Objective. Exercise dependence refers to excessive exercise accompanied by addiction-like symptoms such as craving, tolerance, withdrawal, impaired control, and disruption of life domains. The present study investigated whether personality traits linked to substance and behavioral addictions show similar associations with symptoms of exercise dependence.Method. Alexithymia and two forms of impulsivity, rash impulsiveness and reward sensitivity, were assessed in relation to exercise dependence symptoms in a sample of 99 physically active young adult men and women. Results. All three traits showed significant positive correlations with exercise dependence symptoms and were significant predictors of such symptoms in a hierarchical regression model. Alexithymia was the strongest predictor and fully mediated the contribution of rash impulsiveness according to bootstrapped mediation analysis. Conclusions. Findings suggest similar associations of addiction-linked traits with symptoms of exercise dependence and are discussed in terms of potential mechanisms.

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