The Relationship between Passion and the Psychological Well-Being of Professional Dancers

Abstract

The Dualistic Model of Passion defines passion as an intense desire or enthusiasm for a self-defining activity that people love, consider important, and devote significant amounts of time and energy to. The model proposes two distinct types of passion, harmonious (HP) and obsessive (OP). HP occurs when the activity is autonomously internalized into the individual's life and identity, while OP is a result of a controlled internalization of the activity. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and type of passion professional dancers have for dance in relation to their psychological well-being, specifically eating attitudes, self-esteem, and perfectionism. Participants were 92 professional dancers, aged 19 to 35 years (M = 27.03, SD = 3.84), and mostly from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Results revealed that HP positively predicted self-esteem (SE), while OP positively predicted self-evaluative perfectionism (SEP), conscientious perfectionism (CP), and disordered eating attitudes (EAT-26). Additionally, SEP was found to mediate the relationship between OP and EAT-26, suggesting that OP may lead to SEP, which could in turn motivate disordered eating. Overall, the results of this study have supported and extended previous research suggesting that the two types of passion can have divergent effects on aspects of psychological well-being. Findings indicate that HP should be encouraged and OP discouraged among dancers, for example, via autonomy supportive behaviors of teachers.