Exercise Caution: Questions to Ask Adolescents Who May Exercise Too Hard.

Emma Forsén Mantilla,Johanna Levallius,Andreas Birgegård,Elin Monell

doi:10.3390/ijerph15040797

Abstract

When the primary goal of exercise is to compensate for food intake and to alter body shape and weight, it is considered compulsive and may be harmful. Compulsive exercise (CE) is important in the pathogenesis of eating disorders (EDs). Many healthy adolescents engage in CE too, and this may indicate a risk for EDs. Our aim was to learn more about ED risk factors tied to CE and to try to isolate questions to ask in order to probe for high ED risk in adolescents engaging in CE. Using two well-established instruments (the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior and the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire), we studied associations between ED variables and CE in healthy adolescent boys and girls. We examined gender-specific items to generate the best possible fit for each gender. Individuals with CE displayed significantly greater ED pathology and more self-criticism, and this pattern was stronger in girls than in boys. Risk factors for ED among individuals with CE differed slightly for boys and girls. We put forward a set of gender-specific questions that may be helpful when probing for ED risk among adolescents engaging in CE.

Highlights

Exercise and physical activity have many beneficial effects on both physical and psychological health [1]
We aimed to investigate whether there are certain psychological variables linked to Compulsive exercise (CE) that signal added eating disorders (EDs) risk in a sample of healthy adolescents, and if those differ for boys and girls
We aimed to devise a guide to probe for ED risk in adolescents who engage in CE

Summary

Introduction

Exercise and physical activity have many beneficial effects on both physical and psychological health [1]. Participation in organized sports has been linked to feeling more positive about one’s physical condition, higher self-esteem, a more positive body image, and lower levels of depression and anxiety [2,3]. Compulsive exercise (CE) is a common symptom of eating disorders (EDs) in adolescents; 44% of girls and 38% of boys with ED reported CE in a large nationwide study of 13–17-year-old patients in specialized care in Sweden [6]. CE is prevalent in healthy boys and girls, and is associated with significant distress, more problematic eating, unrealistic expectations of thinness leading to life improvement, and higher levels of depression [9,10,11]

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