Eating behaviours in youths : a comparison between female and male athletes and...

• Author(s): Fortes, L. S. ; Kakeshita, I. S. ; Almeida, S. S. ; Gomes, António Rui ; Ferreira, M. E. C.
• Date: 2014
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/27710
• Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Subject(s): Eating disorders; Sports; Adolescents
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Article first published online: 25 JUL 2013 Objective: This study compared the different factors associated with eating behaviours among young female and male athletes and non-athletes. Method: A total of 580 female and male athletes and 362 female and male non-athletes between 10 and 19 years old participated. We used the subscales of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) to evaluate the factors associated with unhealthy eating behaviours. Results: We found higher scores for females on the Diet subscale compared with males, regardless of athletic group (p < .05). Non-athlete youths scored higher on this subscale compared with male athletes (p < .05). Our findings indicate higher scores for female athletes with regard to the Bulimia and Preoccupation with Food subscale compared with other the groups (p < .05). Moreover, we observed that non-athlete males were more likely to engage in binge eating compared with athletes of the same sex (p < .05). Finally, females had higher scores on the Oral Self subscale than males, regardless of athletic group (p < .05). Conclusion: We concluded that the factors associated with eating behaviours differ with regard to sex and group.