Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, 675 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA; School of Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1000 River Road, T-WH1-01, Teaneck, NJ 07666, USA.
School of Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1000 River Road, T-WH1-01, Teaneck, NJ 07666, USA.
Eat Behav. 2024 Aug;54:101897. doi: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2024.101897. Epub 2024 May 31.
Dancers are at heightened risk for eating disorders (EDs) and have job and training demands that obscure ED assessment and likely impede treatment. Two behavioral manifestations of ED psychopathology that may present uniquely in a dance environment are body checking and body avoidance. The current study sought to provide a foundational understanding of the phenomenology of body checking and avoidance among dancers by assessing the reliability (i.e., internal consistency) of existing body checking and avoidance measures and the relationships, or convergent validity, between measures of body checking and avoidance and measures of related constructs. Eighty professional and pre-professional (i.e., conservatory level) dancers (78.8 % female) from seven dance genres completed self-report measures of body checking and avoidance, ED pathology, clinical perfectionism, depression, and anxiety. Across the dancer sample, body checking and avoidance measures demonstrated adequate internal consistency. More frequent body checking and body avoidance was strongly related to higher levels of ED pathology. There were moderate to strong correlations between body checking and body avoidance and clinical perfectionism, depression, and anxiety such that higher body checking and body avoidance was related to higher clinical perfectionism, depression, and anxiety. Exploratory analyses found no significant differences between ballet dancers and dancers of other dance genres; professional dancers scored in the normative range on measures of body checking and body avoidance. Dancers' qualitative descriptions of body checking and avoidance revealed behaviors not included in existing questionnaires, such as unique mirror use behaviors, technology-assisted body checking, and the checking and avoidance of body parts relevant to the dance-specific body ideal. Results support the inclusion of body checking and avoidance interventions in ED treatments for dancers (particularly pre-professional dancers) and emphasize the need for dancer-specific ED assessment methods.
舞者患饮食失调症（ED）的风险较高，其工作和训练需求掩盖了 ED 的评估，可能阻碍了治疗。ED 心理病理学的两种行为表现形式可能在舞蹈环境中表现独特，即身体检查和身体回避。目前的研究旨在通过评估现有的身体检查和回避测量的可靠性（即内部一致性），以及身体检查和回避测量与相关结构测量之间的关系或收敛效度，为舞者的身体检查和回避现象学提供基础理解。来自七个舞蹈流派的 80 名专业和准专业（即音乐学院水平）舞者（78.8%为女性）完成了身体检查和回避、ED 病理、临床完美主义、抑郁和焦虑的自我报告测量。在整个舞者样本中，身体检查和回避测量具有足够的内部一致性。更频繁的身体检查和身体回避与更高水平的 ED 病理密切相关。身体检查和回避与临床完美主义、抑郁和焦虑之间存在中度至高度相关性，即更高的身体检查和回避与更高的临床完美主义、抑郁和焦虑相关。探索性分析发现芭蕾舞演员和其他舞蹈演员之间没有显著差异；专业舞者在身体检查和回避测量方面的得分在正常范围内。舞者对身体检查和回避的定性描述揭示了现有问卷中未包含的行为，例如独特的镜子使用行为、技术辅助身体检查以及与舞蹈特定身体理想相关的身体部位的检查和回避。结果支持将身体检查和回避干预纳入舞者的 ED 治疗（特别是准专业舞者），并强调需要针对舞者的 ED 评估方法。
