Eating Disorders Among Female Adolescent Athletes Essay

, Research Paper

Eating Disorders Among Female Adolescent Athletes In 1988, 15-year-old gymnast Christy Henrich was closing in on her lifelong dream of making the Olympics. One of the top female gymnasts in the country, she was a leading contender for one of the six coveted spots on the squad that would represent the United States in Seoul. However, earlier that year, a judge at a national competition had reportedly told Henrich that if she expected to make the team, she would have to lose some weight. That advice proved devastating. At 4-10 and 95 pounds, she was hardly overweight. But in the world of gymnastics and other sports that stress body image and weight consciousness- diving, figure skating, and distance running, among others- female athletes have traditionally been prescribed a less-is-more fitness regimen. Henrich would soon develop an eating disorder so severe that it would force her to withdraw from competition and retire from the sport altogether. For the next six years of her young life, she struggled with anorexia nervosa, her weight plummeting as low as 47 pounds. Despite frequent hospitalizations and intense efforts at intervention by family, friends, doctors, and the entire gymnastics community, Christy ultimately succumbed to this horrible illness, her slight, 61-pound frame no longer able to withstand the havoc that she had wrought on her body through constant starvation. Sadly, it has taken a tragedy such as this to draw attention to the problem of eating disorders that has become increasingly and alarmingly prevalent among today s female adolescent athletic populations. Considerable evidence and a number of studies suggest that dieting or restrained eating prevails among women and girls in contemporary culture and that a great many of adolescent girls are preoccupied with issues of food, eating, body weight, and shape (Malson 1). Adolescents are impacted more than any other age group. The teenage years constitute a critical period of time in which an individual s feelings of vulnerability and self-consciousness are heightened and an eagerness to belong and be accepted by peer groups and society as a whole is widespread. This period also witnesses immense social, physical, and emotional adjustments and changes. Adolescent girls find it necessary to establish a sense of personal identity, to accept the maturational biological changes that they are experiencing, and become strongly fixated on pleasing others (Nassar 1997). During adolescence, if young girls insecurities about their bodies go unchecked, they will progressively internalize a view of themselves as incompetent, inadequate, and even defective. They will long for control and stability, and ultimately, choose a deeply held societal value that thinness is the magic of temporary safety, security, and worth (Zerbe 1993). As girls continue to internalize this message, they become infinitely more preoccupied than boys with the ideals of attractiveness and thinness. Thus, eating disorders, usually developed during this period, are much more common in women than men. In fact, 90 percent of eating disorders are accounted for by women and adolescent girls. This is partly due to the prevailing attitudes towards their bodies that are exhibited by female adolescents as they go through puberty. Thomas Cash, professor of psychology at Old Dominion University, says, when a boy hits puberty he gets muscles; girls get hips. He thinks, I m getting stronger, while she thinks, I m becoming fat (Zerbe 1993). Indeed, it is this very preoccupation with body fat that is characteristic of most eating disorders. Eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa and bulimia, are horrible diseases that manipulate the mind to create a distorted body image. In addition to intense fears of gaining weight and becoming fat, these disorders are usually characterized by feelings of low self-esteem, lack of self-worth, and a strong need to exert control over one s own body. Although a rather diverse psychology marks the premorbid personality of eating disorder patients, they are often described as compliant, successful, academically over-achieving, obsessive, shy, introverted, and anxious (Davis 528). Such perfectionist and goal-driven tendencies, along with a desire to please others, are also found in athletes, and are often responsible for the varying degrees of success with which they meet in sports venues. Although female athletes often share these characteristics with those who have eating disorders, this does not necessarily indicate that they are predisposed to eating disorders, or even that their own body-image issues are exacerbated by participation in athletics. Judy Mahle Lutter, president of the Melpomene Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota, denies that involvement in sports leads to or causes eating disorders. It may be that sports attract that personality type- the perfectionist, the highly disciplined, focused girl, who is more likely to suffer from an eating disorder (Garner 840). In recent years, the increasing number of athletes with eating disorders has led to a growing recognition of disordered eating behavior and subclinical eating disorders among athletes. Because many athletes who clearly exhibit symptoms of eating disorders do not necessarily fit all the criteria for either anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, a new classification has been created, that of anorexia athletica. Numerous studies have been conducted in an ef