Introduction and aim: Eating disorders are one of the most important psychological and psychosomatic disorders that may have negative effects on physical health, mental functioning and quality of life. Among the psychological factors, three factors of body image, self-efficacy and self-regulation are very important. The aim of the study was to determine whether lower self-efficacy and self-regulation and higher concern for body shape are associated with eating disorders in young athletes.
Material and Methods: In our descriptive analytic study, 225 athletes aged 12 to 30 years who were at least more than a year active in their sports disciplines in Tehran were selected from Sports Medicine Federation of Iran entered to study. Self-efficacy, self-regulation, body image, and eating disorder status were assessed by validated international self-report questionnaires. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Program for Social Sciences, by using from descriptive and analytical statistics.
Results: The percent of female athletes was 57.4% of interviewees. There were no significant difference between women and men in Self-regulation (P= 0.981) and Self-efficacy (P=0.374). There were negative correlation between Eating disorder with Self-regulation (r=-0.006), Self-efficacy (r=-0.128) and Body image (r=-0.367)
Conclusion: Results suggest that in one hand, eating disorders are associated with body image, on the other hand self-efficacy and self-regulation are related to body image too. So it can be concluded that improvement in self-efficacy and self-regulation leads to amelioration in body image, and improvement in body image are associated with decreases in eating disorder’s outbreak
