Disordered Eating Attitudes, Anxiety, Self-Esteem and Perfectionism in Young Athletes and Non-Athletes

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health 2020-09, Vol.17 (18), p.6754
• Main Authors: Petisco-Rodríguez, Cristina, Sánchez-Sánchez, Laura C, Fernández-García, Rubén, Sánchez-Sánchez, Javier, García-Montes, José Manuel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Anxiety; Anxiety - epidemiology; Anxiety - psychology; Athletes; Athletes - psychology; Attitudes; Body image; Body Image - psychology; Coaches & managers; Eating behavior; Eating disorders; Feeding and Eating Disorders - diagnosis; Feeding and Eating Disorders - epidemiology; Feeding and Eating Disorders - psychology; Female; Gymnastics; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Perfectionism; Personality; Personality Disorders - diagnosis; Personality Disorders - epidemiology; Personality Disorders - psychology; Personality traits; Population; Prevalence; Psychological factors; Questionnaires; Self Concept; Self esteem; Self image; Signs and symptoms; Statistical analysis; Students; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17186754

Eating disorders are associated with short and long-term consequences that can affect sports performance. The purposes of this study were to investigate whether female athletes, particularly gymnasts and footballers, exhibit more eating problems compared to female non-athletes, and to identify individual personality characteristics including anxiety, self-esteem, and perfectionism as possible contributors to eating disorder risk. In a sample of 120 participants, 80 adolescent female athletes were compared to a control condition of 40 non-athletes (mean age 17.2 ± 2.82). Participants responded to a questionnaire package to investigate the presence of disordered eating (SCOFF) and psychological variables in relation to disordered eating symptoms or eating disorder status. Subsequently, anthropometric measures were obtained individually by trained staff. There were statistically significant differences between conditions. One of the most important results was the score in SCOFF (Mann-Whitney = 604, < 0.05; Cohen's = 0.52, r = 0.25), being higher in control than in the gymnast condition. These results suggest that non-athlete female adolescents show more disturbed eating behaviours and thoughts than female adolescents from aesthetic sport modalities and, therefore, may have an enhanced risk of developing clinical eating disorders.