抄録
The purpose of this study was to identify psychological factors that contribute to the development of sub-clinical primary exercise dependence among Japanese exercisers. Most studies of exercise dependence follow a top-down, quantitative, hypothesis-verification approach. The present study, in contrast, used a qualitative method, the Grounded Theory Approach. Dialogue data were collected from 14 exercisers who were evaluated for sub-clinical primary exercise dependence in semi-structured interviews and analyzed by classifying them into categories. Through these steps, seven types as psychological factors were identified as leading to sub-clinical primary exercise dependence among Japanese exercisers: dependence, obsessive-compulsiveness, conflict avoidance, maintenance of a positive self-concept, perceieved benefit of exercise, limited stress-coping resource, and typical increase in exercise volume. It was also found that dependence and obsessive-compulsiveness play a crucial and direct role in the development of sub-clinical primary exercise dependence, and that conflict avoidance and maintenance of a positive self-concept can precipitate obsessive-compulsiveness. Finally, a perceived benefit of exercise was shown to be an integral component of dependence.
