Are Dancers at High Risk for Disordered Eating Pathology?

Aim: To examine the relation between stress and disordered eating among dance program students in art-oriented schools and in regular schools in Israel.

Methods: The cohort consisted of 1031 school girls divided into four groups: dance students from art-oriented schools, non-dance students from art-oriented schools, dance students from regular schools and non-dance students from regular schools.

Disordered eating pathology was measured by the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI-2). Depression was measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Parental criticism and parental expectation was measured by the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS). The demographic and clinical questionnaire included data like remarks on shape, weight, height, menstruation, etc.

Results: Beyond research groups, greater numbers of remarks and greater levels of parental criticism were found to be correlated with higher levels of depression and perfectionism, which in turn created an environment conducive to higher levels of ED pathology. Furthermore, dancers in dance programs in art-oriented schools experienced significantly higher exposure to the abovementioned stressors, and accordingly presented higher levels of depression and perfectionism contributing to higher levels of ED. In contrast, the dance programs in regular schools demonstrated the lowest scores in drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction and depression.

Conclusions: The research findings sharpen the need to implement prevention programs which emphasize the correlation between remarks and the level of disordered eating pathology, and to screen for levels of ED pathology, depression and perfectionism when entering art schools, in order to accurately gauge if the adolescent can cope with the demands of competitive programs.