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| Involvement in organized sports can offer many benefits,
such as improved self-esteem and body image and encouragement for individuals to remain
active throughout their lives. Athletic competition however, can also cause severe
psychological and physical stress. When the pressure of athletic competition are
added to an existing culture emphasis on thinness, the risk increase for athletes to
develop disordered eating. In a study of Division I NCAA athletes, over one-third of
female athletes reported attitudes and symptoms placing them at risk for anorexia
nervosa. Though most athletes with eating disorders are female, male athletes are
also at risk -- especially those competing in sports that tend to place an emphasis on the
athlete's diet, appearance, size, and weight requirements, such as wrestling,
bodybuilding, crew, running, and football. |
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Risk Factors for Athletes: |
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Sports that emphasize
appearance or weight requirements. For example: gymnastics, diving, bodybuilding or
wrestling -- e.g., wrestlers trying to "make weight." |
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Sports that focus on
the individual rather than the entire team. For example gymnastics, running, figure
skating, dance or diving, versus teams sports like basketball or soccer. |
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Endurance sports
such as: track and field/running, swimming. |
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Inaccurate belief that
lower body weight will improve performance. |
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Training for a sport
since childhood or being an elite athlete. |
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Low self-esteem,
family dysfunction, families with eating disorders, chronic dieting, history of physical
or sexual abuse, peer, family and cultural pressures to be thin, and other traumatic life
experiences. |
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Coaches who focus only
on success and performance rather than on the athlete as a whole person. |
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| Three factors have been thought to contribute to the
odds that a person will be dissatisfied with his or her body: social influences,
performance anxiety and the athlete’s self-appraisal. |
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| Protective Factors
for Athletes: |
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Positive, person-oriented
coaching style rather than negative, performance-oriented coaching style. |
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Social influence and support
from teammates with healthy attitudes towards size and shape. |
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Coaches who emphasize factors
that contribute to personal success such as motivation and enthusiasm rather than body
weight or shape |
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| The Female Athlete Triad:
1) Disordered Eating
2) Loss of Menstrual Periods
3) Osteoporosis (loss of
calcium resulting in weak bones)
The lack of nutrition resulting
from disordered eating can cause the loss of several or more consecutive periods. This in
turn leads to calcium and bone loss, putting the athlete at greatly increased risk for
stress fractures of the bones. Each of these conditions is a medical concern. Together
they create serious health risks that may be life threatening. While any female athlete
can develop the triad, adolescent girls are most at risk because of the active biological
changes and growth spurts, peer and social pressures, and rapidly changing life
circumstances that go along with the teenage years. Males may develop similar syndromes.
The International Olympic Committee has published
recommendations for reducing the risk of the Female Athlete Triad, available at: http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_517.pdf |
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© 2005 National Eating
Disorders Association
Permission is granted to copy and reprint materials for educational purposes only.
National Eating Disorders Association must be cited and web address listed. www.NationalEatingDisorders.org
Informational and Referral Helpline: 800.931.2237 |
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| Additional
Articles Below on Guidelines for The Role of The Educator Meeting With and Referring
Students Who May Have Eating Disorders. |
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Tips
for School Nurses:
National Association of School Nurses Guidance |
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What Should I Say?
Tips forTalking to a Friend Who May Be
Struggling with an Eating Disorder |
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Athletes and
Eating Disorders:
What Coaches, Parents, and Teammates
Need to Know |
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