Abstract des Autors

Leary and his colleagues (1994) have suggested that eating pathologies stem in part from self-presentational concerns involving the physique. Due to the demands of the sport, female divers may have strong physical self-presentational concerns and be at-risk for developing eating pathologies. The purpose of the present study was to examine physical self-presentation (i.e., social phyisque anxiety) and eating disorder correlates among female divers. To this end, a sample of 36 elite female divers were compared to an athletic control group 8i.e., lacrosse, volleyball and soccer; n=39) and a nonathletic control group (n=39) on the attitudinal, behavioral, and psychological subscales of the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2; Garner, 1991) and the Social Physique Anxiety (SPAS; Hart, Leary and Rejeski, 1989). A one-way ANCOVA with Body Mass Index as the covariate revealed that the divers had significantly lower SPAS scores (M=30.69, SD= 8.49) compared to the athletic control group (M=37.53, SD = 8.78) and the nonathletic control group (M= 38.84, SD= 9.88), F(2,106) = 3.88, p<.05. In contrast, a one-way MANCOVA with Body Mass Index as the covariate revealed that the divers, the athletic control group, and the nonathletic control group did not differ significantly on the EDI-2 subscales, Wilks's Lambda=.85, F(16.45)=.95, ns. Verf.-Referat