Compulsive exercise: The role of personality, psychological morbidity, and disordered eating

Abstract

Objective: Compulsive exercise has been closely linked with eating disorders, and has been widely reported in both clinical and nonclinical settings. It has been shown to have a negative impact on eating disorder treatment and outcome. However, the risk factors for compulsive exercise have not been examined. This study aimed to provide a first step in identifying potential cross-sectional predictors of compulsive exercise.Method: The sample consisted of 1,488 male and female adolescents, aged 12-14 years old, recruited from schools in the United Kingdom. Participants completed measures of compulsive exercise, personality, psychological morbidity, and disordered eating attitudes during a school class period.Results: Multiple stepwise regressions showed that the strongest cross-sectional predictors of compulsive exercise were a drive for thinness, perfectionism, and obsessive-compulsiveness.Discussion: These results are discussed in terms of the role that personal factors may play in the development of compulsive exercise. V V C 2011 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Psychological risk factors for compulsive exercise: A longitudinal investigation of adolescent boys and girls

“…This suggests that these variables lead to increased compulsive exercise over a two year period, rather than simply being associated with compulsive exercise levels. This finding extends previous crosssectional research (Goodwin et al, 2011a).…”

“…Another noteworthy finding is that baseline levels of compulsive exercise were significantly related to compulsive exercise two years later. This temporal stability, alongside the greater number of personal correlates identified cross-sectionally (Goodwin et al, 2011a), could suggest that these risk factors are still related to compulsive exercise, but that their association occurred prior to the current baseline age here. Given that compulsive exercise is often the first symptom of eating disorders to appear (Davis et al, 1994), compulsive exercise could occur at an earlier age than was sampled in the current study.…”

“…A preliminary cross-sectional study found self-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, obsessive-compulsiveness and drive for thinness significantly predicted compulsive exercise among adolescent boys, while in girls compulsive exercise was predicted by self-perfectionism, obsessive-compulsiveness, and a drive for thinness (Goodwin, Haycraft, Willis, & Meyer, 2011a). These findings support Meyer et al's (2011) model of compulsive exercise, but given the cross-sectional design of Goodwin et al's COMPULSIVE EXERCISE 4 (2011a) study, it is unknown whether such psychological variables could be risk factors for compulsive exercise, or whether they simply co-occur.…”

“…Adolescents were chosen as the onset of psychological disorders is typically around early to mid-adolescence (Kessler et al, 2007), and also as this investigation extends previous work into correlates of compulsive exercise (Goodwin et al, 2011a). Based on this previous work, and in line with the model of compulsive exercise (Meyer et al, 2011), it was predicted that eating psychopathology, negative affect, obsessive-compulsiveness, and perfectionism would significantly and positively predict compulsive exercise, and after controlling for baseline levels of compulsive exercise.…”

Social Physique Anxiety and Muscle Dysmorphia

“…For example, SPA has been inversely associated with physical self-esteem (Hagger & Stevenson, 2010) and self-presentational 6 efficacy, and positively associated with body dissatisfaction (Martin Ginis, Murru, Conlin, & Strong, 2011), drive for thinness (Thompson & Chad, 2002), and muscularity (McCreary & Saucier, 2009). It has also been identified as a risk factor for psychopathologies such as depression (Woodman & Steer, 2011), disordered eating (Fitzsimmons-Craft, Harney, Brownstone, Higgins, & Bardone-Cone, 2012, and exercise dependence (Goodwin, Haycraft, Willis, & Meyer, 2011).…”