Physical activity, eating disorder and psychological characteristics

Sport is increasingly known and promoted as a natural method of support to health, both in terms of prevention ana intervention to reduce many physical, psychological and social problems. Nevertheless, it may also become an obsession harmful to health as demonstrated by a large number of cases of what is commonly called, though sometimes inappropriately, "Sport dependence". The purpose of this study was to investigate how people attending gyms live their physical activity and their approach to food, making a comparison between men and women as for their psychological characteristics. The study was carried out on 81 boys and 74 girls with the administration of five questionnaires: Eating Attitude Test - 26 (EAT-26), Multidimensional Test of Self-Esteem, Questionnaire of Interpersonal Adaptation (QAI), Worry-Emotionality scale (W-E), Self Efficacy. Results obtained corroborate the hypothesis that the predisposition to low body self-esteem leads to increase the physical activity and the attitude to make use of integrators to improve the body response to exercise. Unsurprisingly enough, it was found that integrators are more frequently used by men, although many women referred the use of them. Nonetheless, both men and women are strongly concerned for the appearance of the their body, and particularly interested to development of their muscles. It is worth noting that the subjects claimed to use just supplements rather than anabolic steroids, but these answers do not seem quite correct because of their physical characteristics, apparently indicating the use of anabolic steroids. Psychological features resulting from the administration of questionnaires are also correlated with age, time spent in gyms, food habits and drug taking.