Eating Disorders in Athletes

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate among mental illnesses and therefore it is important to investigate what may impact an athlete’s risk of developing an eating disorder. Female cross-country runners are at a particularly high risk of developing an eating disorder, notably due to the aesthetic aspect of their sport and their susceptibility to the female athlete triad. However, as all female cross-country athletes do not develop eating disorders, it is important to look at what variables may increase a female cross-country athlete’s risk of developing an eating disorder. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between perfectionism, body dissatisfaction, neuroticism, emotion regulation, internalization of thinness norms, and eating disorder risk in female collegiate cross-country runners. The study included 92 female collegiate cross-country runners from NCAA universities across the U.S. Participants completed a demographic survey, Eating Attitudes Test-26, Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale–Brief, Body Shape Questionnaire, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Big 5 Inventory (Neuroticism subscale), and Socialization Internalization of Appearance Questionnaire–Adolescents. Pearson (r) correlations were run to examine the relationships between perfectionism, body dissatisfaction, neuroticism, emotion regulation, the internalization of thinness norms, and eating disorder risk. All variables were had significant relationships with one another. A multiple regression was run in order to examine the potential pathways in which perfectionism, body dissatisfaction, neuroticism, emotion regulation, and the internalization of thinness norms may impact eating disorder risk. Body dissatisfaction was the only significant predictor of eating disorder risk in this sample.