The study of athletes' body perception and gender role

In this study, it has been aimed to examine athletes' body perception and gender role. 120 male athletes and 120 non-athletic male university students participated in the study voluntarily. In the study, as the data collecting means, The Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire-MBSRQ was used in order to determine males' body perception levels, BEM Sex Role Inventory-BSRI was used to determine gender roles and Personal Information Form developed by the researcher was used to ascertain personal features of the subjects. When the athletes' body perception levels are examined, the features of physical competence orientation, health orientation, appearance evaluation, fitness evaluation, health evaluation and body areas satisfaction have been found to be higher than non-athletes' (p<0.05). On the other hand; no difference has been found between athletes and non-athletes in terms of appearance orientation (p>0.05). When gender roles are examined, athletes have been found to have higher values than non-athletes' in terms of masculinity, femininity and social desirability (p<0.05). To conclude; as well as considering sports as a factor increasing individuals' body perception level and gender role, it is also thought that athletes care about health, appearance and physical competence and are glad of body parts because of their muscled body structure developing due to the exercises and have flexible personality to show feminine and masculine features that the environment needs in terms of gender role.