Detecting pathological exercise in college men: An investigation using latent profile analysis

OBJECTIVE

Pathological exercise is a dangerous behavior often observed in eating disorders. Data investigating associated characteristics of pathological exercise in men are lacking, despite college men and women being at equally elevated risk for developing eating disorders.

PARTICIPANTS

Two hundred and twenty-four college men who exercise regularly completed a series of self-report questionnaires.

METHODS

Latent profile analysis was used to identify empirically-derived homogenous subgroups of regular exercisers based on severity of other eating disorder attitudes and behaviors. Profiles were also compared on differences in exercise motivation and general psychopathology (i.e., depression, anxiety).

RESULTS

Fit indices indicated a three-profile solution. Profiles described an eating psychopathology group, a low psychopathology group, and a high exercise frequency group without eating disorder features.

CONCLUSIONS

Pathological exercise cannot be identified using exercise frequency alone. Other features like body dissatisfaction and exercise motivation style are relevant in identifying pathological exercise behavior in college men.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations as moderators of the association between exercise frequency and exercise behavior

PURPOSE

Motivations underlying exercise may contribute to the extent to which exercise is maladaptive, independent of exercise frequency. Extrinsic and intrinsic exercise motivation may independently moderate associations between exercise frequency and 1) compulsive and 2) healthy exercise. It was expected that among individuals with high extrinsic motivation, greater exercise frequency would be associated with more compulsive exercise, whereas among individuals with high intrinsic motivation, greater exercise frequency would be associated with more healthy exercise.

METHODS

A total of 446 university students (50.9% female; 67.0% White) completed measures of intrinsic and extrinsic exercise motivations, exercise frequency, compulsive exercise, and healthy exercise. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for exercise were entered as simultaneous independent moderators of the associations between exercise frequency and 1) compulsive exercise and 2) healthy exercise in multiple linear regressions.

RESULTS

Moderation effects of exercise motivation were not supported for compulsive exercise. Only main effects of frequency (b = 0.04, p < 0.01) and extrinsic motivation (b = 0.27, p < 0.01) were observed. Intrinsic motivation moderated the association between frequency and healthy exercise (b = -0.02, p = 0.03). Among individuals with lower intrinsic motivation, greater frequency was related to more healthy exercise. This association was significantly weaker among individuals with high intrinsic motivation.

CONCLUSION

Consistent with theory and extant work, extrinsic motivation was associated with compulsive exercise, while intrinsic motivation was associated with healthy exercise. Clinically, assessing the extent to which exercise is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated may help identify whether individuals may be more likely to engage in compulsive versus healthy exercise. Results support the importance of exploring the exercise motivations as predictors of compulsive and healthy exercise.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level V, Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study.

Protection versus risk? The relative roles of compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding for eating disorder behaviors

Research demonstrates the protective role of self-compassion for eating disorder symptoms. However, studies investigating self-compassion most often use the Self-Compassion Scale, which aggregates the distinct but related constructs of compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding. This study examined differential associations of compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding with positive and negative affect and with a range of eating disorder behaviors (i.e., binge eating, purging, dietary restriction, and excessive exercise). Participants were 547 undergraduate students (59% women, M_age = 20.49, SD_age = 1.83) who completed measures of self-compassion, trait affect, and eating disorder behaviors. Compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding were moderately negatively correlated (rs = -0.41 and -0.33, among women and men, respectively). Compassionate self-responding was more strongly related to positive affect, and uncompassionate self-responding was more strongly related to negative affect. Among women, uncompassionate self-responding was related to all eating disorder behaviors controlling for compassionate self-responding, whereas compassionate self-responding was not uniquely related to any eating disorder behavior. Among men, a similar pattern emerged, except that only compassionate self-responding related uniquely to excessive exercise. Results are consistent with studies showing that the presence of uncompassionate self-responding might outweigh the absence of compassionate self-responding in explaining psychopathology. Findings highlight the potential importance of primarily targeting uncompassionate self-responding in eating disorder interventions.