A Master Thesis entitled The Impact Social Media has on Collegiate Gymnasts: Social Support and Body Image by Alaska Richardson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of Educational Psychology Degree in The Judith Herb College of Education ________________________________ Mary Ellen Edwards, Ph. D., Committee Chair ________________________________ Revathy Kumar, Ph. D., Committee Member ________________________________ Lynne Hamer, Ph. D., Committee Member ________________________________ Amanda C. Bryant-Friedrich, Ph. D., Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo May 2018 Copyright 2018, Alaska J. Richardson This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. ii An Abstract of The Impact Social Media has on Collegiate Gymnasts: Social Support and Body Image by Alaska Richardson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of Educational Psychology Degree in The Judith Herb College of Education University of Toledo May 2018 With the tremendous growth of technology over the years, social media platforms have become a new and improved way for people from all parts of the globe to stay connected. This can cause many different impacts and actions on individuals who are viewing a variety of social media content or posts. One can become inspired by those they follow by engaging in similar practices to either better themselves or begin to compare themselves to others which can lead to more negative side effects such as developing low self-esteem, anxiety, and even depressive thoughts. Little is known about how social media can impact people’s social support and views on their body images. In this study, a total of six college female gymnasts were interviewed about their views on how social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, have impacted their social support system with others and how body image is presented. Results revealed that emotional thoughts and views all depended on the individual. Social media can only control and consume an individual’s life if she allows it. iii For my wonderful parents, Anthony and Johnnie. It has been your everlasting love and support that has allowed me to aim for the stars and beyond. For my big brother, Anthony II, who I have always looked up to growing up. Thank you for your inspiration. Acknowledgments This thesis would not have even been possible without the encouragement, support, and doting love I received from the parents, family, and close friends. I now realize why my parents and family never gave up on pushing me to limits I never thought were possible and believing in me when I did not believe in myself. I am thankful for my close friends that have stuck by me through this journey. I only hope I have been able to replicate the same amount of support through their lives as they have done for mine. I would also like to thank my thesis advisor Dr. Mary Ellen Edwards from the University of Toledo for all her assistance and patience while working with me throughout this challenging, yet rewarding experience. I would like to thank my wonderful committee members for taking the time out of their business schedules to help me succeed. Without their participation and input, this could not have been conducted. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the University of Toledo’s Writing Center Coordinator, Clayton Chiarelott, for always being available and encouraging me through the process of writing of this thesis. To the Bowling Green State Gymnastics team and coaching staff, thank you for taking the time to supply me with important information for my research. You all have been a huge help and I wish you all the best of luck during your 2018 season. One team, one vision. Go Falcons! Lastly, I have benefited tremendously from the guidance and mentoring from the welcoming staff of the Student-Athletic Academic Services Department at the University of Toledo. Thank you all for allowing me to learn and grow from the knowledge and unfailing support you all have shared with me during my years as a graduate student. v Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements v Table of Contents vi List of Tables viii I. Introduction 1 A. Research Question 11 B. Limitations 12 II. Literature Review 14 A. Body Image 14 B. Social Support 18 C. Social Media 20 III. Methodology 25 A. Procedures & Ethics 27 B. Participants 27 C. Interviews 28 a. Body Image 29 b. Social Support 29 c. Social Media 29 IV. Data Analysis and Results 31 A. Participant Profiles 32 a. Person A 32 b. Person B 32 vi c. Person C 33 d. Person D 34 e. Person E 34 f. Person F 34 B. Results 35 V. Discussion 40 A. Conclusion 41 References 43 Appendices A. Interview Questions 46 B. Interview Transcripts 47 vii List of Tables Table 1 Positive, Negative, and Neutral Results from Participants. Each result is based off individuals’ responses, non-verbal cues, and facial expressions recorded by the researcher.…………………………………………………………………………… 39 viii Chapter One Introduction For 13 years long years, I experienced the busy lifestyle of a competitive gymnast. Since the ripe age of nine, I had the drive and determination to balance both countless hours training in the gym to the ability to receive good grades in the classroom. Gymnastics helped me develop a great mental toughness and physical strength needed to perform difficult skills as well as remain disciplined with my academic works. Gymnastics was my home away from home. It was a place where I could let loose and truly be myself; a gymnast. With the help, love, and support from my family, coaches, and teammates, I could reach my goal by earning a full athletic scholarship away from my home in Dayton, Ohio to the wild and wonderful mountains of West Virginia University. As a collegiate gymnast, I saw action on the floor exercise and the vault earning high scores and many honors my junior and senior year. However, the road to such a high level of gymnastics did not happen over-night. Some days, I found myself excelling in the gym, completing all my routines accordingly and reaching not only my expectations, but the expectations of my teammates and coaches. The same went towards my professors when it came to assignments and exams taking place in the classroom. Having to balance sports, workouts, academics, a social life, growing as a young adult, and all that came with being a student-athlete was a challenging, yet very rewarding experience. However, I am human and mistakes were inevitable. The scale used to balance both gymnastics and academics began to tip and picking up the spills were more chaotic than it sounds. Just add the distraction of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, 1 and Instagram to the mix and we have a recipe for misunderstandings. Through my experience with social media as a student-athlete, my grades unfortunately began to drop. I found myself more focused on posting pictures of myself and teammates engaging in risky, college behaviors such as partying, drinking alcohol, writing obscene captions under posts, and using foul language. However, such behaviors did not go unnoticed. One-on-one disciplinary meetings were administered by the coaching staff and members in the athletic department which educated student-athletes on the importance of watching what they share with the world. In my case, certain posts online could have potentially been interpreted the wrong way and could have ruined my reputation. For example, I ordered a medium pepperoni pizza for me and my two roommates after practice and posted the delicious pie on Twitter. I received comments from followers wishing they could join us for a feast, but my coaches were not pleased with my food selection. What I thought was an innocent post of yummy food was interpreted by my coaches as an unhealthy food choice that could jeopardize my weight, thus potentially effecting my performance in the gym. I was called into a one-on-one meeting with my coach a few days later to be told that I was not setting a good example for the other girls. I was further required to meet with a nutritionist once a week to make better food choices. All because of one post of a medium pepperoni pizza. As a student-athlete, it was my responsibility to represent the university as well as the gymnastics program I was involved with in a respectable manner. Looking back now, it also taught me how to represent myself as an individual when posting on personal social media accounts. If anything is going to raise a concern or cause an uproar with your following, just do not post it. 2 With the raise and popularity of social media platforms, young gymnasts can upload videos and pictures of themselves for certain collegiate gymnastics teams to view, comment, share, and like. This has developed social media technologies to become visible players allowing college coaches to make judgments of potential recruits before even meeting with the individuals face-to-face. Thus, collegiate athletic departments are faced with unique challenges in harnessing social media. For example, in an analysis of the practices of collegiate athletic departments towards student-athletes and Twitter, Sanderson and Browning (2013) obtained a sample of 1,434 tweets to examine whether Twitter had opened avenues when discussing sports culture and gender. Their thematic analysis revealed three different themes: (1) opening the space for conversation; (2) offering enough evidence of change in sports culture; and (3) expressing the resistance to sports cultural change.