The Contribution of BMI, Body Image Inflexibility, and Generalized Anxiety to Symptoms of Eating Disorders and Exercise Dependence in Exercisers

Cognitive inflexibility moderates the association between drive for muscularity and dysfunctional exercise in men

OBJECTIVE

Drive for muscularity, a concern with meeting societal standards for a highly muscular physique, is a rising concern among men. Dysfunctional exercise is associated with drive for muscularity and leads to a myriad of negative physical and psychosocial outcomes. Cognitive inflexibility, a difficulty adapting to changing circumstances, is a transdiagnostic mechanism across psychiatric conditions, including dysfunctional exercise. This study evaluated cognitive inflexibility as a moderator of the relationship between drive for muscularity and dysfunctional exercise in men.

METHODS

Undergraduate men (n = 243, 53.5% White) completed self-report measures assessing drive for muscularity, dysfunctional exercise, and general and domain-specific cognitive inflexibility. Moderation analyses assessed whether cognitive inflexibility moderated the relationship between drive for muscularity and dysfunctional exercise.

RESULTS

Cognitive inflexibility specific to food/exercise and weight/shape moderated the relationship between drive for muscularity behaviors and dysfunctional exercise (R2 = 0.01, 0.03 respectively). General cognitive inflexibility did not moderate the relationship. Attitudes (r(237) = 0.25, p < .001) and behaviors (r(237) = 0.53, p < .001) related to a drive for muscularity were positively associated with dysfunctional exercise.

CONCLUSION

Results suggest that domain-specific cognitive inflexibility amplifies the risk of dysfunctional exercise in men with a high drive for muscularity. Findings suggest that interventions targeting cognitive inflexibility may help mitigate the risk of problematic exercise in this population.

Validation of sociocultural attitudes towards appearance questionnaire and its associations with body-related outcomes and eating disorders among Chinese adolescents

INTRODUCTION

The Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4 Revised (SATAQ-4R) has been widely used in Western countries to link body appearance that is related to eating disorders and body dissatisfaction being commonly reported by adolescents. However, a comprehensive psychometric validation of the SATAQ-4R in Chinese adolescent samples is still lacking. To this end, the aim of the current study was to validate the gender-appropriate SATAQ-4R in a sample of Chinese adolescents, following by an investigation of its associations with body-related outcomes and eating disorder symptoms.

METHODS

Two gender-specific studies were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the SATAQ-4R-Female and SATAQ-4R-Male respectively among adolescent girls (Study1, N=344, with 73 participants at retest) and boys (Study2, N=335, with 64 participants at retest). Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to examine the factor structure and their test-retest reliability, the internal consistency and convergent validity were subsequently examined.

RESULTS

For the SATAQ-4R-Females, the seven-factor model has a reasonable fit, with Chi-square =1112.769 (p < 0.001), CFI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.071, SRMR = 0.067. For the SATAR-4R-Males, an acceptable seven-factor model with Chi-square = 982.92 (p<0.001), CFI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.08, SRMR= 0.06 was observed. With respect to test-retest reliability, the internal consistency for 7 subscales was rated as good (Cronbach's alpha =0.74 to 0.95) among female adolescents, likewise the internal consistency of the seven subscales was also rated as good (Cronbach's alpha =0.70 to 0.96) among male participants. Good convergent validity was observed, reflected by associations of the subscales of the gender-specific SATAQ-4R with muscularity-related attitude, body image-acceptance, body appearance, perceived stress level, symptoms of eating disorder and self-esteem.

DISCUSSION

For women and men, the original 7-factor structure was validated among Chinese adolescents, internal reliability coefficients for the seven subscale scores were good and test-retest reliability was acceptable. Our results also confirmed the convergent validity of the two different gender-appropriate scales.

Exercise addiction: A narrative overview of research issues

This narrative overview summarises the work on exercise addiction (EA) over the past 12 years and exposes critical conceptual and methodological issues. More than 1000 articles exist on EA, conceptualised as uncontrolled training harming the individual. Still, EA has no clinical diagnosis criteria at this time. Research is increasing continuously, but it is stale in advancing knowledge. Scalar measurement and lack of differentiation between addictive and instrumental exercise could be reasons for insufficient progress. Exercise addiction fits in the framework of behavioural addictions, but excessive exercise patterns also co-occur with other morbidities, including eating or body-image disorders. In these cases, exercise is instrumental; it functions to achieve a non-exercise-related goal. Therefore, it is essential to separate primary from secondary EA. Based on the interactional model, significant stress and capacity-exceeding ambitions fuel primary EA, while chief motives behind secondary EA embed body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders. Few reports exist on EA's brain mechanisms, which could delay its classification as a distinct psychiatric dysfunction. Treatment of EA involves cognitive-behavioural approaches, but we know little about their effectiveness. Conceptually focussed psychophysiological research and in-depth interviews, complementing scalar data, could answer several open questions in this widely studied but relatively stagnant scholastic field.

Relationships between personality traits and disordered eating among Chinese female exercisers: the role of symptoms of exercise dependence and obsessive-compulsiveness

BACKGROUND

Although numerous studies have examined associations between personality traits and eating disorders in females, few studies have been conducted on female exercisers. Given the high risk of disordered eating in female exercisers, this study investigated the associations between the Big Five personality traits and disordered eating in female exercisers, and further explored the potential mediators, namely exercise dependence symptoms, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms underlying this association.

METHODS

A total of 295 female exercisers aged between 18 to 67 years (M =  22.11, SD =  6.65) participated in this study.

RESULTS

Negative and statistically significant correlations between conscientiousness (r = - 0.17, p < 0.01), emotional stability (r = - 0.27, p < 0.001) and agreeableness (r = - 0.18, p < 0.01) and disordered eating were observed in our sample of female exercisers. The multiple mediation analyses revealed that exercise dependence symptoms and obsessive-compulsive symptoms mediate the relationship between conscientiousness (β = 0.016, CI = [0.003, 0.031]), emotional stability (β = -0.012, CI = [- 0.028, - 0.002]), and disordered eating in female exercisers, whereas obsessive-compulsive symptoms (β = - 0.041, CI = [- 0.088, - 0.001]) but not exercise dependence symptoms are a mediator of the relationship between agreeableness and disordered eating.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings can be used to improve the screening procedures for eating disorders in female exercisers as they contribute to a better understanding of the psychological mechanisms that underlie the associations between the Big Five personality traits and disordered eating.