Abstract
This study examined body image concern among female athletes based on self esteem and perfectionism, with a focus on the mediating roles of social comparison and narcissism. The study employed a descriptive correlational design and was conducted among 550 female athletes who were actively training in sports clubs in Ilam in 2024. Participants completed measures of body image concern, self esteem, perfectionism, social comparison, and narcissism. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and bootstrap analysis.
The results indicated that the proposed model demonstrated an acceptable level of fit and that the predictor variables accounted for 36 percent of the variance in body image concern. The findings show that lower self esteem and higher perfectionism predict body image concern both directly and indirectly through social comparison. Social comparison emerges as the only significant mediator and explains a substantial portion of the relationship between personality characteristics and appearance related concerns. In contrast, the paths associated with narcissism are not significant, indicating that narcissism does not play an effective mediating role in the model.
Overall, the findings suggest that comparative evaluation processes constitute a central mechanism linking personality characteristics to body image concerns among female athletes. Interventions aimed at reducing appearance based social comparisons, moderating perfectionistic standards, and strengthening stable self esteem may therefore help reduce body image concerns in this population.