Physical Self-Description and Sport Participation, by Gender, of University Students

IntroductionThe lifestyle concept refers to the usual and daily behaviors of an individual, a group or even a global society, which define their personal way of looking at and experiencing life, and that remain for several time (Fernandez del Valle, 1996). Typically is defined as "a mode of living, a seemingly innocuous tautology, and then proceed directly to an eclectic and/or ad hoc set of measures" (Sobel, 1981, p. 16). The conceptualization of what effectively is a healthy lifestyle has been changing over the years, affected by the constant evolution of the society itself (Pastor, Balaguer, & Garcia-Merita, 1998).Today, for instance, nutritional education, obesity and daily fitness activity, are some of the concepts related to a healthy lifestyle (George, Schneider, & Kaiser, 2016). The research of George et al. (2016) concludes that nutrition and fitness activity are important to obesity prevention in youth. Also related with healthy lifestyle in this perspective (nutrition and fitness activity as a preventive way to obesity) is physical selfdescription (Marsh, 1996; Marsh, Richards, Johnson, Roche, & Tremayne, 1994).According to Mosquera, Stobaus, Jesus and Herminio (2006), physical appearance, self-esteem and self-concept have different meanings, although sometimes are considered almost the same. For these authors, the physical appearance was the recognition that we make about ourselves, what we feel and how we feel about our abilities and attitudes. On the other hand, the self-esteem is understood as how much we like and enjoy ourselves as individuals. Also, physical appearance was defined by Tavares (2003) as a mental representation of the body identity, internal emotions, integrity and fragility of each individual, that can be interpreted considering others' opinions or even our own judgment about ourselves (Cash & Pruzinsky, 1990). The beauty pattern is constructed by a social imaginary, changing according different historical or social contexts. Image cares have been always associated with an empowerment feeling (Silva, Vicente, Amaro, & Campos, 2016). Appearance, beauty, look, image and well-being are very important and valued social concepts (Andrade & Bosi, 2003; Pereira, Graup, Lopes, Borgatto, & Daronco, 2009).Nowadays, lifestyle adopted by youth is, in part, based on their physical self-description - on their selfconcept or self-esteem, for example - which is constantly shaped through social interactions. This issue may become a problem of mental health, with negative impacts on the individual itself and on the society in general (Goni & Fernandez, 2009). The sport activity have been used to reduce or increase the body weight, modifying the physical appearance of individuals dissatisfied with their own image (Damasceno, Vianna, Lacio, Lima, & Novaes, 2006; Hausenblas & Fallon, 2006). The sport activity should provide experiences that allow a positive perception of physical appearance, which implies becoming aware of our own feelings and physiological reactions (Tavares, 2003). In the investigation of Silva et al. (2016) is possible to verify that university students that practice sportive activities regularly have better results, when compared with non-participants, in the body fat perception, general physical self-concept, self-esteem and physical appearance. In the 4 (four) studied dimensions, were found statistical significant differences in 3 (three) of them: body fat (p=0,05); general physical self-concept (p=0,02); self-esteem (p=0,01). Considering this results it is possible to conclude that regular sport participants face their life in a positively perspective, according to the physical self-description mean values of body fat (obesity), general physical self-concept and self-esteem (Silva et al., 2016).Also in a study with university students, in order to investigate what they think about their own physical appearance (Silva, Saenger, & Pereira, 2011), was identified that 63% of the male and 67% of the female students presents dissatisfaction. …