Metamotivational Profiles of Eating Characteristics and Body Image in Athletes

Purpose

Over the past 20 years, considerable scientific attention has been directed toward the potential role that sport involvement plays in athletes' development of attitudes and behaviors about disordered eating. It appears that athletes as a population self-report more eating disorder symptoms than do nonathletes (Zucker, Womble, Williamson, & Perrin, 1999). There has been an implicit expectation that certain types of athletes could be at risk for developing eating and dieting pathologies because of the specific task demands of their sport (Sundgot-Borgen, 1993). Judged sports such as gymnastics, diving, cheerleading, and dance place more importance on the individual's body appearance, which may lead to disordered eating among the competitors (Zucker, et al., 1999). Refereed sports such as basketball place a stronger emphasis on training and do not rely as much on body appearance; therefore athletes participating in these sports may be less likely to be associated with disordered eating patterns (Schwarz, et al., 2005). The purpose of this study was to determine 1) if personality and motivation influence body image and eating characteristics; 2) if a particular type of sport influences body image and eating characteristics; 3) if there is a difference among gender comparable and gender specific sports in regards to body image and eating characteristics.

Methods

Male and female athletes (N = 500) from NCAA Division I and Division III athletic programs were utilized for the present study. Each athlete completed the following instruments 1) Apter Motivational Style Profile; 2) Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26); and 3) The Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire; and 4) CES-D (Depression). Body fat measurements were also assessed for each athlete using bioelectrical impedance (BIA).

Analysis/Results

The results of this study (p<.05) determined that a particular type of sport influenced both body image and eating characteristics and that there is a difference among gender comparable and gender specific sports (p<.05) for body image and eating characteristics.

Conclusions

Surprisingly, significant differences were found for sports where low body weight was not essential for improved performance. In addition, differences were found between Division I and III athletes for body image and eating characteristics. Future studies should continue to examine the impact of sport on body image, and coaches and athletes must become better educated in proper nutritional requirements of specific sports.