Athletes are at a heightened risk for the development of eating psychopathology, including disordered eating and unhealthy exercise (e.g., food restriction, occasional bingeing/purging, compulsive exercise) and clinical eating disorders (e.g., bulimia nervosa; Joy et al., 2016 ). Controlled
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Sebastian S. Sandgren, Emma Haycraft, and Carolyn R. Plateau
Vaithehy Shanmugam, Sophia Jowett, and Caroline Meyer
In the current study, we had two aims. First, we investigated the associations between eating psychopathology, situational interpersonal difficulties, and dispositional interpersonal difficulties among athletes and nonathletes. Second, we examined the mediating role of self-critical perfectionism, self-esteem, and depression in these associations. A total of 152 athletes and 147 nonathletes completed self-report instruments pertaining to relationship quality with significant others, as well as social anxiety, loneliness, self-critical perfectionism, self-esteem, depression, and eating psychopathology. Social anxiety and loneliness were found to be the only significant independent predictors of eating psychopathology among both athletes and nonathletes. However, such associations were indirectly mediated through depression for athletes and through self-critical perfectionism, self-esteem, and depression for nonathletes. The findings of this study suggest that the psychosocial mechanisms involved in the eating psychopathology of athletes are relatively similar to that of nonathletes. Thus, it can be tentatively proposed that treatments and interventions that target reducing interpersonal conflicts currently available for the general population should also be offered to athletes.
Andrea S. Hartmann, Florian Steenbergen, Silja Vocks, Dirk Büsch, and Manuel Waldorf
( Goldfield, 2009 ; Hale et al., 2013 ). However, despite the growing influence of social media images on the general public, the impact of DT, DL, and DM, from a comparative perspective, on general and body image-related psychopathology, excessive exercising, and appearance- and performance
Mark T. Suffolk
The sport of competitive bodybuilding is strongly associated with muscle dysmorphia, a body-image-related psychological disorder. This theoretical article draws on existing concepts, namely stereotyping, prejudice, and positive deviance in sport, to explicate the notion that competitive bodybuilding and body-image disturbance may be mistakenly conflated. The perspective offered here goes beyond the countercultural physique to argue that a negative social perception of competitive bodybuilders obscures the pragmatic necessity to develop a hypermesomorphic physique. Competitive bodybuilders (CBs) and athletes in mainstream competitive sport exhibit congruent psychobehavioral tendencies. In a competitive-sport context, behavior among CBs perceived as pathological may primarily represent a response to the ideological sporting ethic of “win at all costs,” not extreme body-image disturbance. Analyzing the psychobehavioral characteristics of CBs within a sporting rather than a pathological framework, allows for a contextual assessment of behaviors to then determine the clinical significance relative to the research population under investigation.
Kathryn A. Coniglio and Edward A. Selby
pathological exercise is that, although exercise in general is associated with lower rates of mental health problems such as depression and anxiety ( Ströhle, 2009 ), there is also evidence that eating disorder psychopathology is frequently comorbid with depression and anxiety ( Hudson, Hiripi, Pope, & Kessler
Vaithehy Shanmugam, Sophia Jowett, and Caroline Meyer
The purpose of this study was twofold: to explore the utility of components related to the transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral model of eating disorders within an athletic population and to investigate the extent to which the model can be applied across gender, sport type, and performance standard to explain eating psychopathology. Five hundred and eighty-eight (N = 588) male and female British athletes completed a battery of self-report instruments related to eating psychopathology, interpersonal diffculties, perfectionism, self-esteem, and mood. Structural equation modeling revealed that eating psychopathology may arise from an interaction of interpersonal diffculties, low self-esteem, high levels of self-critical perfectionism, and depressive symptoms. Analysis further highlighted that the manner in which eating psychopathology may arise is invariant across athletes’ sport type and performance standard, but not across gender. The current findings suggest that the tested components of the transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral model are pertinent and useful in explaining eating psychopathology among athletes.
Hayley Perelman, Joanna Buscemi, Elizabeth Dougherty, and Alissa Haedt-Matt
clinical interventions that aim to attenuate the onset of disordered eating and related psychopathology. Note 1. Data were reanalyzed to control for a self-reported history of disordered eating. This did not change the pattern of results. References American Psychological Association, Task Force on the
Mia Beck Lichtenstein, Claire Gudex, Kjeld Andersen, Anders Bo Bojesen, and Uffe Jørgensen
) was calculated as weight (kg)/height (m 2 ). MDI and PSS were recoded into binary indicators of psychopathology based on clinically informed cutoffs (ie, depression defined as MDI ≥ 26, and clinical stress defined as PSS ≥ 18). Dichotomous variables were created for limitations in exercise
Renée M. Parker, Michael J. Lambert, and Gary M. Burlingame
The present study was conducted to determine if female distance runners who report engaging in pathological food behaviors display the psychological characteristics of clinically diagnosed female eating-disordered patients. Comparisons were made among 29 eating-disturbed college runners, 31 normal college runners, 19 clinically diagnosed eating-disordered patients, and 34 nonathletic, non-eating-disordered college students. Measures included a 3-day diet journal, questionnaires collecting both personal information and information on eating behaviors and sports participation, the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), the Setting Conditions for Anorexia Nervosa Scale (SCANS), and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Without reaching eating-disordered clinical levels, the eating-disturbed runners appeared on psychological inventories as being more concerned with food and dieting than were the comparison runners and non-eating-disordered nonathletes. Only the eating-disordered group presented with significant levels of psychopathology. Implications for the athletic community are discussed.
Caroline Davis and Shaelyn Strachan
Some have claimed that the similarities between athletes with eating problems and women with eating disorders (ED) include only symptoms such as dieting and fear of weight gain, and do not extend to the psychopathological characteristics associated with these disorders. However, studies used to support this viewpoint have relied on comparisons between “eating-disturbed” athletes and clinically diagnosed ED patients, a method that confounds diagnostic classification with athlete status. The present study held ED classification constant by comparing ED patients who had been involved in high-level competitive athletics with nonathlete ED. No significant differences were found between the groups on any measures of psychopathology or eating-related symptoms; this suggests that if an athlete develops an eating disorder, her psychological profile is no different from others with this disorder.
