Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Understanding athletic and exercise identity in relation to disordered eating behaviors

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigated the associations between athletic and exercise identities and a range of disordered eating and exercise behaviors.

Method

Study 1 (N = 441; 53.5% female) included online questionnaires of athletic identity and disordered eating behaviors, anthropometrics, and demographic information. Study 2 (N = 225; 50.2% female) added measures of: exercise identity, exercise behaviors, and a broader measure of disordered eating behaviors. Multiple linear regressions were used to test hypotheses. Dominance analysis was used in Study 2 to determine the unique variance accounted for by each predictor.

Results

Controlling for body mass index (BMI), age, and sex, athletic identity was not significantly associated with disordered eating in Study 1 (ps > 0.039) but was significantly associated with lower cognitive restraint in Study 2 (p = 0.012). In Study 2, stronger exercise identity was significantly associated with more cognitive restraint (p < 0.001), more body dissatisfaction (p = 0.016), more compulsive exercise (p < 0.001), and more positive and healthy exercise (p < 0.001), after controlling for BMI, age, sex, and athletic identity. Dominance analyses suggested that exercise identity was more strongly associated with these outcomes than athletic identity.

Conclusion

Exercise identity, but not athletic identity, may be an important risk factor for disordered eating and exercise behaviors in broad populations.

Level of evidence

Level IV, results from uncontrolled trial.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  1. Stein KF, Corte C (2008) The identity impairment model: a longitudinal study of self-schemas as predictors of disordered eating behaviors. Nurs Res 57(3):182. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NNR.0000319494.21628.08

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Erikson EH (1968) Identity: youth and crisis. vol 7. WW Norton & company

  3. Zhan C, Heatherington L, Klingenberg B (2020) Disordered eating-and exercise-related behaviors and cognitions during the first year college transition. J Am Coll Health:1–12

  4. Bulik CM, Kendler KS (2000) “I Am What I (Don’t) Eat”: establishing an identity independent of an eating disorder. Am J Psychiatry 157(11):1755–1760. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.157.11.1755

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Brewer BW, Van Raalte JL, Linder DE (1993) Athletic identity: Hercules' muscles or Achilles heel? Int J Sport Psychol

  6. Taranis L, Meyer C (2011) Associations between specific components of compulsive exercise and eating-disordered cognitions and behaviors among young women. Int J Eat Disord 44(5):452–458

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Gapin JI, Petruzzello SJ (2011) Athletic identity and disordered eating in obligatory and non-obligatory runners. J Sports Sci 29(10):1001–1010. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2011.571275

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Turton R, Goodwin H, Meyer C (2017) Athletic identity, compulsive exercise and eating psychopathology in long-distance runners. Eat Behav 26:129–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2017.03.001

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Anderson DF, Cychosz CM (1994) Development of an exercise identity scale. Percept Mot Skills 78(3):747–751. https://doi.org/10.1177/003151259407800313

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Karr TM, Bauer KW, Graham DJ, Larson N, Neumark-Sztainer D (2014) Exercise Identity: Healthy and Unhealthy Outcomes in a Population-Based Study of Young Adults. J Sport Behav 37 (2)

  11. Lantz CD, Rhea DJ, Mesnier K (2004) Eating attitudes, exercise identity, and body alienation in competitive ultramarathoners. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 14(4):406–418. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.14.4.406

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Voelker DK, Gould D, Reel JJ (2014) Prevalence and correlates of disordered eating in female figure skaters. Psychol Sport Exerc 15(6):696–704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.12.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Voelker DK, Petrie TA, Reel JJ, Gould D (2018) Frequency and psychosocial correlates of eating disorder symptomatology in male figure skaters. J Appl Sport Psychol 30(1):119–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2017.1325416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Ahlich E, Choquette EM, Rancourt D (2018) Body talk, athletic identity, and eating disorder symptoms in men. Psychol Men Masculinity. https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Limburg K, Bodill K, Watson HJ, Kane RT, Hagger MS, Egan SJ (2019) Validity of the compulsive exercise test in regular exercisers. Eating Disorders:1–16

  16. Palermo M, Rancourt D (2019) An identity mis-match? The impact of self-reported competition level on the association between athletic identity and disordered eating behaviors. Eating Behav. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2019.101341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Meade AW, Craig SB (2012) Identifying careless responses in survey data. Psychol Methods 17(3):437

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Cieslak TJ (2004) Describing and measuring the athletic identity construct: scale development and validation. The Ohio State University

  19. Brewer BW, Cornelius AE (2001) Norms and factorial invariance of the athletic identity measurement scale. Acad Athletic J 15(2):103–113

    Google Scholar 

  20. Fairburn CG, Beglin S (2008) Eating disorder examination questionnaire. Cognitive behaviour therapy and eating disorders

  21. DiBartolo PM, Shaffer C (2002) A comparison of female college athletes and nonathletes: eating disorder symptomatology and psychological well-being. J Sport Exercise Psychol 24(1):33–41. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.24.1.33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Gaines SA, Burnett TBS (2014) Perceptions of eating behaviors, body image, and social pressures in female division II college athletes and non-athletes. J Sport Behav 37(4):351

    Google Scholar 

  23. Hausenblas HA, Downs DS (2001) Comparison of body image between athletes and nonathletes: a meta-analytic review. J Appl Sport Psychol 13(3):323–339. https://doi.org/10.1080/104132001753144437

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Ntoumanis N, Stenling A, Thøgersen-Ntoumani C, Vlachopoulos S, Lindwall M, Gucciardi DF, Tsakonitis C (2018) Longitudinal associations between exercise identity and exercise motivation: a multilevel growth curve model approach. Scand J Med Sci Sports 28(2):746–753. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.12951

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Forbush KT, Wildes JE, Pollack LO, Dunbar D, Luo J, Patterson K, Petruzzi L, Pollpeter M, Miller H, Stone A (2013) Development and validation of the Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory (EPSI). Psychol Assess 25(3):859. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032639

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Danielsen M, Bjørnelv S, Rø Ø (2015) Validation of the exercise and eating disorders questionnaire. Int J Eat Disord 48(7):983–993. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22393

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  27. Faul F, Erdfelder E, Buchner A, Lang A-G (2009) Statistical power analyses using G* Power 3.1: tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behav Res Methods 41(4):1149–1160

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Budescu DV (1993) Dominance analysis: a new approach to the problem of relative importance of predictors in multiple regression. Psychol Bull 114(3):542

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Wilson PM, Muon S (2008) Psychometric properties of the exercise identity scale in a university sample. Int J Sport Exercise Psychol 6(2):115–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2008.9671857

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Stryker S, Burke PJ (2000) The past, present, and future of an identity theory. Social Psychol Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.2307/2695840

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Goodwin H, Haycraft E, Meyer C (2016) Disordered eating, compulsive exercise, and sport participation in a UK adolescent sample. Eur Eating Disorders Rev 24(4):304–309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Tasiemski T, Kennedy P, Gardner BP, Blaikley RA (2004) Athletic identity and sports participation in people with spinal cord injury. Adapted Phys Activity Quarterly 21(4):364–378

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Tušak M, Kandare M, Bednarik J (2005) Is athletic identity an important motivator. Int J Sport Psychol 36(1):39–49

    Google Scholar 

  34. Bratland-Sanda S, Sundgot-Borgen J (2013) Eating disorders in athletes: overview of prevalence, risk factors and recommendations for prevention and treatment. Eur J Sport Sci 13(5):499–508. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2012.740504

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

Not applicable.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, 4202 E Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL, 33202, USA

    Madeline Palermo & Diana Rancourt

Authors
  1. Madeline Palermo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Diana Rancourt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Madeline Palermo.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Palermo, M., Rancourt, D. Understanding athletic and exercise identity in relation to disordered eating behaviors. Eat Weight Disord 26, 2301–2308 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-01092-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-01092-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation