Publication Date

2020

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Barrett, Sheila

Degree Name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Legacy Department

School of Health Studies

Abstract

Adverse eating attitudes and eating behaviors describe thoughts and actions related to food and body image that increase risk for development for an eating disorder. The term, “fat talk” was defined as, “cultural meanings of talk about weight” and has been used to assess preoccupation with the cultural stigma of weight. Understanding risk factors for the development of adverse thoughts and actions in adolescence is especially important, as disordered cognitions and behaviors often appear in early adolescence. Maternal modeling, children modeling their actions or attitudes based on their mothers, plays a role in the level of risk. Similarly, gymnastics, an aesthetic sport, increases the risk for adverse eating attitudes and behaviors, but studies assessing the role of fat talk are limited. The objective of this non-experimental, cross-sectional survey study was to identify the association between maternal adverse eating attitudes, adverse eating behaviors, and fat talk on adolescent, non-elite, competitive level gymnasts.Surveys were administered by the researcher over a 5-month period, and risk for adverse eating attitudes, adverse eating behaviors, and fat talk was assessed by collection self-reported data through these surveys. A total of 51 mother-daughter dyads participated in this study. Of those 51 dyads, 42 completed the survey in its entirety, with an adolescent average age of 13.0 years ± 1.938 years. Findings were significant for adverse eating attitudes of mothers predicting adverse eating attitudes in their adolescent gymnast daughters, r = 0.334, p < 0.05. However, no significant relationship was found between the risk for eating behaviors in adolescent gymnasts and their mothers, Cox and Snell r2 = 0.019, Nagelkerke r2 = 0.036, p = 0.999. There was no statistically significant relationship between mothers’ and daughters’ use of fat talk, r = 0.127, p = 0.425. A statistically significant positive linear relationship was found between adolescent gymnasts’ use of fat talk and their own adverse eating attitudes, r = 0.335, p < 0.05. Similarly, a statistically significant positive linear relationship was found between adolescent gymnasts’ use of fat talk and their own adverse eating behaviors, Cox and Snell r2 = 0.227, Nagelkerke r2 = 0.438, p = 0.007. In addition to the hypotheses, there was a statistically significant positive linear relationship between gymnasts’ use of fat talk and the number of hours spent in the gym per week, r = 0.423, p = 0.005. These findings support the maternal modeling of eating attitudes, but not the maternal modeling of eating behaviors or use of fat talk reported in other studies. The positive relationship between adolescent gymnasts’ use of fat talk and increased risk for adverse eating attitudes and adverse eating behaviors are of note and warrant further investigation. Research would benefit from understanding the influence of additional family members’ adverse eating attitudes, adverse eating behaviors, and fat talk on adolescent gymnasts. Additionally, understanding more about the positive relationship between time spent in the gym and use of fat talk in adolescent gymnasts would be useful in decreasing the risk of eating disorder development in adolescent gymnasts.

Extent

132 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

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Text

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