Hon, Tan Jing
(2021)
Determination of the correlates of risk of developing eating disorders based on exercise motivation, anthropometric and demographic characteristics.
Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
Disordered eating is a cluster of unhealthy eating habits and weight behaviors, with a
negative impact on psychological and physical health. The aim of this study was to
explore the prevalence of eating disorders and their risk factors, including
anthropometric characteristics, exercise motivation and behaviours among young
adults in Malaysia. An online survey was conducted involving 150 participants aged
18 to 35 years, who were randomly recruited through snowball and convenience
sampling techniques. The Behavioral Regulation Exercise Questionnaire -3 (BREQ-3),
Compulsive Exercise Test (CET), Compensatory Unhealthy Eating Scale (CUES) and
Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) were administered to determine participants’ exercise
motivations, likelihood of compulsive exercise, compensatory eating, as well as the
prevalence of disordered eating respectively. Using Structural Modelling Equation
analysis, with gender and BMI status as moderators, the results revealed adequate
model fit. Specifically, exercise motivation positively predicts compulsive exercise,
subsequently predicts risks of eating disorders. The results also implicated that
autonomous motivation negatively predicts compensatory eating in individuals who
were overweight or obese. Among males, compulsive exercise positively predicts
compensatory eating, and subsequently predict the risks of developing eating
disorders. Compulsive exercise positively predicts the risk of developing eating
disorders in individuals with normal weight and positively predicts compensatory
eating in overweight/obese. In short, young adults’ gender and their BMI statuses
seem to differ on some of the risk factors of developing eating disorders. The findings
of the current study call for increased awareness, understanding of eating disorders
and related risk factors among young adults in Malaysia. In the field of clinical
psychology, clinicians are encouraged to consider patients’ gender and BMI statuses as well as to conduct thorough assessments of clinical variables including exercise
beliefs and motivation, compensatory eating behaviors to examine the possibility of
exercising for unhealthy reasons and the risk of developing eating disorders.
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