Date of Graduation

5-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Education in Recreation and Sport Management (MEd)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Health, Human Performance and Recreation

Advisor/Mentor

Stephen Dittmore

Committee Member

Brendon McDermott

Second Committee Member

Sarah Stokowski

Keywords

Body Image, Cheerleaders, Disordered Eating, Division I, Male and Female

Abstract

The sport of cheerleading is growing both in the high school and college setting, however there is little research on cheerleaders specifically, both sideline and competitive. It is clear that while this sport does not benefit from being affiliated with the NCAA, the athletes are still at large risk for disordered eating and eating disorders, and are in need of more accurate screening and prevention methods. With the lack of cheerleading studies in general, there is an even larger scarcity of studies that focus on males in cheerleading. The current study aims to fill the gap in the research regarding disordered eating risk in both male and female Division I cheerleaders by analyzing the perceived level of body satisfaction. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain more awareness on the body perceptions of collegiate cheerleaders, and investigate if male cheerleaders suffer from similar levels of disordered eating and body image issues as compared to their female counterparts.

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