| Summary: | <p>The purpose of this research was to assess the relationships among social physique
anxiety, physical self-perceptions, and level of physical activity involvement in young
women. Subjects were 354 female undergraduate students at a Canadian university who
completed the Social Physique Anxiety Scale (SPAS), Physical Self-Perception Profile
(PSPP), Self-Administered 7-Day Physical Activity Recall Questionnaire (PAR), and
Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (LTEQ). Pearson product-moment correlation analysis
indicated that scores of social physique anxiety had weak, but significant, negative
relationships with scores for recent physical activity (PAR, <u>r</u> = -.16) and typical physical
activity (LTEQ, <u>r</u> = -.16). Social physique anxiety was correlated with all of the physical
self-perceptions, but only self-perceptions of body attractiveness accounted for significant
variance in social physique anxiety scores. All of the physical self-perceptions were
significantly related to physical activity levels, although results indicated that self-perceptions
of conditioning were the only physical self-perceptions to account for significant
variance in the prediction of physical activity levels. Hierarchical regression analyses
showed weak moderator effects for the self-perceptions of general physical self-worth,
strength, and body attractiveness on the relationships between social physique anxiety and
both recent and typical physical activity levels. However, the moderator effects were so
weak that the practical significance of these results was negligible. The moderator models
with the significant moderator effects accounted for between 4% and 14% of the variance in physical activity level, with the moderator effects accounting for only 1.0% to 1.6% of
additional variance beyond the direct effects of social physique anxiety and the physical self-perceptions.
The results of this study suggested that the effect of social physique anxiety,
whether through direct or interaction effects with physical self-perceptions, on the physical
activity levels of young women was negligible. In addition, the results of this study
supported the structure of the PSPP model, suggesting that the PSPP is a valuable instrument
for measuring self-perceptions in the physical domain.</p>
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