Abstract
The aim of the current research was to compare the prevalence of self-reported symptoms of exercise addiction in sports sciences students with those of the general exercising population. A total of 455 participants (261 sports science students; 194 controls) completed the Exercise Addiction Inventory. Sport science students had significantly higher mean scores on the Exercise Addiction Inventory than exercisers from the general population. It was also found that 6.9% (18 out of 261) sport science students were possibly addicted to exercise compared to only 3.6% (7 out of 194) of the general exercising population, a result that approached statistical significance (p = 0.09). These findings raise the possibility that sports science students may be more susceptible to some components of exercise addiction than exercisers more generally.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brown, R. I. F. (1993). Some contributions of the study of gambling to the study of other addictions. In W. R. Eadington & J. A. Cornelius (Eds.), Gambling behaviour and problem gambling (pp. 241–272). Reno: University of Nevada Press.
de Coverly Veale, D. M. W. (1995). Does primary exercise really exist? In A. Cripps & J. Steinberg (Eds.), Exercise addiction: Motivation for participation (pp. 1–5). Leicester: The British Psychological Society.
Garman, J. F., Hayduk, M. D., Crider, D. A., & Hodel, M. M. (2004). Occurrence of exercise dependence in a college-aged population. Journal of American College Health, 52, 221–228.
Griffiths, M. D. (1997). Exercise addiction: A case study. Addiction Research, 5, 161–168.
Hausenblas, H. A., & Symons Downs, D. (2001). How much is too much? The development and validation of the exercise dependence scale. Psychology and Health, 17, 387–404.
Pasman, L., & Thompson, J. K. (1988). Body image and eating disturbance in obligatory runners, obligatory weightlifters, and sedentary individuals. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 7, 759–769.
Szabo, A. (2000). Physical activity and psychological dysfunction. In S. Biddle, K. Fox, & S. Boutcher (Eds.), Physical activity and psychological well-being (pp. 130–153). London: Routledge.
Terry, A., Szabo, A., & Griffiths, M. D. (2004). The exercise addiction inventory: A new brief screening tool. Addiction Research and Theory, 12, 489–499.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Szabo, A., Griffiths, M.D. Exercise Addiction in British Sport Science Students. Int J Ment Health Addiction 5, 25–28 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-006-9050-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-006-9050-8