Self-determination, restrictive eating, and psychological needs: Challenges for young athletes.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of self-determination for sport in the relationship between psychological needs in a sport context, and restrictive eating behaviors among adolescent athletes, while controlling for confounding variables.

Method: Self-report online surveys were completed by 983 adolescent athletes (41.3% identified as girls, M = 14.63 years, SD = 0.765). Structural equation modeling was conducted to investigate the hypothesized associations between basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration in sport, self-determination for sport, and restrictive eating behaviors, controlling for the level of competition and the type of sport practiced. Gender differences between the associations were assessed using moderation analysis.

Results: Girls reported significantly more restrictive eating behaviors (M = 0.85; SD = 1.39 vs. M = 0.62; SD = 1.31). Both associations between basic psychological need frustration and satisfaction and restrictive eating behaviors were mediated by self-determination for sport (β = 0.054, 95% bootstrap IC = 0.027-0.089; β = -0.045, 95% bootstrap IC = -0.079 to -0.021). Further, gender moderated an association so that frustration of basic psychological in sport more strongly predicted restrictive eating behaviors in girls (β = 0.256; p = 0.008), compared with boys.

Discussion: Our study reveals considerable gender differences in the mechanism underlying the adoption of restrictive eating in adolescent athletes. The research also fills a gap in the literature by supporting the assumptions of the Hierarchical Model of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in eating behaviors, specifically in the sport context.