Abstract

FORTES, Leonardo de Sousa; PAES, Santiago Tavares; AMARAL, Ana Carolina Soares  and  FERREIRA, Maria Elisa Caputo. Body dissatisfaction and inappropriate eating behaviors of young swimmers according to economic and competitive status. J. bras. psiquiatr. [online]. 2012, vol.61, n.1, pp. 20-24. ISSN 0047-2085.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0047-20852012000100005.

OBJECTIVE: Compare the eating behavior and body dissatisfaction among adolescent athletes from different economic and competitive levels. METHODS: Sixty-four athletes participated in the study with mean age of 13.64 (± 2.57), 22 female and 42 male. We used the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) and the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) to assess body dissatisfaction and eating behavior, respectively. The economic classification was obtained by applying the "Brazil Economic Classification Criteria" (ABEP). Qualitative questionnaire was used to evaluate demographic data such as age, gender and competitive level. RESULTS: No differences were identified for dissatisfaction or eating behavior between the economic and competitive levels. In addition, economic and competitive levels only modulated the variance of the eating behavior (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of this study allow us to conclude that both body dissatisfaction, and eating behavior were similar between different economic and competitive levels of swimmers.

Keywords : Body image; eating disorders; athletes.