How are Adolescent Ballet Dancers' Eating Attitudes Related to Social Media Viewing Habits?

Abstract

Social media has a great impact on adolescent’s behavior. Since many young ballet dancers spend many hours on dance websites, they may adopt unhealthy eating attitudes and behaviors that are depicted on-line. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this descriptive study was to evaluate dancers aged 10-16 years in Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) to determine if there was a relationship between social media exposure and disordered eating attitudes. METHODS: Participants included 39 white adolescent female dancers (13.7 ±1.8 years) from five dance studios in Northeastern Pennsylvania who completed the Children’s Eating Attitude Test (ChEAT-26) and the Questionnaire of Exposure and Reinforcement Through Facebook (QERF) to assess eating attitudes and social media viewing practices. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations. RESULTS: Mean time spent dancing each week was 6.2 + 2.0 hours. Mean ChEAT-26 score was 20.8±15. Over one-third (36%) of the dancers scored 20 or above indicating disordered eating attitudes and/or behaviors. Mean QERF score was 26.5 + 5.7. 87.5 % of the dancers scored 23 or greater out of a possible 45, exposure to social media. Mean time spent on Facebook was 4.7 + 2.8 hours per week, while mean time spent on Facebook looking at dance websites was 1.3 + 1.2 hours per week. Although we did not observe a significant relationship between ChEAT and QERF, there was a trend (r=.27, p=.10); as social media exposure increased, disordered eating attitudes and behaviors also increased. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent dancers are at risk of developing unhealthy eating attitudes and behaviors. Their substantial exposure to social media, especially on dance websites, may play a role in accelerating problematic eating patterns. Since limiting young dancers’ social media exposure may well be problematic, parents, dance teachers, nutritionists and other health professionals must become aware of these issues and should consider interventions that model positive eating attitudes and behaviors.