SEX DIFFERENCES IN EXERCISE MOTIVATION AND BODY-IMAGE SATISFACTION AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

The current study was an expansion of one by Cash, Novy, and Grant in 1994, in which responses of 101 female nursing students were examined for associations between reasons for exercise, frequency of exercise, and body-image satisfaction. In the current study, 78 male and 100 female undergraduates between the ages of 18 and 25 years (M = 21.2, SD=1.9) from various majors completed a demographics/frequency of exercise survey, two body-assessment inventories, and the Reasons for Exercise Inventory of Silberstein, Striegel-Moore, Timko, and Rodin. Contrary to Cash, et al.'s findings, only health and fitness reasons were predictive of women's frequency of exercise, and women's dissatisfaction with specific bodily attributes was not significantly related to any reasons for exercising; however, like women in their sample, the current students who experienced more situational body dissatisfaction exercised for appearance and weight control. Sex comparisons indicated similar dissatisfaction with specific bodily a...