Scheduled for Health Posters, Friday, April 2, 2004, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall Poster Session


Disordered Eating Patterns in Adolescent Female Volleyball Players

Julio Morales1, Jimmy Disch2, Alison Broadfoot2 and Leigh Leman2, (1)Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, (2)Rice University, Houston, TX

With the implementation of Title IX, more female athletes than ever are competing at the collegiate level. Because of this, there has been an influx of female adolescents participating in club sports in hopes of obtaining a scholarship. This study focused on the implications of increased pressures from parents, coaches, and the players themselves, especially the increased presence of disordered eating among female adolescent volleyball players. The purpose of this study was to see if female adolescent volleyball players were more likely to exhibit disordered eating patterns than normals. In this study, the participants completed the Eating Disorder Inventory survey by Garner, Olmsted, and Polive, which includes eleven sub-scales. Participants were twenty adolescent female volleyball players, ranging in age from 14 to 18 years. They came from high schools in and around the Greater Houston Area, and participated in Junior Club Volleyball. Each athlete was informed that she was not required to participate and could stop at any time. An independent samples one-tailed t-test was completed to compare the twenty female volleyball players in this study to a normative group. The normative data was obtained from Garner’s research findings. It included 675 non-patient, adolescent, female participants. The t-test indicated the volleyball players scored significantly higher on perfectionism when compared to the normative group [t(693) = -4.58, p < .001]. It was also found that as age increased so too did scores on most sub-scales in the EDI II. These findings suggest an increase in disordered eating as these athletes mature. Coaches should be aware of this when working with female athletes of this age level.
Keyword(s): athletics/sports, wellness/disease prevention, youth-at-risk

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