Janet Shumway and Dr. Mikaela Dufur, Sociology
Millions of people in the United States suffer from serious and sometimes life-threatening eating disorders, such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa. More than 90 percent of those afflicted are young women. Researchers have studied eating disorders and the various factors leading to these behaviors, and a vast majority of these studies have indicated that self-esteem is a central factor in the development of bulimia and anorexia nervosa. Some studies indicate that selfesteem is the most important factor in the prediction of disordered eating. 1 Thus, adolescent women with low self-esteem are more inclined to develop eating disorder behaviors.
If women’s self-esteem level is strongly associated with eating disorders, then it would be reasonable to assume that young women who engage in activities that improve levels of selfesteem would be less likely to develop an eating disorder. Studies show that participation in high school sports significantly improves levels of self-esteem.2 If this is true, it is logical to assume that participation in sports would reduce the risk of an adolescent female developing eating disorder behaviors.
Ironically, today’s experts believe that eating disorders are especially common among female athletes. An increase risk of eating disorders among athletes has been proposed for several reasons. Athletes tend to exemplify many personality characteristics such as perfectionism and determination, which are found in patients with eating disorders.3 A strange paradox in female athletics is that participation often leads to higher self-esteem, but it can also lead to an increased risk of developing eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, both of which are associated with low self-esteem.
My main task was to use data previously collected from the National Study of Adolescent Health to predict eating disorders among female high school students by focusing on levels of selfesteem and participation in athletics. My hypothesis was that while the participation in high school sports may be beneficial for females’ self-esteem level, it does not protect them from developing eating disorder behaviors.
Although my research was interesting and informative, I believe there are many areas that should and can be further researched. It would be interesting to test each sport individually to see if females who participate in specific sports are more prone to eating disordered behavior. In this study, I was only able to test school organized sports such as basketball and volleyball. It would be more helpful to see activities such as dancing and gymnastics and their effects on eating disorders. Because my data was previously collected, there were other problems that arose during my research. I was not able to ask questions relating exclusively to my study, but chose from a wide range of questions already structured. In many ways, this worked to my advantage because I did not spend the time to collect the data, but the results may have been different if I was to conduct my own study.
In this research, a regression model was used to show the effects of self-esteem on the development of an eating disorder. The dependent variable is a scale measuring whether or not the respondent is involved in eating disorder behaviors. Eating disordered behaviors are identified as taking diet pills, binge eating, and purging, taking laxatives or skipping meals. The independent variables include self-esteem level and participation in athletic activities. Demographic controls such as race and family structure were included. As shown in Table 1, participation in sports has a positive effect on the female athlete. Although the effect of self-esteem levels drop slightly, participation in sport does not increase the female’s tendency to participate in eating disorder behaviors, in fact, it significantly decreases. Even though my hypothesis was not proven, I am happy to discover that sports help female athletes. Another interesting point from this data is the increased eating disorders on a female when she is living with her mother. However, participation in sports decreases the eating disorder behavior even when the female is living with her mother. The data shows that when a female lives with her father she is less likely to participate in these behaviors. This would also be an interesting subject that should be further researched.
References
- Grant, C. L., & Fedor, I. G. (1986). “Adolescent Attitudes Toward Body Image and Anorexic Behaviors” Adolescence, 21, pages 269-281.
- Broh, Beckett A. (2002). “Linking Extracurricular Programming to Academic Achievement: Who Benefits and Why?” Sociology of Education, Volume 75, January, page 78.
- Picard, C.L. (1999). “The Level of Competition as a Factor for the Development of Eating Disorders in Female Collegiate Athletes” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 28, pages 583-594.