This section will seek to acknowledge a number of methodological limitations. These limitations arose as a result of uncontrollable factors that were typically associated with issues around compliance with the schools. This limitations section is being positioned within this section of the thesis as it will provide the reader with an understanding of the intended methodologies and the
methodologies that were executed. More specific limitations will be further explored within each data chapter. The focus of this section will be the limitations of the study, thus, factors that were beyond my control. The data chapters section will touch upon these factors but specifically focus upon the delimitations of the study, or in other words, the planned boundaries of the study.
Firstly this section will address the study limitations in relation to lesson content. The methodology was outlined in section 4.2 of the thesis. In the planning stages of the thesis it was anticpated that there would be an element of selection allowed in the types of units measured. It was anticipated that an equal proportion of lesson contents in relation to the two categories outlined in section 4.3.5 and sex would be determined. An equal proporition of categories would have been the ideal design for the study statistically, however, it emerged during the start of the fieldwork process that this selection of units would not be possible. Schools were very reluctant to engage in this type of process as it would have meant more contact time with the schools. Thus, as a comprimise schools were more
accomodating and receptive of a ‘blanket’ style approach, by this I mean targeting all pupils at one point in time, regardless of the types of activities they were engaged in. This meant that an equal distribution of categories by sex was not achieved. However, for the participating schools this was identified as a benefit for them. My impressions were that this approach ws percieved as less disruptive for the classes and I had a percieved notion that it was a case of ‘get it over and
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done with’. This also meant that there was a more diverse range of activities than initiually anticipated within each category. This may have implications when it comes to drawing conclusions on how activity type relates to body image and a more homogeneous group of activities may have meant that we could conclude more specifically about what types of activities within the defined categories related to situational body image disturbance.
The second unanticipated set of limitations arose in respect to the collection of anthropometric variables. In the initial planning stages it was hoped that
anthropometric data could be obtained on all participants or at least a sample of participants from each class. It became apparent very quickly that this was over optimistic. In retrospect it may be appropriate to conclude that such measures may have majorly influenced the initial recruitment of schools and was one of the major barriers in the fieldwork process of the participating schools. Although this was presented to the schools as a flexible methodology i.e. the measures would be taken at the convenience of the school, it was met with negative responses from the staff. One of the schools refused to participate in anthropometric measures altogether and two of the schools permitted access to some of the physical education classes. Only one of the schools allowed access to all present pupils within all physical education classes. It was felt that the study would have
benefited from a larger number of anthropometric data obtained. This would have allowed for use of perceptual distortion measures alongside the attitudinal
measures. It was proposed that this approach would further current research and fill gaps in the literature that have focused purely on attitudinal components of the body image construct. Moreover, anthropometric measures could have been entered as a covariant in the main statistical analysis that was concerned with measures of body image.
In the planning stages of this thesis it was anticipated that objective measures of physical activity, via accelerometers would be obtained for a sample of pupils from each classes. It was felt that this would fill voids in the current literature, by providing a comparable measure of transfer of learning, as identified in the preceding literature review. However, as with the other limitations presented,
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issues with compliance from the schools meant that they were not willing to allow access to pupils for this measure and as such should be noted as an unplanned limitation of the study.
This section has provided a reflection of issues that arose during the fieldwork process which meant that all of the anticipated measures or approaches considered in the initial design stages of this thesis were not completed due to issues beyond my control. As a result, some of the research questions presented in chapter 3 were slightly adapted to accommodate these issues. The following five chapters present the data obtained in the fieldwork process and will address some of the delimitations of the research.
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Chapter 5: The Descriptive Characteristics of Trait Perceptual and