BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1535766
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Sports Science: Latest Findings and New Scientific Proposals- Volume IIIView all 6 articles
The Associations between Current and Anticipatory Weight-Related Shame and Flourishing in Adolescent Girls in Sport
Provisionally accepted
- 1Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada
- 2Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 3Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 4School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
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Flourishing is important for experiencing growth, resilience, and functioning – especially in sport. Factors that may limit or potentiate the experience of flourishing in sport need to be understood. For girls involved in sport, weight-related shame may be a critical factor limiting the potential to flourish. The purpose of the present study was to explore current and anticipatory weight-related shame in association with flourishing among adolescent girls. Participants were (deidentified region) girl athletes (N = 189) aged 13 to 18 years old (M = 15.93, SD = 1.22) who had previous or current involvement in organized sport. Girls completed a self-report survey where they reported their current and anticipatory (weight gain or loss) shame and flourishing. A Path model was tested in MPlus. Higher current weight shame [Estimate = -.41, SE = 0.07, p < .01] and anticipatory weight loss shame [Estimate = -.13, .SE = 0.07, p = .03], were associated with lower flourishing. Anticipatory weight gain shame was not associated with lower flourishing. These results suggest efforts are needed to disconnect the emotion of shame from weight change to foster positive psychological outcomes, such as flourishing, in sport contexts.
Keywords: Body-related shame, Self-conscious emotions, girl athletes, Youth, body image, Positive mental health
Received: 29 Nov 2024; Accepted: 06 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lucibello, Zeitoun, Brown, Pila and Sabiston. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Catherine Sabiston, Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5S 2C9, Ontario, Canada
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