Relationship between dimensions of the five factor personality model, body image satisfaction and social physique anxiety in college students

This study was designed to examine the relationship between dimensions of the five factor personality model and body image satisfaction and social physique anxiety in college student athletes and non-athletes. Participants were 390 college student athletes and non-athletes ranging in age from 20 to 26 (M = 23.86 and SD = 2.264). The Five Factor Personality Inventory developed by Tatar (2005); the Social Physique Anxiety Scale, developed by Hart et al. (1989), and adapted into Turkish by Balli and Asci (2004); the Body Image Satisfaction Questionnaire developed by Berscheid, Walster and Bohmstedt (1973) and adapted into Turkish by Gokdogan (1988) were used as measurement devices. In order to analyze obtained data Pearson productmoment correlation and multiple regression analyses were carried out. When the entire sample was considered correlation analyses indicated that overall social physique anxiety scores are associated with the extraversion dimension of the five factor personality model. Correlation analyses also showed that body image dissatisfaction, both overall social physique anxiety and its two subscales are highly related to the emotional stability dimension of the five factor personality model in the entire sample. When data was partitioned according to athletic status it was found that all body image satisfaction related variables are highly associated with emotional stability and extraversion dimensions in both the athlete and non-athlete group. Relationships between body image satisfaction and extraversion were, however, more salient in the college non-athlete student sample group. Multiple regression analyses revealed that only emotional stability was a significant predictor of body image (dis)satisfaction in both college student athlete and nonathlete sample