title: An Examination of Women's Self-Presentation, Social Physique Anxiety, and Setting Preferences during Injury Rehabilitation.
abstract: Objectives. This study investigated whether women experience self-presentational concerns related to rehabilitation settings and explored preferences for characteristics of the social and physical treatment environment in relation to women's Social Physique Anxiety (SPA).Methods. Two cross-sectional studies were conducted. In Study 1, female undergraduate students (n= 134) completed four questionnaires (Social Physique Anxiety Scale; three bespoke questionnaires assessing self-presentation in rehabilitation and social and physical environment preferences) with respect to hypothetical rehabilitation scenarios. Study 2 recruited injured women who were referred for physiotherapy (n= 62) to complete the same questionnaires regarding genuine rehabilitation scenarios.Results. Women with high SPA showed less preference for physique salient clothing than women with low SPA in both hypothetical (p= 0.001) and genuine settings (p= 0.01). In Study 2, women with high SPA also preferred that others in the clinic were female (p= 0.01) and reported significantly greater preference for private treatment spaces (p= 0.05).Conclusions. Self-presentational concerns exist in rehabilitation as in exercise settings. Results indicated inverse relationships between women's SPA and preference for the presence of men, physique-enhancing clothing, and open-concept treatment settings. Future studies to determine the effect of self-presentational concerns on treatment adherence are needed.
authors.affiliation: Western University, London, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Molly V
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6442-9733
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Driediger
authors.affiliation: Centre for Motivation and Health Behaviour Change, Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath, UK.
authors.forename: Carly D
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7664-3211
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: McKay
authors.affiliation: Western University, London, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Craig R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Hall