Exercise addiction and eating attitudes – A pilot study on Polish adolescents

Background This pilot study aimed to examine the scale of obligatory exercise between two groups of adolescents—the first had members who were diagnosed with eating disorders, and the second included youth engaged in professional sports. Methods This study was carried out with a sample of 45 adolescent psychiatric patients diagnosed with eating disorders and 45 teenagers training in sports departments (track and field, judo and gymnastics). The research group was aged from 14 to 20 years. The sample consisted of n = 50 women, n = 28 men, n = 10 nonbinary, and n = 2 refused to identify their sex. The authors used the following questionnaires: the Eating Attitudes Test – 26 items (EAT-26), the Exercise Dependence Questionnaire (EDQ), the Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire (OEQ) and the Inventory of Physical Activity Objectives (IPAO). Acceptable measurement accuracy (α > .70) was observed for almost all variables. Results The results revealed that the group of psychiatric patients who were diagnosed with eating disorders presented higher levels of problematic eating behaviours (P < .001), exercise fixation (P < .001), exercise commitment (P = .007), withdrawal symptoms (P < .001), exercise for weight control (P < .001), interference with social life (P = .035), insight into problems (P < .001), and obligatory exercise (P = .038) and lower levels of exercise for social reasons (P = .001), exercise for health reasons (P = .001), and exercise frequency (P = .016). The effect sizes of the differences between groups ranged from medium to strong (measured by Glass's biserial correlation coefficient). The findings of this pilot study indicate that the group of respondents diagnosed with eating disorders exhibited different attitudes towards physical activity compared with the group of adolescent athletes who represented judo, gymnastics, and track and field. Conclusions The obtained results can be used to assess the needs of adolescents seeking psychological and psychiatric support and can contribute to the development of appropriate treatment methods.