The 2021 NASPSPA Conference will be a virtual event, consistent with our 2020 NASPSPA Virtual Conference. The dates will be June 9-11, 2021. If you would like to present at our conference, abstracts can be submitted from Tuesday, December 1, 2020 through Wednesday, January 27, 2021. The Area Program Committees (click here to see the committee membership) will begin reviewing the abstracts after January 27 in order to notify everyone about their acceptance status by March 1. For more details about our upcoming virtual conference, check out our latest newsletter.
Unless you signed up for a multi-year membership, your NASPSPA membership expires on December 31, 2020. You must be a member to submit a conference abstract, so please renew ASAP by clicking here.
Conference registration is now open. The cost to attend the 2021 NASPSPA Virtual Conference is $200 for Professionals, $100 for Retirees, $90 for Postdocs, and $75 for students until May 15. After May 15 the cost is $220 Professionals, $120 Retirees, $110 Postdocs and $95 for students. REGISTRATION CLOSES ON JUNE 1.
To submit an abstract for consideration for a verbal or poster presentation at the 2021 NASPSPA Virtual Conference, visit our Submit an Abstract page (click here). Information about authorship, presentation types, and scientific/formatting content can be found on that page. All abstracts must follow a uniform format. See below for an example of an appropriately formatted abstract. You can download it in Word format (click here) to use as a template.
Conference Abstract Example
How do I look? The impact of body awareness and self-objectification on motor performance in women
Elizabeth Cox, April Karlinsky, Joseph Manzone, Timothy N. Welsh, Catherine M. Sabiston, University of Toronto
Drawing on tenets of self-objectification theory, women and girls internalize a focus on their body’s appearance rather than its functional attributes. Although self-objectification promotes constrained and ineffective motor performance in girls, it is unknown how body awareness and self-objectification impact motor performance in women. The present study examined the impact of body awareness and self-objectification on performance in women. It was hypothesized that greater body awareness would predict reduced performance during a visual-motor aiming task, and this relation would be mediated by self-objectification. Women (N = 80, Mage = 20.6 ± 3.1 years) completed the state Self-Objectification Questionnaire. To prime awareness of the body, participants were assigned athletic clothing to wear for the duration of the study, had their picture taken, weight, height, and waist circumference measured, and completed a body size distortion task. Participants then completed a visual-motor aiming task while sitting beside a full-length mirror. Their behaviour was video recorded. For each participant, number of clothing adjustments and self-views in the mirror were coded and summed, and mean body distortion score was calculated. Z-scores were calculated and summed to create a composite body awareness measure (CBA). Mean and standard deviation (SD) of reaction time (RT) were calculated across aiming task trials. Based on the linear regression models, CBA was significantly related to SD of RT (β = 0.006, CI: 0.002, 0.010, p = 0.002), whereby increased CBA predicted increased SD of RT. The indirect effect of self-objectification was β = -0.001, CI: -0.002, 0.000, p = 0.054. These results suggest women’s body awareness and perception of their body as an object rather than as an effective instrument may lead to inefficient motor performance. Over time, this relatively inefficient performance could deter participation in physical activity. More work is needed to explore this possible link between body awareness, motor performance and physical activity. Funding: SSHRC, NSERC.
