g., male/female, cycling/swimming). Reliability coefficients were much more uniform in the type calculated/cited. Most often researchers who calculated a reliability coefficient did so with internal consistency (n = 24) whereas two studies also reported test-retest reliability. Researchers choosing to cite the reliability used in previous studies did so more often with internal consistency (n = 46) while nine studies also referenced test-retest reliability

of the eating disorder measure used. Three major findings were unveiled as a result of this learn more review. Although not surprising, the first finding of this review revealed that the number of studies (14% of the 50 studies reviewed) completed on exclusively male

athletes was much lower in comparison to those conducted on exclusively female athletes. Secondly, this review found eight different measures were used in the assessment of ED in athletes. Specifically, the use of the EAT, EDI, QEDD, BULIT-R, and EDE-Q questionnaires, developed for non-athlete PD173074 populations, was much more prevalent than the use of psychometric measures assessing the same ED constructed specifically for athletes—namely the WPSS-MA, AQ, and AMDQ. Finally, this review found a majority of the literature available examining ED in athletes to cite the validity and reliability of ED questionnaires reported in previous studies but fewer calculated their own validity and reliability coefficients with the athletic population they studied. This review found research on ED in exclusively male athlete populations is less prevalent than research examining these same behaviors in female athlete samples. Hudson et al.43 found Mannose-binding protein-associated serine protease rates of anorexia and bulimia to be significantly higher in non-athlete males than previously thought. The same is true within male athlete populations as the prevalence of eating disorder behaviors has also been increasing in this population.4, 6, 39,

43, 44, 45, 46 and 47 This increase in the prevalence of eating disorder behaviors indicates the need for sports psychologists to validate eating disorder assessments in this population to gain further knowledge of predisposing factors that might be unique to the development of ED in male athletes. Despite the limited amount of research on exclusively male athlete samples and ED, the QEDD has been found to be a valid psychometric measure for the assessment of these abnormal behaviors in this population.4 and 6 One barrier to studying ED in male athletes might be that ED have largely been considered a “woman’s problem” and, therefore, the development of psychometric measures for ED has been tailored toward the “thinness” ideal some women engage in eating disorder behaviors to achieve.48 Male athletes are more often concerned with increasing muscularity than with losing body fat, as doing so projects the epitome of masculinity/male athletes in contemporary culture.