Unveiling the world of female collegiate distance running: a social identity and social comparison perspective
Date
2022
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The activity of running has allowed humans to survive and evolve for millions of years, and certain elements of the human body make it primed for running. As a result, the activity continues to gain popularity worldwide. While many participate in a recreational manner, there are also those that do so at a variety of competitive levels, including both collegiately and professionally. While the health benefits of running for exercise have been extensively explored and reported on, less focus has been placed on the dark side of competitive distance running, which may include overtraining, eating disorders, injury, menstrual dysfunction in women, and dependency on athletic-identity for self-worth and self-definition, at the expense of other important identities and relationships. As a result, this study sought to explore the negative mental and physical risks associated with female collegiate distance running. Specifically, it inquired about topics such as athletic identity, social media use, and social comparisons as they relate to mental health and the “female athlete triad” of disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. Results indicated that the tendency to engage in social comparison predicts media engagement driven envy, athletic identity predicts engagement with runner oriented social media, and envy experienced when viewing the media of more successful personal running connections predicts negative mental health outcomes. Additionally, results indicated that weight pressure in sport predicts a variety of negative mental and physical health outcomes, and leads to an unhealthy and toxic cycle of reinforcement. Implications of the results, as well as suggestions for future research and intervention within the sport of female collegiate distance running, are discussed.
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Keywords
Female collegiate, Distance running, Social identity