Abstract
Research into the detrimental effects of excessive exercise has been conceptualized in a number of similar ways, including ‘exercise addiction’, ‘exercise dependence’, ‘obligatory exercising’, ‘exercise abuse’, and ‘compulsive exercise’. Among the most currently used (and psychometrically valid and reliable) instruments is the Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI). The present study aimed to further explore the psychometric properties of the EAI by combining the datasets of a number of surveys carried out in five different countries (Denmark, Hungary, Spain, UK, and US) that have used the EAI with a total sample size of 6,031 participants. A series of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were carried out examining configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance. The CFAs using the combined dataset supported the configural invariance and metric invariance but not scalar invariance. Therefore, EAI factor scores from five countries are not comparable because the use or interpretation of the scale was different in the five nations. However, the covariates of exercise addiction can be studied from a cross-cultural perspective because of the metric invariance of the scale. Gender differences among exercisers in the interpretation of the scale also emerged. The implications of the results are discussed, and it is concluded that the study’s findings will facilitate a more robust and reliable use of the EAI in future research.
Highlights
The beneficial effects of exercise are well known, there is a growing literature that a small minority of people can experience various negative consequences of excessive exercising [1]
Research into the detrimental effects of excessive exercise has been conceptualized in a number of similar ways, including ‘exercise addiction’ [1], ‘exercise dependence’ [2,3], ‘obligatory exercising’ [4], ‘exercise abuse’ [5], and ‘compulsive exercise’
The Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI) is a short, 6-item instrument aimed at identifying the risk of exercise addiction that has become widely used over the last few years
Summary
The beneficial effects of exercise are well known, there is a growing literature that a small minority of people can experience various negative consequences of excessive exercising [1]. To assess the negative effects of excessive exercise, several instruments have been developed and have been extensively reviewed elsewhere [7,8]. Among the most currently used (and psychometrically valid and reliable) instruments are the ‘Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire’ (OEQ) [4,9], the ‘Exercise Dependence Scale’ (EDS) [10,11], the ‘Exercise Dependence Questionnaire’ [12], and the ‘Exercise Addiction Inventory’ (EAI) [13]. Does the EAI have good reliability and validity, but it is theoretically driven, has clear cut-off scores for operationally defining exercise addiction, and is a much shorter scale than other instruments (helping to reduce the time that participants spend completing research surveys)
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