An examination of the relationships between exercise addiction, social appearance anxiety, and self-confidence in terms of regular attendance at fitness centers

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine whether exercise addiction, social appearance anxiety, and self-esteem levels of individuals who regularly attend fitness centers in Erzurum differ according to their demographic characteristics Methods: This study adopts an explanatory quantitative research design based on the relational screening model. As the research focuses on non-causal comparisons and the identification of relationships between variables, it exhibits characteristics of both causal-comparative and correlational designs, utilizing descriptive and comparative analyses concurrently. Within the scope of the study, individuals (260 males and 97 females) who have been regularly attending fitness centers for at least three months were administered scales measuring exercise addiction, social appearance anxiety, and self-confidence. The data were found to be normally distributed, and statistical analyses including t-tests, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation were conducted." Results: According to the research findings, no statistically significant differences were found in relation to marital status and gender. However, statistically significant differences were observed based on graduation, age, occupation, athletic background, time, duration, and purpose of exercise. Furthermore, exercise addiction was found to be positively correlated with both social appearance anxiety and self-confidence, while social appearance anxiety and self-confidence were negatively correlated. Conclusion: The findings suggest that regular exercise may have positive effects on individuals' psychological well-being; however, when this behavior becomes uncontrolled, it can lead to exercise addiction. Additionally, it can be argued that social appearance anxiety may have both a motivating and inhibiting influence on individuals' exercise motivation.