Insatisfação corporal, comportamento alimentar e maturação biológica em jovens atletas

Abstract

Body dissatisfaction is conceptualized as depreciation with body weight and physical appearance. It seems to be one of the factors predisposing to inappropriate eating behaviors. Sports scope has peculiarities that seem to accentuate the body and feeding concerns among athletes. Furthermore, it is believed that the maturational process can influence the body dissatisfaction and eating behavior of adolescent athletes. However, currently no identified study was that has associated behavioral and affective variables with organic maturation in athletes. On the assumption, the goal of the study was to analyze the association of maturational process on body dissatisfaction and inadequate eating behavior in young athletes. This dissertation is structured in six articles: the first, "Biological maturation, body image and eating disorders in adolescent athletes in Brazil", relates the literature review conducted with the three main themes of the dissertation. In the second, "Prevalence of body dissatisfaction and eating risk behavior for eating disorders in young athletes", it is described the prevalence of inadequate eating behavior and body dissatisfaction in young athletes. It were identified differences in prevalence of such variables among the sports (p<0.05). The third article "Comparison of body dissatisfaction and inappropriate eating behavior in young athletes from different sports", checks the sport which presents the greatest risk for eating disorders in teenage athletes. It were showed differences in scores of Body Shape Questionnaire among sports only in males (p<0.05). The fourth work "Anthropometric indicators of body dissatisfaction and inappropriate eating behaviors in young athletes", scrutinizes the anthropometric feature which best points to body dissatisfaction and that best predicts the inappropriate feeding behavior in adolescent athletes. It was showed that the percentage of body fat was the only variable that influenced body dissatisfaction in both genders. Furthermore, only the classification "obese" of nutritional state demonstrated risks to disordered eating in males. In the fifth article, "Maturational process, body dissatisfaction and inappropriate feeding behavior in young athletes," which refers to modulation, variance and risk that the maturational process exerts in body dissatisfaction food and inappropriate feeding behavior in adolescent athletes, some interesting findings were found. The maturational process exerted little influence on the body dissatisfaction and inappropriate eating behavior in both sexes. Furthermore, the stages of biological maturation associated with 10 outcomes only in males. Finally, the sixth article "Influence of risk factors on eating behavior in young athletes," discusses the variance that risk factors exert over inadequate eating behavior in young athletes. It was showed that dissatisfaction and body fat percentage influenced the inappropriate eating behavior in both genders. However, the degree of psychological commitment to the exercise, age, ethnicity and competitive level also explained the variance of inappropriate eating habits in males. It was concluded that the maturational process was associated with the outcomes only in males. It is estimated that the athletic environment present other factors as the type of sport, uniform and extrinsic pressures that might better explain affections and behaviors in young Brazilian athletes.