engleski

Social pressure and eating disorder symptoms in athletes: the importance of self-criticism and social appearance anxiety

Clinical evidence suggests that pathological self-criticism underlines social pressure on appearance which exerts a greater influence on eating disorder symptoms. However, little attention has been addressed to this line of research within the athletic population. The current study examines the association between self-esteem, social appearance anxiety and self- criticism on eating disorder symptoms among athletes. The participants were 511 students of the Faculty of Kinesiology in Zagreb, from 18 to 28 years old, where 334 of them were male and 177 were female engaged in different sports. They completed a set of self- report questionnaires. Path analysis was used to test the predictive role of social pressure from important others (parents, coach, friends, teammates) on eating and body shape, and the moderating role of self- esteem, social appearance anxiety and self- criticism on eating disorder symptoms amongst athletes, depending on gender. Results revealed that there was difference in occurrence of eating disorder symptoms between genders ; more female athletes reported symptoms of eating disorder. Results show that, for female athletes, social pressure on eating and body shape has direct effect on eating disorder symptoms (.65**) and indirect, through self-criticism (.08). For male athletes social pressure has direct effect on eating disorder symptoms (.51**), and indirect through self-criticism and social appearance anxiety (.17). Social pressure has bigger direct effect on eating disorder symptoms for female athletes, than for male. These results show that social pressure represents an important factor among athletes, both male and female, when it comes to development of eating disorder symptoms. It also shows that different constructs mediate this influence: self- criticism for female, and self-criticism and social appearance anxiety for male athletes.

athletes ; self-criticism ; social appearance anxiety ; social pressure ; eating disorder symptoms

This research is a part of the project ‘Biopsychosocial aspects of obesity’ (number: 13.04.1.3.07) supported by grant from University of Rijeka, Croatia.