Exploring body consciousness of dancers, athletes, and lightly physically active adults

Abstract

Body consciousness is associated with kinetic skills and various aspects of wellbeing. Physical activities have been shown to contribute to the development of body consciousness. Methodological studies are needed in improving the assessment of body consciousness in adults with distinct physical activity backgrounds. This study (1) examined whether dancers, athletes, and lightly physically active individuals differed regarding the level of their body consciousness, and (2) evaluated the usability of different methods in assessing body consciousness. Fifty-seven healthy adults (aged 20–37) were included in the study. Three experimental methods (aperture task, endpoint matching, and posture copying) and two self-report questionnaires (the Private Body Consciousness Scale, PBCS, and the Body Awareness Questionnaire, BAQ) were used in assessing body consciousness. Athletes outperformed the lightly physically active participants in the posture copying task with the aid of vision when copying leg postures. Dancers performed better than the athletes without the aid of vision when their back and upper body were involved, and better than the lightly active participants when copying leg postures. Dancers and athletes had higher self-reported cognitive and perceptual knowledge of their body than lightly physically active participants. To examine the role of different physical activities in developing body consciousness, experimental methods involving the use of the whole body might be most suitable. Subjective measures may provide complementary evidence for experimental testing.

The Impact of Aerobic Dance Intervention on Postural Balance in Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…The improvement in postural balance during these dynamic movements indicates a more refined and adaptable response to the demands of the dance intervention, reflecting the nuanced adjustments in postural control and balance. This aligns with the idea that dance, especially aerobic dance, or dance in general, can lead to improved proprioception, enhanced postural stability, and a more sophisticated response to dynamic and challenging movement patterns, ultimately contributing to better postural control and balance [68,[73][74][75][76]. Moreover, the rhythmic and coordinated nature of aerobic dance routines requires participants to engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously, promoting overall muscle strength and endurance [32,62].…”

Understanding the neural bases of bodily self-consciousness: recent achievements and main challenges

“…In addition to personality traits such as empathy, another explanation takes into account individual differences in how the brain weights tactile, visual, vestibular, interoceptive and proprioceptive information for interpreting bodily experiences underling BSC ( Pfeiffer et al, 2013 ; David et al, 2014 ). Individuals trained to use proprioceptive and interoceptive signals, such as professional dancers ( Ehrsson, 2012 ; Virtanen et al, 2022 ), might be less prone to different types of bodily illusion (rubber hand illusion, full-body illusion).…”

Cross-Sectional Analysis of Actual Versus Perceived Body Composition in Female Footballer’s Body Image

“…Thus, through sectional analysis of the body, one can discover which sectioned areas of the body the athlete is dissatisfied with. Previous students by Mills and Cooling [21] Prichard et al [9] Mills and Watson [18] and Virtanen et al [22] discovered that when sectional analysis was used, females were mostly dissatisfied with their middle and lower bodies, specifically their hips and stomach. Therefore, this aim of this study was to establish the correlation between actual and perceived crosssectional body composition in the overall, upper, trunk and lower body, with female footballers by combining a combining a questionnaire of wholebody images and sectional analysis.…”