563 EP098 – Untangling the relationships between age, gender, type of sport, perfectionistic self-presentation, and motivation on body satisfaction among female and male athletes aged 10–22

• Background Body dissatisfaction is known as a robust predictor for eating pathology. Empirical knowledge about specific psychological mechanisms, beyond sports type, that can maintain or diminish female and male athletes’ body satisfaction is still sparse and research lack consistency. Prevention can decrease risk factors for eating pathology and protect athletes’ appreciation for the body and its functionality for continued and healthy sports participation.Objective To explore the relationships between age, gender, type of sport, perfectionistic self-presentation, and motivation on body satisfaction among young athletes in one lean sport (gymnastics) and one non-lean sport (basketball). Hypotheses: Age, gender, and sport type are related to body satisfaction. A high autonomous motivation is positively related to body satisfaction while perfectionistic self-presentation displays a negative relationship.Design Cross-sectional.Setting Recreational to national elite level.Participants A total of 209 athletes (basketball players n=77; gymnasts n=132; age range: 10–22) were recruited and 200 (females: n=157; males: n=43) were included in the analyses after data screening.Assessment of Risk Factors Questionnaires were completed electronically and assessed demographic information (e.g., age, self-assigned gender), motivation (Behavioral Regulation in Sport Questionnaire), perfectionistic self-presentation (Perfectionistic Self-Presentation Scale – Junior Form) and body satisfaction (Body Appreciation Scale-2).Main Outcome Measurements Body satisfaction (dependent variable).Results Stepwise multiple regressions with bootstrapping showed age, self-assigned gender, and perfectionistic self-presentation (non-display of imperfection) to significantly predict body satisfaction (p<.05). Path analysis showed a significant relationship between age and body satisfaction (standardized coefficient: -.23) which was partially mediated by non-display of imperfection (p<.05). A moderated mediation analysis showed that this relationship was not moderated by gender.Conclusions Body satisfaction prevention should target perfectionistic self-presentation tendencies among female and male athletes. Further research is warranted to investigate if non-display of imperfection is a prominent perfectionistic self-presentation facet among athletes across gender, sports and competition levels.

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