sampling. These participants were studied based on body image flexibility, psychological damage, and emotion regulation difficulties. To evaluate the results of this study, collected data were analyzed using one way analysis of variance. Our findings showed that in dimensions of depression, anxiety, and stress, there are significant differences between two groups. The normal females experienced the mentioned dimensions more than athlete ones. Also, female athletes had higher scores in the body image flexibility that make them more vulnerable, although this difference was not significant. It was mentioned that in some components of emotion regulation difficulties, significant differences were found between the two groups. Therefore, it seems that female athletes are less vulnerable to psychological damages, although they may have not a positive body image of their physical appearance.