INSPIRA: Indonesian Journal of Psychological Research https://journal.iainlangsa.ac.id/index.php/inspira How to cite (APA 7th Edition) Restika, R. & Hurriyati, D. (2023). Exercise motivation and body image in middle-aged women. INSPIRA: Indonesian Journal of Psychological Research, 4(1), 70–76. https://doi.org/10.32505/inspira.v4i1.5515 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Copyright ©2023 by Restika & Dwi Hurriyati. RESEARCH ARTICLE Exercise motivation and body image in middle-aged women https://doi.org/10.32505/inspira.v4i1.5515 Restika1, Dwi Hurriyati2 1 Department of Psychology, Universitas Bina Darma Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia 2 Department of Psychology, Universitas Bina Darma Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia Corresponding Author: Restika (email: tika98resti@gmail.com) ABSTRACT Middle-aged women do various ways to get an ideal body posture, one of which is by exercising. This study aims to determine the relationship between motivation to exercise and body image of middle-aged women. This research is correlative quantitative research. Middle-aged women at Mahkota Gym Prabumulih, totaling 105 people, participated in this study. The sampling technique used in this study was purposive sampling with 3 characteristics: middle-aged women aged 35-50 years, weighing more than 50 kgs, and regularly attending gymnastics classes at least once a week. The collection technique used body image scales and exercise motivation. This study uses a simple linear regression test analysis technique. Based on the results of data analysis, there is an influence of exercise motivation on body image. The contribution value of exercise motivation with body image is 21.5%. There is still a 78.5% influence from other factors related to body image that is not involved in this study, so it can be concluded that there is a very significant influence between exercise motivation on body image in middle-aged women at Mahkota Gym Prabumulih. Article History: Received 12 January 2023 Revised 01 February 2023 Accepted 29 June 2023 Keywords: body image; exercise motivation; middle adulthood; middle-aged women INTRODUCTION Women are creatures who love beauty, and many things women do to look beautiful (Girindra, 2014). Maintaining beauty for women is essential. Even in middle age, women still want to look beautiful and attractive, especially in the eyes of their partners (Putri, 2020). This is not wrong, but some women sometimes forget about other things and prioritize physical beauty. Most women may also forget a little about the simple truth that aging is not something terrible. This natural process will happen to every human on Earth (Rimbawan, 2019). As stated by Naomi Wolf (2018) that every woman, both young and old, is very afraid of aging. Thin and fat women must fight to get the ideal body weight. This applies to all women in the world (Meidita, 2013). The picture of ideal body posture is the dream of everyone, both women and men, young and old. A muscular, full or slender body shape is the primary goal of someone doing sports training (Maulida, 2020). In order to get an ideal body posture and attractive appearance, various efforts are made, one of which is to do adequate and supportive sports training such as fitness centers (Hannifuni’am, 2018; Maulida, 2020; Newman, 2018; Ryan & Deci, 2017). https://doi.org/10.32505/inspira.v4i1.5515 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6736-674X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7526-1211 71 Aging is not just about age. Instead, it can be linked to fitness and how the body works and reacts. Based on the Herbalife Nutrition Asia Pacific Healthy Aging Survey in 2020, respondents in Indonesia understand the importance of healthy aging. The results showed that 8 out of 10 consumers (82%) had taken preventive measures to help them age healthily. As many as 73% have improved their nutritional intake, 63% said they have done more exercise, and 50% also said they have done activities that stimulate mental health. Meanwhile, 46% take supplements that promote health and 42% have also done more regular health checks (Putri, 2020). Old age is characterized by signs of physical aging such as wrinkled skin, mass media factors such as exposure to magazines and social media, and standard factors adopted by society, for example, in an area that considers white skin and a slender body to look more attractive, and also social comparison factors such as seeing the advantages of others (Agustin et al., 2019). As many people realize they want to improve their physical fitness, fitness centers have become one of the most visited locations, especially by women. In order to get the ideal body shape, not a few women are willing to spend money to exercise regularly at the fitness center. This phenomenon also occurs in the fitness center crown gym Prabumulih. Many married and middle-aged women do sports activities to maintain ideal body weight as the aging period comes. In addition, exercise is also a form of self-love to improve household harmony. Middle adulthood is a period that begins when a person enters the age of 35-45 years to 60-65 years. According to a life span expert, Brim (2019) stated that middle adulthood is a period full of changes and conflicts (Hannifuni’am, 2018) (Newman, 2018). Middle adulthood is mentioned as a unique period because of the loss and gain of balance. Losses and gains are balanced in both biological and sociocultural aspects, such as education, career, and relationships. Smolak et al. (2019) said that this could be a factor in the emergence of fear of changes that occur due to the aging process or fear of aging (Cash & Smolak, 2019) (Putri, 2010) (Setiawati, 2020). Based on the results of interviews with middle-aged female members at Mahkota Gym Prabumulih, it can be seen that the behavior of middle-aged adult women, such as female members routinely attend gymnastics classes 2-3 times a week to evaluate their appearance, take gymnastics classes to achieve the ideal body shape they want, are happy when they see their body in the mirror, regularly weigh themselves, feel that having a slender body looks more attractive than being fat. This is supported based on the opinion of Cash and Smolak (2019) that there are five characteristics of body image, namely (1) evaluation of appearance, (2) appearance orientation, (3) satisfaction with body parts, (4) anxiety about being fat, (5) perception of body size. According to Bakhshi (Sari & Abrori, 2019), body image in the ideal body concept is strongly influenced by social, economic, motivational and cultural factors adopted by society. Thompson et al. (Piran, 2019) say someone who wants a positive body image will be motivated to do sports activities. So that the more someone succeeds in achieving a positive body image, the more motivated he is to do sports activities. Exercise motivation is a person’s motive to participate in sports, and gifts put individuals in a situation of possibility or impossibility to have pleasure in specific exercises or sports (Newman, 2018). According to Molanorouzi (2018), sports motivation is the overall driving force (motives) within the individual that gives rise to sports activities, ensures the continuity of training and provides direction to training activities to achieve the desired goals. Based on the results of interviews with several subjects, they said she did sports not only because of her beauty, but he was earnest about joining the gymnastics class provided in order to get a fit body 72 too. She chose to do sports at the fitness center to share with friends who had the goal of losing weight too. This is supported based on Ryan’s opinion (Arnain, 2019) of four characteristics of exercise motivation: interest, caring about appearance, maintaining fitness, and having challenges. Based on the researcher’s initial questionnaire on 16 July 2022 through the distribution of hard copies that researchers distributed to 100 middle-aged female gym members at the Prabumulih gym crown, 97% of respondents participated in Zumba gymnastics because it was fun, 80% of respondents did sports because they cared about appearance, 90% of respondents did sports not for beauty reasons alone, but also for reasons of maintaining body fitness, 69% of respondents exercised because they had a target to lose weight and had a BB number that had to be achieved, and 71% of respondents exercised because they wanted to add friends and could share about health and beauty together. 90% of respondents exercise 2-3 times a week to get an ideal body, 79% take gymnastics classes to achieve ideal weight goals, 39% of respondents are happy when they see their body in the mirror, 78% of respondents routinely weigh themselves once a week or once a month, 83% of respondents feel that having a slender body looks more attractive than having a fat body. Research conducted by Arnain (2019) shows a correlation between exercise motivation variables and body image variables. However, research on exercise psychology is still limited, especially in middle-aged women, so research is needed to prove the relationship between exercise motivation and body image in adult women in other populations. Therefore, this study aims to explain theoretically and empirically the relationship between exercise motivation and body image in middle- aged women at Mahkota Gym Prabumulih. Moreover, based on the above explanation, this study hypothesizes that there is a positive relationship between exercise motivation and body image in middle-aged women at Mahkota Gym Prabumulih. METHOD This study uses a quantitative approach, the independent variable is exercise motivation, and the dependent variable is body image. The researcher created the body image scale based on aspects of body image according to Thomson (Sari & Abrori, 2020), namely: perception of body parts as a whole, aspects of comparison with others, and aspects of reaction to others. Meanwhile, the researcher compiled the exercise motivation scale based on aspects of exercise motivation by Ryan & Deci (2017): fun, appearance, social interaction, fitness, and challenge. The population in this study were 150 middle-aged women at Mahkota Gym Prabumulih. The research sample was determined again using the Isaac Micheal table formula with an error rate of 5% (Sugiyono, 2018). Based on the Micheal Isacc table with an error rate of 5%, a sample of 105 middle- aged female members was obtained. The sampling technique used in this study was purposive sampling. According to Sugiyono (2018), purposive sampling is a sampling technique based on specific considerations, so it is also called consideration sampling because it has specific characteristics. The sample characteristics in this study are 1) members who join for at least 3 months at the Prabumulih gym crown, 2) middle-aged adult women aged 35-50 years with body weight over 50kg, and 4) routinely attending gymnastics classes at least once a week. The data collection method uses a Likert scale as a body image scale totaling 49 items and exercises motivation totaling 45 items. This scale contains two forms of statements some statements are supportive (favorable), and statements that do not supportive (unfavorable) (Sugiyono, 2018). The score given consists of number 4 for the answer strongly agree (SA), number 3 for the answer Agree (A), number 2 for the answer Disagree (D), and number 1 for the answer Strongly Disagree (SD). Meanwhile, for statements that do not support (Unfavorable), the score given consists of number 1 73 for the answer Strongly Agree (SA), number 2 for the answer Agree (A), number 3 for the answer Disagree (D), and number 4 for the answer Strongly Disagree (SD). The data analysis technique uses the SPPS version 20.0 program. Data analysis was carried out in two stages, namely 1) conducting assumption or prerequisite tests which include normality test and linearity test, and 2) conducting hypothesis testing using simple linear regression test. RESULT Based on Table 1, it can be seen that there are 57 participants with an age range of 40-45 years, 35 participants with an age range of 46-50 years, and 13 participants with an age range of 51-55 years. Table 1. Partisipants’ age (n=105) Age (year) n (%) 40-45 57 (54.29%) 46-50 35 (33.33%) 51-55 13 (12.38%) Based on Table 2, it can be seen that of the 105 subjects who have body image in middle-aged women at Mahkota Gym Prabumulih who are used as research subjects, and there are 57 subjects (54.28%) have a positive body image and 48 subjects or (45.72%) subjects who have a negative body image. Thus, it can be concluded that the average subject with a body image in middle-aged woman at Mahkota Gym Prabumulih has a positive body image. Furthermore, of the 105 subjects used as research subjects, 59 subjects (56.19%) had positive exercise motivation, and 46 subjects (43.81%) had negative exercise motivation. Thus, it can be concluded that, on average, middle-aged women at Mahkota Gym Prabumulih have high exercise motivation. Table 2. Categorization of the research sample Variable Score Category n (%) Body image X ≥ 157.79 Positive 57 (54.28%) X ≤ 157.79 Negative 48 (45.72%) Exercise motivation X ≥ 161,45 High 59 (56.19%) X ≤ 161,45 Low 46 (43.81%) The normality test results using Kolmogorov- Smirnov for each variable show that the data for the two variables used in this study are typically distributed. The body image variable is normally distributed (K-S = 1.148, p = .143) and motivation variables (K-S = 1.207, p = .108). The linearity test on the variable indicates that the correlation between the variables of body image and exercise motivation is linear (F = 1.542, p < .001). Hypothesis testing in Table 3 obtained the results of the amount of effective contribution given by the variable motivation to exercise with body image is significantly correlated (r = .321, p < .001). There is still a 78.5% influence from other factors related to body image but not examined by researchers, including social, economic, and cultural factors adopted by the community that are not used in this study. Table 3. Hypothesis test result Variable Mean SD R R2 p Result Body image (Y) 157.79 24.877 .321 .215 < .001 Significant Exercise motivation (X) 161.45 12.367 74 DISCUSSION Based on the results of statistical calculations that have been carried out to prove a significant relationship between exercise motivation and body image in middle adult women. The analysis was carried out using a simple regression test, which showed acceptance of the proposed hypothesis. This relationship is supported by Arnain (2019), who states that high motivation and an indication of body image. This agrees with Thompson et al. (Tylka & Piran, 2019), saying that someone who wants a positive body image will be motivated to do sports activities. So that the more someone succeeds in achieving a positive body image, the more motivated he is to do sports activities. The results of this study also state that other factors are related to body image besides exercise motivation. These results confirm the research proposed by Bakhshi (in Sari & Abrori, 2020) that social, economic, and cultural factors adopted by society can affect body image. In this study, middle-aged women at the crown gym in Prabumulih mostly feel that they have a whole body posture, some view their body image negatively, but some also view their body image positively, which affects their view of their self-identity. As stated by Honigman and Castle (in Melliana, 2006), body image is a person’s mental image of the shape and size of his body, how a person perceives and gives an assessment of what he thinks and feels about the size and shape of his body, and on how others think about him. What she thinks and feels does not necessarily represent the actual situation but rather the result of subjective self- assessment. CONCLUSION The research results on body image variables that are thought to have a relationship with exercise motivation show significant results. Both variables, the exercise motivation variable, contributes to the body image variable. Based on the results of the above research, it is clear that exercise motivation contributes significantly to body image. In addition, so far, the problem of body image has not received serious attention from middle-aged women, so in overcoming these problems, efforts and efforts are needed from middle-aged women, in order to improve their positive body image by doing sports activities, creating motivation in doing sports in middle-aged women, with high motivation to exercise it is expected that positive body image will increase. For this reason, there need to be efforts that must be made by middle-aged women, including; (a) increasing awareness of the importance of exercise in order to achieve a positive body image, (b) a positive body image is closely related to physical activities /suitable exercise activities. DECLARATION Acknowledgment The author would like to thank all those who have helped in data collection and technical matters, especially the manager of Mahkota Gym Prabumulih, who has given permission and assisted researchers in conducting this research. Author contribution statement Restika conducted the survey, distributed the scales, and analyzed the data. Dwi Hurriyati monitored the process of conducting the research, writing the discussion and research conclusions. 75 Funding statement This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or nonprofit sectors. 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