Competitiveness and addictive behaviors: Exploring the role of competitiveness and gender in exercise dependence, disordered eating, and alcohol use

The current study explored whether or not trait competitiveness existed as an underlying factor contributing to the higher rates of exercise dependence, disordered eating, and alcohol use among athletes. Additionally, the study examined whether certain gender differences occurred, such that the relationship between competitiveness and disordered eating would be stronger for female athletes, the relationship between competitiveness and alcohol use would be stronger for male athletes, and the relationship between competitiveness and exercise dependence would be gender neutral.;Data were collected on 286 athletically involved college students from four colleges in the Northeast. Participants were asked to complete a web-based survey that assessed degree of athletic involvement, level of competitiveness, exercise dependence, disordered eating, and alcohol use. Three separate univariate analyses of variance were performed with competitiveness as the predictor variable, exercise dependence, disordered eating, and alcohol use as the separate dependent variables, and gender as the moderator. The results revealed that, while female athletes did show higher rates of disordered eating and male athletes did exhibit greater alcohol use, gender did not moderate the relationship between competitiveness and either of these variables. Moreover, competitiveness was not found to be a significant main effect for disordered eating or alcohol use. Gender was, however, found to moderate the relationship between competitiveness and exercise dependence, with competitive female athletes exhibiting higher rates of this behavior than competitive male athletes.;Possible explanations for these findings lied in the smaller than desired sample size and the lack of variation in level of athletic involvement within the current sample. Implications for future research involve obtaining a larger and more varied sample, as well as exploring whether variables other than competitiveness may contribute to the gender differences and higher rates of disordered eating and alcohol use among athletes.