Associations between competitive goals in sports and body size perception among Finnish adolescents: a cross-sectional study

Background: Regardless of competitive athletes’ body image pressures, the role of competitive goals in sports on adolescents’ body perception has not been studied. We examined the factors associated with adolescents’ competitive goals in sports and body size perception, and the associations between adolescents’ competitive goals in sports and body size perception. Methods: The cross-sectional study included 475 goal-oriented sports club participants and 936 reference youths (aged 14–16 years) with self-reported data on health behaviours and accelerometer-measured physical activity. The multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the associations. Results: Adolescents with competitive goals in sports were more frequently satisfied with their body size than reference youths (68% vs 47%, p < 0.001 in girls; 74% vs 61%, p < 0.001 in boys). More than one-fourth of girls with competitive goals in sports perceived themselves as overweight, although only 7% of them were overweight. Adolescents with appearance/weight motives to exercise and poor perceived physical fitness had higher odds of perceived fatness. Additionally, BMI was positively associated with perceived fatness and negatively with perceived thinness. Having competitive goals in sports was not independently associated with perceived fatness or perceived thinness. Conclusions: Adolescents’ BMI, appearance/weight motives to exercise, and perceived physical fitness were more strongly associated with body size perception than their competitive goals in sports. However, body size dissatisfaction among girls with competitive goals in sports should be considered in organized sports.