Exercise caution: Questions to ask adolescents who may exercise too hard
2018 (English)In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, ISSN 1661-7827, E-ISSN 1660-4601, Vol. 15, no 4, article id 797Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
When the primary goal of exercise is to compensate for food intake and to alter body shape and weight, it is considered compulsive and may be harmful. Compulsive exercise (CE) is important in the pathogenesis of eating disorders (EDs). Many healthy adolescents engage in CE too, and this may indicate a risk for EDs. Our aim was to learn more about ED risk factors tied to CE and to try to isolate questions to ask in order to probe for high ED risk in adolescents engaging in CE. Using two well-established instruments (the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior and the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire), we studied associations between ED variables and CE in healthy adolescent boys and girls. We examined gender-specific items to generate the best possible fit for each gender. Individuals with CE displayed significantly greater ED pathology and more self-criticism, and this pattern was stronger in girls than in boys. Risk factors for ED among individuals with CE differed slightly for boys and girls. We put forward a set of gender-specific questions that may be helpful when probing for ED risk among adolescents engaging in CE.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI, 2018. Vol. 15, no 4, article id 797
Keywords [en]
compulsive exercise, eating disorder risk, healthy adolescents
National Category
Psychiatry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-204872DOI: 10.3390/ijerph15040797ISI: 000434868800236PubMedID: 29671779Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85045954086OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-204872DiVA, id: diva2:1736906
2023-02-152023-02-152023-02-16Bibliographically approved