Passion, Perfectionism, and Sports Commitment as Predictors of Exercise Addiction

Area of Science:

• Sport and Exercise Psychology
• Behavioral Addiction Research
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Exercise addiction lacks diagnostic criteria, complicating research due to varied etiologies and presumed risk assessment.
• Existing research indicates overlap between the risk of exercise addiction (REA) and factors like passion, perfectionism, and sports commitment.
• The combined influence of these subdomains on REA remains underexplored, necessitating further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the extent to which passion, perfectionism, and sports commitment subdomains jointly predict the risk of exercise addiction (REA).
• To evaluate potential group differences in REA based on gender, competition status, and sport type (individual vs. team).
• To highlight the importance of controlling for covariates to prevent misinterpretations in REA research.

Main Methods:

• An international sample of 1003 regular exercisers completed validated questionnaires assessing REA, its predictors, and exercise characteristics.
• Bootstrapped hierarchical regression analysis was used to identify significant predictors of REA and quantify shared variance.
• Bootstrapped univariate tests were employed to examine group differences in REA, both with and without controlling for predictors.

Main Results:

• Six predictors—exercise volume and intensity, harmonious and obsessive passion, rigid perfectionism, and constrained commitment—collectively explained 42.7% of the variance in REA.
• Initial analyses revealed significant differences in REA across gender, competition status, and sport type.
• However, all observed group differences in REA became non-significant once the identified predictors were statistically controlled.

Conclusions:

• There is conceptual ambiguity between the risk of exercise addiction (REA) and its associated covariates, such as passion and perfectionism.
• These covariates can significantly influence or obscure the assessment of REA, potentially masking true group differences.
• Development of more specific diagnostic tools is crucial for accurately assessing exercise addiction as a distinct dysfunction.